This is not as harrowing as the story referenced, and I have a memory of playing with a childhood friend around age 9 with an Erector set. For some reason, we decided to connect the metal parts (don't remember if there was a motor attached) to a nightlight (we moved the bulb). There was a spark and the house went dark. I quickly said goodbye to my friend's parents and learned the next day that we had managed to make the entire suburban block go dark. The teachers at our school heard about it. To be honest, I felt it gave me some sort of notoriety.

But in retrospect it was a really stupid WTF episode. I think my parents didn't let me play with him much afterwards. I should try to look him up on Facebook. He probably won't remember or will claim not to remember. Stupid childhood mistakes that you survive. Memory is a good thing because it can be over-written.