Words Well Hung

I can see myself uttering last words along these lines (though I can do without the hanging).

"I see that you have made 3 spelling mistakes." Last words of Marquis de Favras after reading his death sentence before being hanged (1790). pic.twitter.com/b4aFy7yyJM

— Klaas Meijer (@klaasm67) September 15, 2017

(Tip of the cap to George Takei.)

Best. Erratum. Ever.

I love it! :)

This is quite the erratum from the 1983 edition of Bogoliubov and Shirkov's "Quantum Fields." (Shirkov did pass away last year.) pic.twitter.com/btMCHACu6I

— Robert McNees (@mcnees) July 3, 2017

The Onion Wins Again: Roger Ailes Edition

The Onion wins yet again! This one is really funny.

Today's Headline: "German Man Dies After Blowing Up Condom Machine"

I think we may have a winner in our Headline-of-the-Week competition: "German Man Dies After Blowing Up Condom Machine".

Yup, that's a pretty spectacular headline.

(Tip of the cap to Kin Chan.)

Controlling the Clock

Sabermetrician Martin Manley committed suicide on August 15th (his 60th birthday), and he documented his reasoning in detail. (He included lots of details about both his life and his death.) I read the beginning blurbs about his death just to get the gist of what he had in mind, and I am writing this post and linking to his material because I think it's a fundamentally interesting document. I didn't go through the details of it, but I think there is a natural curiosity about what he was thinking. (You can call it "morbid" if you want, but I think it is natural to wonder about his train of thought. I don't consider it morbid.)

P.S. My own choice is to stay around until I am dragged away --- like the baseball player who has to have his uniform pulled off or else he'll keep trying to play forever.

(Tip of the cap to Rob Neyer.)

And in Today's Installment of the Darwin Awards

Seriously?

I'm still in shock.

A few days ago --- right after I got back to Oxford --- one of my friends from high school died rather unexpectedly. At the moment, I am not going to write a 'proper' obituary blog entry or even say who it is (as things need to run their course) because I don't think it would be fair to the family. I don't know if the cause of death is fully known yet, and I certainly don't know all of the details.

This is a tragedy in and of itself, but there are particular reasons why it's especially horrible in this case. Again, I am not going to say anything about this right now.

It was a shock when I first found out, and it's actually bothering me more day by day (though, as only a distant friend, this obviously is not even a blip on the radar screen in comparison to what's going on with relatives and so on!). I am hoping to shortly have a discussion with a particular one of my high school classmates with whom I am close.

Eventually, I would 'like' to post a proper obituary in remembrance, and to tell a couple of stories---but perhaps unsurprisingly I don't want to do that right now (and probably not for quite a while).

For what it's worth, this isn't even the only thing bothering me right now. I know how to address the second thing, however, so at least I know what to do to address the issue. In fact, I think it will work out fine, and my worries regarding that one are essentially due almost entirely to my worrying nature. For my friend's death, however, I have more of a helpless feeling even from my distance. It's bloody scary is what it is.

Another Piece of my Childhood is Gone

OK, so this apparently happened in November 2007, but I only just found out. Namely, Tony Silver (Beverly High class of 1979), the owner of the Beverly Hills Baseball Card Shop died in November 2007. (I read about this in the obituaries in the 2009 Beverly Hills High Alumni Highlights.) As a child, I went to that store regularly, and even after I left home, I would still go there on occasion during breaks from school when I was back home. I didn't know the guy well or anything, but I feel bummed out after reading this because of the fact that feels like a significant piece of my childhood just left. (OK, admittedly my feelings are rather selfish in nature in this case.) Although I moved quite far away, this is a 'people in your neighborhood' sort of thing.

I have actually been in the mood to open some packs of baseball cards for quite a while. I do have a number of unopened packs in my parents' house, but one of the things I'd like really like to do when I am home this winter is to head over to the Beverly Hills Baseball Card Shop and buy some baseball cards---this includes some new ones, but I think I'd like to splurge a bit and buy some packs from the 70s or earlier.