# Dale Earnhart is dead and gone but...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [October 26, 2001, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790 "2001-10-26T15:48:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/21 "2001-10-30T01:30:49Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sea Sorbust \*  
> **What could be more tragic than to spot an asteroid (that was too dark to see by conventional telescope) only a little way out—too close to even think about trying to stop it. To watch it strike the North Atlantic and collapse the existing underground geological fault off of the N.E. U.S. coast. To watch CNN’s satilite TV coverage of city after city along the Eastern U.S. seaboard disappear under the resulting tidal wave. To watch the 100 foot high wave wash all the way into the foothills of the Apalachins? Wiping out everything in its path.**

I take it that _Deep Impact_ is your favorite movie?

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**Author:** ![zoony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zoony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoony)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/22 "2001-10-30T02:40:33Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by Sea Sorbust_  
> What could be more tragic than to spot an asteroid (that was too dark to see by conventional telescope) only a little way out—too close to even think about trying to stop it. To watch it strike the North Atlantic and collapse the existing underground geological fault off of the N.E. U.S. coast. To watch CNN’s satilite TV coverage of city after city along the Eastern U.S. seaboard disappear under the resulting tidal wave. To watch the 100 foot high wave wash all the way into the foothills of the Apalachins? Wiping out everything in its path.

> [@](#):
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> what will be a REAL “tragedy” is when we look skyward and see an asteroid of considerable size only 5 or 6 days from impacting on Earth and discovering that we have nothing that will/can divert or destroy it.
> 
> That is when the word “tragedy” will take on its REAL meaning.

I realize I may be asking for more trouble than it’s worth **SS** but, _ **what** _ the hell are you talking about?

The OP _I_ read was a shot at the glib terminology bandied about by the sensationalist media, when viewed in the conetext of September Eleventh. The point, so far as I grasped it, was that Earnhardt’s death, while _sad_, cannot legitimately be referred to as a _tragedy_, given the WTC attack.

What you seem to have gotten a hold of there would be properly termed a _ **fantasy** _, probably the result of a steady diet of Hollywood tripe.

The ethnic cleansings in Bosnia and Somalia were tragedies. The Shoah was a tragedy. Exerpts from “Incredible Space Stories” or the latest Michael Crichton novel do not, I think, qualify.

z

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