Link to column: What physically happens to someone electrocuted in the electric chair? - The Straight Dope
I’m not sure that surviving a portable electric chair that had been improperly set up by a couple of drunks completely qualifies as surviving an electric chair.
So, curiosity re: guillotine is fine; curiousity re: fucking black hole death (which is fucking ridiculously impossible) is fine; curiosity re: death by stabbing, gunshot wound, vaginal trauma, anal penetration with foreign objects and whatever-the-fuck else is fine, but ask about death by the electric chair and Cecil calls someone an asshole?
Fucking Hypocrite sack-o-shitschmear undiestain.
Chill the fuck out. The correspondent wasn’t just asking about death by electric chair; he wanted to see it and, by all indications, smell it.
That’s the smell of justice…
Besides, it was 28 years ago, before the death penalty became fashionable again.
And these days, in Illinois and regarding, especially, anyone but John Gacy, it’s still tacky.
Note: Have I (more than several times) expressed how insulted I am that Gacy never tried to kill me? Back in the day I was a pretty good looking fellow, working at the Chicago Greyhound station, and either starting at midnight or finishing at 12:15AM. Around the same time and place when Gacy was doing his prowling. And sure, before or after a shift slinging baggage and freight, the last thing I was interested in was a side job that required manual labor, but the LEAST he could’ve done was ASK. Harumph!
Wife says he probably saw me but knew I’d put up too much of a fight. Wives think like this when trying to justify their pathetic choice in mates. Just like how she said, when I noted how, when out on long walks in empty places, nobody tried to mug me, “In those overalls you look like Lenny from ‘Of Mice and Me.’” I tell myself the latter was a compliment.
The guy didn’t just ask, he said he had a fear… and, in the string of questions, both the first and last questions were “How can I watch one?” Also, this was back in 1981 and was one of the first of such questions to be asked; Cecil may have mellowed since. Note that the later question didn’t ask whether he could watch a decapitation.
I have been reminded that Cecil is a member here.
We allow insults to be directed against non-members and celebrities. We do NOT allow insults to be directed against fellow posters.
Cecil is in sort of a strange position, being both a celebrity and writer of considerable importance to this board; in that position, he is not immune from critical comments. However, as a member of the board, he is entitled to some degree of respect.
SixSwordS: the invective that you have used is over the line. Calling Cecil a “hypocrite” (or even a “fucking hypocrite”) would have been permissible (wrong, but permissable.) The remainder of your invective is just too much. Don’t do this again.
And is he subject to a warning for calling someone an asshole? When they have no recourse?
Otherwise I hear your warning and respect it.
The rule about personal insults applies to this message board. Cecil called someone an asshole in a newspaper column, not on the Straight Dope Message Boards.
If you’d like to write a newspaper article in which you call someone an asshole, we really don’t care.
If the person’s feelings are still hurt after 28 years, they deserve the scorn.