Death and Taxes

With Tax Day looming in the U.S., I thought it would be fitting to write about something more certain than taxes:  Death.  


Today I bring you thirteen actual ways people have died.


Of course, this is the Internet, and I also write fiction, so don't believe everything you read here – at least not in this post.


Although I do write fiction, I certainly did not make up any of these stories.  True stories are often stranger than fiction.  And these thirteen were the most interesting to me.


If you don't agree, well, what else would you rather be doing – your taxes?


13 Tales of Death Stranger Than Fiction

1. In 1919, twenty one people died during the Boston Molasses Disaster.  A storage unit released over two million gallons of molasses creating a massive wave as high as 15 ft. devastating more than three city blocks.
2. Jimi Heselden, the owner of the Segway company, died after careening over a cliff while on his – yes, Segway.
3. Jogger, Robert Gary Jones, was killed when a small airplane making an emergency landing struck him from behind.
4. In 1953, Frank Hayes became the only deceased jockey to win a race after he died of a heart attack while on his horse.
5. The war between humans and robots began in 1979 when Robert Williams became the first known human to be killed by a robot.  He worked at a Ford Motor Company assembly plant.
6. In 1980, Monica Myers, the mayor of Betterton, Maryland, drowned and died in a tank of raw sewage.
7. In 2009, Vladimir Likhonos died after dipping his chewing gum in explosives that he mistook for citric acid.  He suffered massive injuries to his face when the chewing gum exploded.
8. In 1995, a persistent man in Canberra, Australia shot himself three times with a pump action shotgun before he finally died.  He first inflicted a non-fatal shot to the chest.  Reloaded and blew away his jaw and throat.  Not quite dead, he finished the job firing the final shot with his toes.
9. This death was like a Rube Goldberg Suicide Machine.  Jacques LeFevrier of Normandy, France, attempted the most convoluted suicide I've ever heard of.  He intended to hang himself with a rope by jumping off of a cliff over the frigid ocean.  But first he drank some poison and set his clothes on fire.  Oh yeah, he also had a gun and planned to shoot himself the moment he jumped off the cliff.  Well, he missed himself with the bullet and it shot through the rope.  He splashed into the water below putting out the flames.  The impact, or the intense cold of the water, apparently induced vomiting, saving him from the poison.  Witnesses on the beach rescued him, but he later died of hypothermia at the hospital.
10. We have another winner in death!  In 1927, J.G. Parry-Thomas, set a new land speed record of 171 mph despite being decapitated by his car's drive chain during the attempt.
11. In 2001, a Memphis Darwin Award Winner rushed to the Post Office to file his taxes before midnight.  He attempted to beat a train and coincidentally collided, head on with another reckless driver also rushing to beat the train.  Fortunately, nobody on the train was killed.
12. I will conclude the list with two writers who also died strange deaths.  (I don't have nearly enough room here for writers who committed suicide.)  The first is Sherwood Anderson.  If you have studied writing as I have, you probably have read his short story, Hands.  He died from a punctured colon after swallowing a toothpick at a party.
13. Since the US Tax Code is so convoluted and mysterious, I thought it would be fitting to conclude with the death of Edgar Allan Poe.  Poe died on October 7, 1849.  Many theories have been postulated, yet the mystery of his death remains unsolved.

Please share this post if you found it interesting.  Thanks for stopping by!

Thank you, Faerie Girl on Flickr for the surreal photo.

Obsession, For Me...Not Calvin Klein



We humans are a curious bunch of primates, aren't we?  Habits come pretty easily to us, even the vices.  An innocent interest can evolve into an obsession before you can say, "I'll go to bed, but after I do this just one more time..."  It happened to me with the Rubik's Cube.

I learned to solve the cube with one goal in mind, to demonstrate the power of process ("Are You Afraid Of Process?").  After countless hours of practice, I couldn't stop myself.  I would spend time searching the internet for new techniques.  How to do it faster.  What cool patterns could I create?  Then it was all about variety.  How many methods could I use to solve it?

• Start with one layer first and build from there
• Start with the eight corners and then fill in the twelve edges
• Solve the first two layers simultaneously and go from there
• Start with a small 2x2 chunk and expand from there
• Move each piece into its correct location one piece at a time
• And so on and so on.

It was like I was looking for that next high, a little better than the last.  Drug addicts hopelessly search for that elusive euphoria to match their first hit.  Surfers dream about and wait for that perfect tube.  Endurance athletes torment their bodies to trigger the release of endorphins so they can experience their "Runner's High."

Yes for me, the Rubik's Cube became an obsession.  But that can be such a strong word.  I hear it and I might think of the following playing out:

          "The President will see you now."
          Oh, no!  Did I turn off the iron?
          "Wow, Mr. President, it's an honor to meet you!"
          I'm pretty sure I turned off the iron.
          "I can't believe that little ole me was invited to the White House."
          Oh God!  The house is going to burn down, I know it!

But as Calvin Klein has proven, Obsession can be a good thing too.

As a writer, I obsess about a lot of things.  I may spend hours upon hours researching a topic for a short story, or even a scene.  I try to get into the head of a character and wonder, is this real?  Is this accurate?  Is this really what the Florida Keys are like during a hurricane?

The fix I'm looking for is some acceptance in an ocean of self-doubt.  This sucks.  Nobody will like this.  Maybe if I change this part, someone will eventually "get it".  Someone will have the insight to see what I am trying to do as a writer.  If I strike a chord with someone, that will give me a high.

But is it good enough?  And when is the piece really done?  A story can be edited and manipulated and tweaked until the end of time.  Think about that, though.  If I waited until my post was perfectly crafted, then this would be a pretty sparse blog.  And who wants to read a blog with only one post?  Even if it were "perfect".

I can't help it.  There are always things to obsess about.  The beginning, the middle, the ending of a story.  What an English Bulldog might actually say if she were the CEO of a dog food corporation.  Am I writing enough?  Am I learning enough about writing?  Am I finishing enough stories?  Am I editing enough stories?  Does what I have to say really matter to the world?

What kind of writer are you?

Do you get coffee-type jitters if you aren't able to write something, anything at a certain time each day?  Do you obsess about word count?  Do you edit your prose endlessly?  Do you dash from your bed at night before you forget a great phrase, plot twist, or character flaw?  Does your keyboard beckon you like Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-tale Heart"?

Some of the finest pieces of art were created by tormented artists obsessed with their work. Even Calvin Klein showed the world that Obsession can be quite nice.  Thank you, Mr. Klein.