The link goes to a medical site which reports that 7 people in Madison WI
inserted radio tubes in their butts (reason?) and had to go to hospitals to
have them removed. I assume many more people inserted them and removed them
successfully themselves. But why?

Was this done to revive the tubes? Is this practice limited to Wisconsin?.
Guys talk about boatanchors (a nautical term) ; I suppose we should be
thankful for transistors, uh?