The Deadly Necklace. The current issue of the New Yorker has a fascinating story about
Richard Lancelyn Green, a preeminent Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes
scholar who
died under mysterious circumstances in March. At the time of his death, Green had been looking into the provinence of an
archive of
Conan Doyle’s papers [reprint of a NYTimes article], which he believed
(perhaps wrongly) had been stolen, and he'd hinted that there had been threats to his life. Soon afterward, he was found garroted by a shoelace in his room. The magazine does not provide the article online, but does offer this
Q&A with the author. I cannot recommend it highly enough, but to get you started while you're still at work, here's some more about Green's death from a Holmes
message board; a discussion of the
curse of Conan Doyle, which holds that Holmes scholars can meet an untimely end; and info on Doyle's
belief in the
supernatural.
posted by owenville
on Dec 9, 2004 -
13 comments
I'd like my left bollock to go to Julie and my right one to Children in Need. Quoth
Davy Saville.
Don't ever die, it's horrible is
Øystein Runde's chosen epitaph.
Greg Derrick would like to be disposed of as follows ...
chucked in the water float for weeks as my corpse rots. Only to wash up on a beach in the coasta del sol.
I want my Dad barred from my funeral. The mans a cun*... says
Mark Reed
mydeath.net is a site which allows people to specify the arrangements after their death. From food and dress code to disposal and famous last words. Read or
contribute your own.
[Contribution
requires quick registration]
posted by kenaman
on Apr 30, 2004 -
6 comments
The Dance of Death. Die Totentanz: A German-language
site spotlighting, for example, the dance of death in
literature,
graphic art,
music and
film. For those, like me, whose German is not so good,
this page offers an English-language history of the phenomenon, and the Catholic Encyclopedia has an
article too. See also
Holbein's Dance-of-Death;
Lübeck's Dance-of-Death; and umm,
this.
posted by misteraitch
on Jul 3, 2003 -
14 comments
This is a friend of a friend. Jon and Heidi Connal traveled
around the world from June 2001 to Oct 2002. They included all of their experiences in a
journal on their website. Jon Andrew Connal ran a marathon almost every month. Then he got sick and started throwing up blood for no apparent reason. The doctor thought it might be some sort of pneumonia. He was a very healthy man but for no apparent reason he suddenly died 3 days later. It's a sad story about wonderful people.
posted by suprfli
on Feb 21, 2003 -
3 comments
Another child-bakes-in-car story, but this one is especially heartbreaking: single mother trying to keep her temp job has no child care for her developmentally disabled daughter and leaves her in the car out of desperation. Every summer there's a rash of these cases, with
some eliciting more hatred and disgust than others. What gives -- the general decline of parenting/morals/personal responsibility, or should we get serious about child care in the land of "family values"? (Thanks to Jim Romenesko.)
posted by serafinapekkala
on Oct 3, 2002 -
41 comments
Abu Nidal is Dead. The Bin Laden of the 70s and 80s. Having read his
biography years ago he makes Kyzer Soze childsplay...
possible suicide.. yeah, suicide Israeli style. The War On Terror heats up one more terrorist scum dead.
posted by stbalbach
on Aug 19, 2002 -
12 comments
13-year-old girl dies after being hit by puck at Blue Jackets' game: A 13-year-old girl died after being hit in the head by a puck that was shot over the glass and caromed off another fan at an NHL game. Brittanie Cecil died Monday night, two days after she was hurt at the game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames, Children's Hospital said. It was believed to be the first death of a fan hit by a puck at an NHL game.
posted by dagny
on Mar 19, 2002 -
40 comments
Man dies before boarding an airplane? Or did he die in midflight? "Authorities disagree on whether Walsh, who had a history of heart- and kidney-related health problems, died midflight or before he boarded the plane." What really gets me is: how could he get on the airplane if he was already dead? Wouldn't the people helping him onto the plane notice?
posted by Kevin Sanders
on Mar 18, 2002 -
13 comments
England vs. USA Over the death penalty. Initially I felt like saying "butt out" but America tends to get involved in other countries when our citizens are in trouble (like that kid in Singapore way back).
posted by owillis
on Sep 10, 2001 -
7 comments
Q: What's the best thing you can do for your career, if you're a musician?
A:
Die.(warning, page designer has used really small fonts)
posted by darukaru
on Jun 28, 2001 -
6 comments
Families forgive driver who caused death of children Can death-penalty advocates bring themselves to this level of forgiveness? “The parents of four of the five victims of Sunday’s tragedy at Lingwick have asked authorities to withdraw charges filed Monday against Steve Rousseau, 21, the driver of a car that plunged into a quarry.... ‘We forgive Steve Rousseau and we’d like the charges against him lifted. He already feels a great deal of pain over what happened, which was an accident. He’s a little guy who has already been devastated by the burden placed on him. We don’t want to make matters worse,’ says Christian Morin, father of Marie-France. ‘We have no grievance with him.’ ” The Crown will prosecute
anyway. (Also
second article. All in French.)
posted by joeclark
on Jun 12, 2001 -
15 comments
Keanu Reeve's Girlfriend Killed In Car Crash - Jennifer Maria Syme, 29, died on Monday after her Cherokee hit several parked cars and turned over.
A police report said two anti-depressant prescription drugs were found inside the vehicle along with two rolled up dollar notes with traces of a white substance inside them . . . Prescription cocaine? When can I see her doctor?
posted by radio_mookie
on Apr 5, 2001 -
14 comments
Just two months after the Sydney teenager Jessica Michalik was crushed to death in the mosh pit at a Limp Bizkit concert, the American rock/rap band is promoting an Internet game in which concert-goers try to avoid a violent death.
More
posted by murray_kester
on Mar 31, 2001 -
6 comments
They're dead. They're all dead. Buf if the rear section has been flooded with high pressure water, and if the British mini-sub latches on and opens the hatch, the mini-sub will instantly fill with water and the entire crew of the mini-sub will die. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Now I hope they
can't latch on.
posted by Steven Den Beste
on Aug 19, 2000 -
20 comments
Does everyone know about the
Darwin Awards? (These are the awards given to people who most improve the human race... by departing early...)
The most commonly cited one is the story of the guy who mounted a rocket on his Chevy Impala, and flew it into a canyon wall... well, as with most good stories,
it's based on an actual event. [ Reserve an hour or more, and bring diapers. ]
posted by baylink
on Apr 19, 2000 -
4 comments
BringOutYourDead.com. Coming soon to a browser near you: webcasted funerals. What a great idea, I could really see people getting emotional over some jerky, highly-compressed, blurry RealVideo of a casket. On second thought...
posted by mathowie
on Feb 25, 2000 -
0 comments
