Dear List,

Yesterday I caught only the tale end of Prairie Home Companion, at the
point when Garrison Keillor was talking about his automotive need to jump
start his car again and his psychic need to reassure himself by
reconfirming that it was indeed "positive to positive and negative to
negative," much to the exasperation of his interlocutor and savior.

My questions: why, according to Haynes and everyone else who knows,  should
he have in fact attached the negative end of the jumper cable not to the
strong battery's negative post, but to its ground on the frame; and why
(and how) do batteries improperly jumped sometimes explode?

My theory: members of this list are disproportionately fans of Garrison
Keillor and PHC. 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on both the questions and the
theory.

Woody