Sylvester

I did nothing this weekend. So, so much nothing. It's in preparation for spring break, see. I need to relax in order to be able to actually, thoroughly relax. My doing nothing consisted of making two more batches of hummus, which means I am, at this point, made of nearly 75% chick pea, and of reading a whole hell of a lot of books I don't like much, then posting vitriolic reviews of them over at goodreads. Everyone needs a hobby.

Actually, I did one thing: practiced a new lifesaving technique. For the First aid badge, I need to know not only the Schaefer method of resuscitation (with which, if you'll remember, I nearly killed John in October), but also the Sylvester method. Which does not involve being an animated cat, so you know.

Sylvester's method, it seems, has a lot in common with the version you see a lot in cartoons -- setting up the victim, then working his arms like a pump while he spits out water. In this case, of course, the patient needs to be flat on his back, and some materials instruct you to bind his tongue with elastic to keep him from swallowing it. (I tried this. It hurt more than I expected and got me all spitty, plus looked creepy. Based on all three of these criteria, I would advise you not to bother with the tongue-binding portion.)

Anyway. Once your victim (well, the victim. Presumably, you are not the one who got him there) is sprawled flat-out, there's a certain amount of flipping his arms above his head to make him inhale, followed by flopping them back down for an exhalation. It sort of works, though John (who is, once again, an extraordinarily good sport) found it vastly inferior to the flat-out chest-thumping of Schaefer. It appears that Sylvester (sometimes spelled Silvester, in case you wondered) is a less-vigorous (well, yes) lifesaving method, for when you need less total resuscitation power. Maybe your victim is less-dead, or maybe he's more fragile, I'm not sure.

One week to my first aid class!