Theos-Talk Archives (April 1997 Message tl00230)

>>DARWIN AWARD WINNER FOR 1997 ANNOUNCED

>>> And now, the 1997 winner:  Larry Waters of Los Angeles-- one of the
>>> few Darwin winners to survive his award winning accomplishment.

>>> Back home, Larry securely strapped the balloons to his sturdy lawn
>>> chair.  He anchored the chair to the bumper of his jeep and inflated
>>> the balloons with the helium. He climbed on for a test while it was
>>> still only a few feet above the ground.

>>> Satisfied it would work, Larry packed several sandwiches and a six-
>>> pack of Miller Lite, loaded his pellet gun-- figuring he could pop a
>>> few balloons when it was time to descend-- and went back to the
>>> floating lawn chair.  He tied himself in along with his
>>> pellet gun and provisions. Larry's plan was to lazily float up to a
>>> height of about 30 feet above his back yard after severing the anchor
>>> and in a few hours come back down.

>>> Things didn't quite work out that way.

This reminds me of a couple I know in Oklahoma that tried the same
thing. The two of them went up in a pair of attached lawn chairs.
They planned better and their flight went off without a hitch. There's
a picture of them aloft on the trip that was later published in their
magazine. Perhaps the moral here isn't "don't do something stupid,"
but rather "do all your homework first before trying something dangerous"?

-- Eldon