Sometimes you just have to laugh in the face of tragedy - or at least the unfunny. I nearly always laugh at the sketch when the coffin bursts out of the tailgate of the hearse as it struggles up a steep incline - landing on some form of strategically placed transport which conveys the freewheeling corpse off down the hill with mourners in wild pursuit. And I laughed when I rang my medical insurance company to check my cover on the day I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer - and was told I qualified for a £100 M & S voucher. At the time I asked whether M&S sold wreathes. It now seems that that might even have qualified as an office expense!! And then there was the terrible accident in an old fashioned Australian 'dunny' when too vigorous a pull on the chain brought the cast iron cistern down on the poor fellow's head with fatal consequences.
There was just such a story in yesterday's Telegraph. Mr Wang Diange was found dead in the wreckage of his house in the province of Inner Mongolia. Such was the damage that the investigating authorities concluded that it could only have been caused by lightning. Anyway, when Mr Wang's body was entering the crematorium chamber, it blew up, bursting the doors off the oven, and causing much damage to the building. Gave the mourners a fright as well. Further investigations revealed that it wasn't lightening after all.
What had happened was that the regional weather bureau had fired a series of weather rockets into the air with the intention of breaking up hailstones to protect the local tobacco crop. But it seems that one or more shells had failed to explode and had dropped back to earth, landing smack on top of Mr Wang's house. In fact one shell had lodged itself in his body, which was so damaged that it passed unnoticed - until the heat of the crematorium chamber caused it to explode. Three years later, Mr Wang's family have received £8,000 compensation from the weather bureau.
And I read in today's Telegraph that in New York, the State Government is about to introduce an iPod tax. You just couldn't make some of these things up.
5 comments:
I had noticed that one of the Labour AMs had put an claim in for a wreath for the cenotaph.
Dr Brian Gibbons I understand?
Quite interstingly, Dr G was critised in one of the local papers in Port Talbot (Tribune) for not attending the Armistist service back in Nov. 2002.
Like you say, you just can't make some of these things up!
very amusing glyn these modern gadgets can do a lot of damage
All this talk about X-gadgets reminds me of a time long ago in a parallel universe when my xmother asked me to entertain my yougest xbrother who was xhome for the xholidays.
xI took xhim to fly my favourite xkit atop xmountain where xI "accidently" snagged my little xbrother to the xkite.
As xluck would have it an xpigeon was flying by and landed on him, fellow xpigeons followed suit until xhe was covered by a mountain of xpigeons and my wee xbrother came gently to xground, where xI beat xhim almost senseless. Little xsquirt xI thought.
On the way home xhe asked xme why xI did that. xI told xhim xI was not beating xhim, just what appeared to be ravenous xpigeons eating xhim.
xMoral to this xstory: beat your youngest xbrother until xhe is totally senseless, saves xyou those awkward xquestions on the way xhome.
anon - Must admit I thought thaat was a bit off myself.
ano 2- Best left in the shop I think - and will be in future.
X man - Moral is never go anywhere without a kite.
'tis the season of frovility and good cheer so how about this ditty of a news story Glyn?
"Pilots Complain the A380 Is Too Quiet for Sleeping".
Can u get your head around that?
Obviously the answer has to be yes, "No sounds to hear" (line from BBC's Red Dwarf), but passenger noises such as toilets flushing, babies crying, mothers tissuing, pigeons ahh flying ... and a 'partridge in a pear tree' ... keeps the off duty flight crew from getting a few teddy bear winks.
Loads of sources, such as, but not limited to:
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/12/a380-is-so-quie.html
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