# Creative Suicide **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 10, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117 "2004-12-10T13:44:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/41 "2004-12-13T02:37:59Z")
This week’s New Yorker has the big David Grann piece on the shocking death of Richard Lancelyn Green, the authority on Arthur Conan Doyle, earlier this year. This concludes that it was a suicide possibly disguised as a murder. Garotted using shoelaces and a wooden spoon. The case has been extensively covered by the British press - Sherlock Holmes expert apparently murdered was irresistible to Fleet Street - and this suggestion had been brought up, but Grann is particularly thorough. Of course, Owen Dudley Edwards on the warpath - in this instance, flinging an alleged murderer’s name about - is always gripping. For sheer determination, there’s George Price, the evolutionary biologist, who managed to kill himself using only a pair of nail clippers. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/42 "2004-12-13T05:14:07Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > For sheer determination, there’s George Price, the evolutionary biologist, who managed to kill himself using only a pair of nail clippers. And yet people wonder why they won’t let you on a plane with nail clippers! Snippy instruments of death, they are! ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/43 "2004-12-13T07:57:33Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > > [@Ranchoth](#): > > > > Mix acids and bases…in your stomach. > > You’ve never taken Tums or Maalox? No offense meant to **Ranchoth** , but that sounds a lot like someone thinking he can trust the chemistry he hears on the Simpsons. > [@](#): > > “You know what happens when you mix acids and bases don’t you?” > _Boom!_ Of course, whenever I see that episode, I reply “You get salt water?” Which would make me feel very clever, if not for the fact that I’m talking to my T.V. ---
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/44 "2004-12-13T17:11:37Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I remember hearing about that, but didn’t that guy live? You’re probably thinking of [this guy](http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSWeirdNews0101/25_nailgun-ap.html). ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/45 "2004-12-13T17:37:57Z")
Pop rocks and Coca-Cola. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/46 "2004-12-13T18:16:33Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > Kid had taken a wad of aluminum foil full of pennies, and stuck an M-80 firecracker in it. He had then put the wad in his mouth… and lit the fuse. The blast sent the pennies rocketing through his skull in all directions. A penny for his thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/47 "2004-12-13T19:06:14Z")
Back to the OP, the disease is reported to be cystercosis with associated frontal lobe damage; here is [more](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystercosis) info. ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/48 "2004-12-13T20:26:38Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I’d rent a brand new tuxedo, go down to Grand Central Terminal, and piss on the third rail. The guys at Myth busters proved that this isn’t easy because your… umm… “stream” breaks up after a few feet of travel. To make it work, you would have to be just inches away. You’d have better “luck” just grabbing the rail or waiting for the next train. ---
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/49 "2004-12-13T20:43:17Z")
> [@Blackclaw](#): > > waiting for the next train. Which would result in the spectacular but well known “death from old age”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/50 "2004-12-13T21:44:50Z")
> [@Blackclaw](#): > > The guys at Myth busters proved that this isn’t easy because your… umm… “stream” breaks up after a few feet of travel. To make it work, you would have to be just inches away. You’d have better “luck” just grabbing the rail or waiting for the next train. I saw that episode. The problem was they didn’t simulate someone with a really, really long dick. Just kidding. If pissing didn’t work, I’d take off my shoes and fry myself Pelham-123 style. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/51 "2004-12-14T03:34:08Z")
> [@tim314](#): > > No offense meant to **Ranchoth** , but that sounds a lot like someone thinking he can trust the chemistry he hears on the Simpsons. Sorry, mea culpa. They were the only things that, offhand, I thought I remembered would explode if you mixed them. (My knowledge of things that’ll blow up if mixed together is shamefully low. ☹ ) ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/52 "2004-12-14T04:40:00Z")
A former employee at my company used a rather original method of killing himself. He used an alarm clock as a timer switch that, when set off, would send current from the outlet in his house through a pair of bare wires he’d wrapped around each arm. After setting the alarm, he took a large enough dose of sleeping pills to knock him completely out. A few hours later, the alarm rang, and he died in his sleep without feeling a thing. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_loblaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@bob\_loblaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_loblaw)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/53 "2004-12-14T08:25:25Z")
and if you’re not really sure if you want to go all the way through with it, but still kinda want the attention, what better way than to jump in front of a speeding, sirens wailing, ambulance. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/54 "2004-12-15T02:51:08Z")
I have always thought the most enviable suicide method was to wait until it was really cold and the temps were 20 below or lower. Then go outside dressed in street clothes with a book on meditation, sit in a buddhist pose on the ground and freeze to death while reading it. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/55 "2004-12-15T04:21:02Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#): > > I have always thought the most enviable suicide method was to wait until it was really cold and the temps were 20 below or lower. Then go outside dressed in street clothes with a book on meditation, sit in a buddhist pose on the ground and freeze to death while reading it. From what I understand, that might possibly be the most painful death you could have, even worse than dousing yourself in gasoline and lighting a match. If, however, you wore really light clothes that were dripping wet, and in addition to being 20 degrees out there were very strong, sustained winds, it might be fast enough to reduce the suffering dramatically. Then again, I’m no expert. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/56 "2004-12-15T05:08:16Z")
Slight hijack Do they ever find women dead of auto-erotic asphyxiation? Why the heck is it always the _guys_ who they find tied up with a plastic bag wrapped around their own head? 😕 I weep on behalf of my own gender. ☹ It seems like its always the guys who die from some wierd sexual stuff- Its the _man_ who dies mid-coitus, the man who gets killed by accident in some elaborate masturbatory episode, etc. All the women-related things (lobster dildos, broomstick impalings) wind up being urban legends. Maybe men are more creative about suicide than women :dubious: Come on, a lot of these guys are friggin Jackson Pollocks of suicide! ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/57 "2004-12-15T09:35:23Z")
> [@Apricot](#): > > I want to know what “tropical disease” he had. The way it’s phrased is really intriguing. According to [this,](http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/1209Sun-Roof-Death-ON.html) it may have been a brain parasite. > [@](#): > > City officials say they believe that their finance director was suffering from brain damage caused by a rare parasite that he picked up while traveling in Mexico a few years ago. The damage impairs a person’s social decision-making abilities. > > The city was not aware of Keogh’s illness until Wednesday, when Keogh’s wife, Karlene, informed them that the parasite had affected his brain and other parts of his body. ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/58 "2004-12-15T13:33:20Z")
So the poor guy wasn’t really trying to commit suicide. His damaged brain just made him act irrationally. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/59 "2004-12-15T14:58:26Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > For sheer determination, there’s George Price, the evolutionary biologist, who managed to kill himself using only a pair of nail clippers. And how DO you kill yourself with a pair of nailclippers??? ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117/60 "2004-12-15T18:17:15Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > And how DO you kill yourself with a pair of nailclippers??? Very, very slowly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-suicide/279117.md?page=2)