Another cheater plug thread

Statistics... What a person wants to know is: What are my chances to be fried doing this?
Well it is pretty near the "what are my chances of being hit by a bus crashing into my home?" level.
Or what are my chances of being killed by a airliner crashing into my home?
Small really small.
So if you love to worry about stuff ,no matter how slight the risk. don't do it.
If you are slightly risk taking.. (say you actually drive a car..BTW that is way more risk.) then yeah do it.

((I have stuck my fingers into plenty of live wall 120V A/C duplex, and even changed them out.. And have gotten a buzz now and then.. It is not a big deal.. Well at least until one is solidly grounded!))

It's not a big deal if the current passes from one side of your hand to the other. It's something entirely different if the current passes from one hand to the other, with the path being through your chest. Then you'll be dead.

When I was an early teen; someone told me a metal cutting carbon arc could be created, using a pencil and 120V cheater wire. I tried it with a power cord, alligator clips, #2 pencil and a crosscut file. I was sitting on concrete block, with the file resting on another block. Neutral of the cord on the file, I proceeded to try to strike an arc. Nothing was happening, so- I picked up the file with my left hand, forgetting that I had the hot alligator clip resting on the top of my right hand(brain fart). The shock contracted and paralyzed all the muscles of my upper body. I instinctively jumped up and back, interrupting the circuit. Muscles that I didn't know I had, ached for a couple days, BUT- I'm not dead. That was over five decades ago, and I've never been the completion of a circuit since(working with electricity, almost daily, for the past 40 years). I remember it as a lesson in Situational Awareness.

I remember a story from Florida. A guy was in construction and carrying rebar up into a to-be high rise. Well he rotated into a 35,000Volt powerline. And was standing on a steel beam.
ALl that was left (that anyone could recognize) was his shoes melted into the beam.
This was one in one hundred million. Driving a car one can have similar results in one in sixty seven (lifetime, not per driving event). Easy.
So WHY DO YOU STILL DRIVE A CAR?
It really IS all about percentages...
Some say 'why take any risk" I say why worry.

True, do not be flippant about getting shocked, but then why make it into some bigger deal than it really is?

After having followed the expert comments on these threads, but without wading much further into the murky swamp of perceived risks and high-consequence/low-probability events (where I misspent way too much of my life), just an added thought or two:

Even in the presence of a rattlesnake, risk of being struck is very, very small. That said, if I knew that one was in my back yard, I probably wouldn't let neighbors or friends back there.

When I had a recent insurance claim on some of my audio equipment, the adjuster asked detailed questions concerning circuitry and connections. Not sure I would have wanted to try and explain how low-risk a cheater plug actually was.

If you've got a $15K system, family and friends in one's home, and ANY identified risk that's easily solved, why not: a) as advised, just spring for a couple of hundred extra bucks that will make the issue go away and might even improve your SQ; and b) then JUST FORGGEDDABOUTIT?