Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, mikealmci, we’re glad you found us. Since there was already a thread about this column and falling pianos etc, I’ve merged your post in to the existing thread, just to keep topics more or less together. No biggie, just Moderator doing some housecleaning.
When struck by a falling piano, did it make you flat? … ::::sorry::::
Were you killed?
Naturally.
Powers &8^]
the board seems really screwed up this evening. Very hard to get on and constantly being dropped.
Anyone else with the same trouble?
crucible, go read ATMB. Lots of discussion there.
I recall reading that, at various times, self-defenestration has been so popular in Hong Kong and Shanghai that people would take to avoiding the pavements altogether.
Are you kidding? In the age of the internet, you don’t even have to try very hard:
KILLED BY A STEAM ROLLER.; Peculiar Accident in Brooklyn Which Crushed Out the Life of an Attendant. (The New York Times, 18 December 1898).
There are plenty of more recent examples…with photos and/or video. I’ll let you find those for yourself.
Yes but could they be peeled up and then stomp away angry?
Just to amuse,
A letter in a British Newspaper (What is the likelihood? )did ask if anyone had been killed by a hot-water bottle (rubber).
There came a response that there had been and it was his grandmother in Russia. The bottle was cast away from an accommodation block, as the dear lady walked about her business
Or should that be the minor Keys?
Yup. I met a vending machine refiller guy (dunno what the correct job title is) a month or so ago and asked him about that, and he said crushing deaths still occur once in awhile, even now.
For further info:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2005/06/29/are-vending-machines-deadlier-than-sharks-repost.htm
http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/morford/article/Death-By-Vending-Machine-Warning-Large-heavy-2898202.php
‘‘I didn’t bring my son up to be killed by a falling cow.’’
Another data point for victims of unlikely falling objects:
I feel compelled to point out that an apostrophe is in no way a substitute for an acute accent.
It’s an old convention dating back to when English-language equipment offered no better.
Touche’.