How to swallow a sword

Don't try this at home

Sword swallowing
(Image credit: (ADREES LATIF/Reuters/Corbis))

Every sword swallower I have ever met offered me the same piece of advice: "Don't do it."

And yet, there they were, nearly a dozen sword swallowers in the lobby at Ripley's Believe It or Not Times Square last Saturday, all ready to drop sword in honor of the 7th annual Sword Swallowers Day.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Amy Kraft is a print and radio reporter based in New York. She reports on science and the environment for publications including Scientific American, Discover, Popular Science, Psychology Today, and Distillations, a podcast out of the Chemical Heritage Foundation. She is currently working on a book of humor essays. You can check out more of her writing on her blog Jaded Bride.