MORTAL INSULT -- Darwin Award Nominee

Snake Got Your Tongue? (1992, California)
Snakes flick their forked tongues in the air to "smell" the world, 
collecting molecules then pressing the tips into small olfactory pits. 
An inebriated twenty-year-old man took umbrage when a wild rattlesnake 
stuck out its tongue at him. Tit for tat! He held the snake in front 
of his face and stuck his tongue out right back at the rattler. 

The snake expressed his displeasure at this turn of events by biting 
the conveniently offered body part. The toxic venom swelled the man's 
face and throat, choking him to death. 

	-Reference San Francisco Chronicle (confirmed)

--------------------------------------------+---+-+---+-+-+-+++
	Win a FREE Book! DARWIN AWARDS: Evolution in Action.
	http://www.darwinawards.com/misc/free.book.html?0108
--------------------------------------------+---+-+---+-+-+-+-+

WIPED OUT -- Darwin Award Nominee

It's still not clean! (4 September 1999, Tokyo, Japan)
Shoshi was a part-time janitor until his eagerness to do a good job 
collided with an unhealthy inability to attend to his own safety. 
The elevator he was cleaning had water leaking from its ceiling, so 
he rode a second elevator up the shaft, climbed out its hidden side 
door, and hopped on top of the first elevator. As he cleaned the puddle 
from the roof, the car rose to the top floor, fatally crushing him. 
The 24-year-old had forgotten to turn off the leaking elevator before 
wiping up the spill, leaving the roof messier than before. 
 
	Reference: Mainichi Daily News 

--------------------------------------------+---+-+---+-+-+-+-+
	Sign up for the Darwin Awards newsletter! 
	Email subscribe@darwinawards.com 
--------------------------------------------+---+-+---+-+-+-+-+

ROB PETER TO PAY PAUL -- Honorable Mention

(16 July 2001, Union City, Tennessee) A woman ordered to pay off 
$1100 in bad checks left the courthouse, drove to her hometown, 
and pulled a gun on employees at the First State Bank. She fled 
into a cornfield with $7000, eluded the hastily-organized search 
party, and made her way back to Union City to pay her debt. 

But given the small size of her hometown, with a population of 344, 
it was inevitable that one of the tellers would recognize her. 
Police were waiting at her home to arrest her and confiscate 
the remainder of the money. 

	Reference: Boston Globe

MORE DARWIN AWARDS and Honorable Mentions
Stay With the Herd!
  http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1999-22.html?0108
Wiped Out  
  http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1999-16.html?0108
Blown Away  
  http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2001-24.html?0108
Cable Cut  
  http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2001-23.html?0108
Shark Petting Zoo  
  http://www.darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid2001-20.html?0108
Out of Gas  
  http://www.darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid2001-19.html?0108
Rob Peter to Pay Paul  
  http://www.darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid2001-18.html?0108
Life's a Gas
  http://www.darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid2001-17.html?0108

Copyright 2001 by Wendy Northcutt www.DarwinAwards.com
 
Sponsor the DARWIN AWARDS!
The website needs your help!  Save your species.
Sponsor the Darwin Awards and keep the lights on!
http://s1.amazon.com/paypage/P3CVG7EXZTW168

	* Please share this newsletter with your friends! *

---