Weighty issue

I learned something yesterday. Two tablespoons of mercury weighs one pound.

Stop for a second and get your mind around that. Two measly tablespoons of mercury weighs one pound. Fourteen tablespoons of mercury weighs roughly the same as a newborn baby. Not a premie either, but a normal, run-of-the-mill baby.

It made me wonder what other stuff weighs. What tablespoon ingredient weighs more than mercury? How much does two tablespoons of cement weigh? Or elephants – are they heavy by the spoonful?

Then I started thinking that my turtle Wilson would probably fit nicely in a tablespoon, and I’m sure he doesn’t weigh more than an ounce or two.

Anyway, I don’t really have a point, I was just surprised that mercury was such a hefty little poisonous element.