Hi!

Well, here is one for the books. No damage done, but about as
strange as it gets.

Well, that's a good thing. At least nothing was damaged and nobody was
hurt (apart from the battery).

It's actually quite impressive the amount of current that a shorted
(or damaged) alkaline battery will produce. Such a battery can't
sustain that sort of energy discharge for very long, but they will put
off a LOT of heat for a few seconds--maybe even some light!

NiMH and NiCad batteries have much higher energy storage capacity, and
would probably be even more "interesting".

I've had about equal luck with all the major battery brands, and even
some surprisingly good results from "store brand" batteries. Sometimes
you just get a bad one...

William