THE DARWIN AWARDS - November 2007

THE DARWIN AWARDS - November 2007

PERSONAL ACCOUNT: Hedge Your Bets (near miss)

2007, Ontario, Canada || My friend's daughter is a plastic surgeon
with expertise in reconstructive surgery.  Recently a patient was
rushed into the hospital, needing a surgeon to reattach the tips
of his fingers to his left hand.

While taking the patient history, it was found that this bright chap
got the idea of holding his lawn mower sideways and applying it
to his hedge.  He was holding the mower deck, trimming the hedge,
and things went well until the weight of the mower got to be
a bit much.  He readjusted his grip on the mower deck, and
that was when the blade bit him.

When my friend's daughter was almost finished with the complex job
of sewing this patient back together, another patient came in with
the same injury!  On investigation, it was found that he, too,
had been using his mower to trim his hedge.  Apparently this man
was a neighbor of the first patient.  He watched his neighbor
trim his hedge, and thought it was a bright idea.


DARWIN AWARD: ZAP!

(2003, California) John, a real estate attorney, was skimming leaves
from his pool when he noticed a palm frond caught in the power lines.
Years of education equipped John with enough reasoning power to
become a successful litigator.  Yet his education did not equip him
with sufficient acumen to avoid becoming a toasty critter, when he
reached up with the long metal pole and poked at the palm frond.
John was, for once, the path of least resistance.

His family, perhaps as an homage to his litigation skills, sued
both the utility company and the pool supply store, which failed
to disclose the danger of using the pool skimmer on power lines.

http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2003-20.html