are friends electric?

I wish I could remember where and when I first found out about licking nine volt batteries. So incredulous was I to discover that this was the kind of thing that teenage boys do, that I made it my business to ask every man I have since had a meal with (I don't ask the boys yet for fear of putting very silly ideas into their heads) if they have ever done it. Every single man I have asked so far has responded in the positive.

Except, I admit, my father, who redefines straight as meaning 'inconceivable if it goes against the tenets of the Torah, unless there is a football match on at the same time'.