SAY KNICKERS TO DEATH (The Darwin Awards - Wendy Northcutt)

Name: snappy

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Product:	The Darwin Awards - Wendy Northcutt
Date:	22/02/02 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: funny, interesting, sad and very easy to dip in and out of

Disadvantages: not much

As we are all members of that exclusive club known as 'the human race', we appear to be drawn to reading about death and the weird and wacky ways that people find of getting there.

The book that I'm reviewing here is the second volume of Wendy Northcutt's DARWIN AWARDS - True stories of how humans have 'met their maker'. It is just as funny as the first and can be highly recommended.

The awards commemorate and "salute the improvement of the human genome by honouring those who accidentally kill themselves in really stupid ways"

There are ten chapters in this current book and each one targets and highlights similar influences. For example, Men, Water, Animals etc.

For a start, I was interested to read about the college student who died when a hand grenade he was juggling - exploded!

Or another unfortunate occurrence when a tribesman in Ghana who purchased a potion that was said to make his body impervious to bullets. After he'd smeared the stuff all over his body for 14 straight days, the 23 year old stood in a clearing and asked his chums to shoot at him. Suffice to say, the potion did not live up to all it's claims.

Another unlucky chap was in a hurry for a Coke. So he tried to tip over the Drinks machine to get at it - unfortunately it fell on him and crushed him. Ooops!

Get the picture so far.

This book does rather underline man - and woman's - overall stupidity. The ways and means of plunging headlong into oblivion are crazy and utterly stupid - in the extreme.

I mention in passing 'women' - well for those of you interested, one of the 10 chapters in dedicated (if that's the right word) to women. The ways that certain female members of the species have seen fit to shuffle off this mortal coil. Take, for instance, the member of a small religious sect that test their inner strength by standing in the middle of a road in
the midst of traffic. This lady managed her 'appointment with God' rather soon that she'd planned, I think.

This is the kind of book that is ideal for just dipping in and out of. It is guaranteed to make to think and certain to make you smile. I'm not sure if it is the kind of book that you would read from cover to cover, but great for picking up and taking with you on a journey. Although, be warned, other passengers may well wonder why you are sitting there with a big smile on your face!

Most of the stories - despite some being pretty far-fetched - have been authenticated by the author, or so we are told. Frankly, who cares if they are completely true or not - they are funny.

There is in fact a pretty famous piece of fiction which does rear it's hilarious head. Those of you familiar with the works of Hoffnung will recognise his 'The Bricklayer'. Wendy Northcutt does explain that it's inclusion in the Awards - despite it being fiction not fact - saying that it was "Just too funny to exclude".

There is also a website which many of you may already be aware of - www.darwinawards.com - where a lot of these stories are culled from. Not all are about ridiculous deaths, but human stupidity in general. A sample is shown below

~~~ FAMILIAR KNICKERS (October 2001, Norway )
" A drunken robber, masked in his own underpants, presented a bank teller with a demand note and absconded with the money. But his gains were short-lived. His wife's name was written on the reverse side of the paper. The 47-year-old man said he didn't remember the robbery, but had a suspicion he'd been up to no good when he saw the picture of the robber in the morning paper. The masked man was wearing a familiar pair of knickers, and our forgetful thief found an unexplained wad of cash in his pocket. "

Material increases by the month - after all, people don't stop doing stupi
d things do they? So, as well as the first volume of these stories and this current Volume 2, I'd hazard a guess we should be looking out for a third volume before very much longer (in time for Christams 2002 maybe ?).

Anyway it's a great read, very amusing (sad also in a way) and available at present only in a hardback version priced at around a tenner, I'm told (I got mine as a recent Birthday pressie).

Summary: