Dying and other occupational hazzards
Feb. 8th, 2004 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marlowe1If you think that you're just a little too happy with the world and need that kick to your natural optimism, look no farther than America's Most Wanted. I have not seen this show for years but I put it on last night and saw a story about a guy that married his ex-wife's sister and when faced with divorce murdered his son and his wife with a barbell. The show went into details about the first marriage, the seduction of the sister, the fist to the face when he taught her how to drive , the bad poetry he wrote in prison, the invitation to Christmas dinner - and then ended with a silhouette of the barbell going down smashing his sons head in and him moving menacingly to the wife. Oh yeah and the little remoted control car that the kid was playing with just stops. That's how they said the kid was dead.
The second story had the fucking wedding video with the wife saying how they were high school sweethearts and how everyone loved the guy's expressive paintings (they were ok paintings - but I wonder how much critical integrity is in Joe Walsh. I mean if the murderer of the first segment wrote good poetry and the victim of the second segment painted shitty paintings - would he really tell us? I think in the world of America's Most Wanted you can't be a criminal at large and a good artist at once) and then she got harrassed by some guy outside her apartment. The victim had the cab move back to confront the guy, said "what are you saying to my wife" and then got shot in the head. That one was lovely because it brings up the question of "what the hell are you supposed to do if a guy is holding a gun to your wife?" It's not like this guy has a concealed gun. He can't very well get close enough to the guy to spray him with pepper spray. So he says something vaguely threatening to scare the guy and gets a bullet for his troubles.
Of course both of these guys are still at large. You're pretty much safe from the first one unless you date assholes, but that second one is more like a random force of nature. YOu could get a flower pot dropped on your head. Some crack addict could shoot you. YOu could be riding on an airplane that some asshole decides to crash into a building. At least then you won't have to hear the pilot asking the Christians to tell you about Jesus.
And I really hate the term "pass away." Especially when it's used indiscrimately. Ok, if they put you in the hospice and you gasp out a couple of breaths before your eyes get big and wide and your family sits next to you until the nurse tells them that you're dead - yeah you passed away. If you are on the highway and someone drops a rock from a bridge and caves in your head - that's not passing away. If there's any screaming involved - or should be screaming involved - either on your part or the part of the poor shmuck standing next to you when the guy with the shot gun shoots you in the head from his dorm room (you know that doesn't happen these days. College and post office massacres were all the rage in the 80s) you can't say that you passed away.
The second story had the fucking wedding video with the wife saying how they were high school sweethearts and how everyone loved the guy's expressive paintings (they were ok paintings - but I wonder how much critical integrity is in Joe Walsh. I mean if the murderer of the first segment wrote good poetry and the victim of the second segment painted shitty paintings - would he really tell us? I think in the world of America's Most Wanted you can't be a criminal at large and a good artist at once) and then she got harrassed by some guy outside her apartment. The victim had the cab move back to confront the guy, said "what are you saying to my wife" and then got shot in the head. That one was lovely because it brings up the question of "what the hell are you supposed to do if a guy is holding a gun to your wife?" It's not like this guy has a concealed gun. He can't very well get close enough to the guy to spray him with pepper spray. So he says something vaguely threatening to scare the guy and gets a bullet for his troubles.
Of course both of these guys are still at large. You're pretty much safe from the first one unless you date assholes, but that second one is more like a random force of nature. YOu could get a flower pot dropped on your head. Some crack addict could shoot you. YOu could be riding on an airplane that some asshole decides to crash into a building. At least then you won't have to hear the pilot asking the Christians to tell you about Jesus.
And I really hate the term "pass away." Especially when it's used indiscrimately. Ok, if they put you in the hospice and you gasp out a couple of breaths before your eyes get big and wide and your family sits next to you until the nurse tells them that you're dead - yeah you passed away. If you are on the highway and someone drops a rock from a bridge and caves in your head - that's not passing away. If there's any screaming involved - or should be screaming involved - either on your part or the part of the poor shmuck standing next to you when the guy with the shot gun shoots you in the head from his dorm room (you know that doesn't happen these days. College and post office massacres were all the rage in the 80s) you can't say that you passed away.
