morgankelsey.com

Sunday was a nice day at home with my boys who are 3 and 6. My wife had gone to NYC with our 9-year-old daughter. Everything was relatively peaceful until the 3-year-old barreled across the living room with a fairly powerful magnet in his hand and stuck it on the TV.

The resultant aurora was pleasing to all of us, but we knew Mom would "be pissed".

After a quick search on Google I found a surprising yet effective solution involving a power drill, two magnets, and the nosehair of a Snipe. As my son had magnetically altered a portion of the screen the fix was to demagnetize it. You can purchase a device that does this, or you can do it yourself. I recommend the latter.

I got the required magnets from an old hard drive which filled the boys with glee (the dismantling part). Next I attached the magnets to either side of my drill, pulled the trigger, and pointed it at the screen like a ray gun. It was a truly enjoyable experience, and demagnetized the screen thoroughly.

If you don't have small children you may not appreciate the waves of excitement that poured through my living room. My children are used to a certain level of wackiness, but Daddy threatening the television with the power drill and creating a picture that resembled a strobe light embedded in Jell-O was definitely a new high for all of us.  They were also overjoyed to be given the hard disk platters and aluminum rings to play with.