Final Irony
Fuster Cluck Posted on ABS Forums: Oct 13 2003, 02:42 AM
Hand-typed ..and they're all true. Got the idea from the whole "Dumb Criminal" post..but here:
FELIX POWELL- Music Composer
Story: Powell, then a British staff sargeant, wrote the music for "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile" in 1915 and entered it in a WWI competition for the best morale building song. The song won first prize and has been called "perhaps the most optimistic song ever written."
Final Irony: Powell committed suicide in 1942.
NIC MARCURA - A Yugoslavian farmer
Story: Sensing that his end was near, Marcura set to work digging his own grave.
Final Irony: According to news reports, "in a sudden cloudburst, water began to fill up the hole. Marcura tried to bail it out with a bucket, slipped in, and drowned."
BOBBY LEACH - A professional daredevil
Story: In 1911, Leach, who made his living risking his life, went over Niagra Falls in a barrel. He survived the attempt.
Final Irony: Fifteen years later, in 1926, Leach slipped on an orange peel...and died from injuries sustained in the fall.
JOHANN UNDERWALD - A Swiss mathematician
Story: Underwald, one of the brightest stars in his field, was described by his peers as "the next Albert Einstein."
Final Irony: Underwald died in October 1999. Cause of dead: Mathematical error; Underwald "made a 250-foot bungee jump with a 300-foot bungee cord, and died immediately on impact."
ALAN BARKLEY - Former U.S vice president
Story: On April 30, 1956, Barkley delivered a speech at a mock political convention at Washington and Lee University.
Final Irony: Moments after declaring to his audience, "I would rather sit at the feet of the lord, then dwell in the house of the mighty," Barkely keeled over and died.
and 1 more quickie....
*** "A Swedish man sliding down a a ski run in California, crashed into a lift tower and died. He was sliding on a makeshift sled of yellow foam. The lift towers are meant to be cushioned by this foam, and the tower he hit was the one from which he had stolen the foam to make his sled."