As Scott Ian, lead guitarist of thrash metal band Anthrax, said after stocking up on antidote during the 2001 anthrax-in-the-mail scare: "I will not die an ironic death." And who would? You want your death to provoke weeping in the streets, not wry chuckles.
One of life's more grimly enjoyable ironies is the misfortune that rebukes the principles of a life devoted to some form of self-improvement -- particularly if those principles have been sold to consumers at considerable profit. Schadenfreude is not one of humanity's more appealing traits, but for those who feel preached at by faddists, some feeling of poetic justice is hard to resist whenever a lifestyle guru turns out to be fallible.
The example of Robert Coleman Atkins comes to mind. Atkins, the man responsible for halitosis across six continents, ate a carb-free, high-protein, Atkins-diet breakfast as usual on April 18, 2002, before his morning routine was interrupted by a sudden, non-fatal heart attack. A year later, after he slipped on an icy New York pavement, fell into a coma and died, medical records confirmed that he was suffering from heart disease.
And what was God trying to tell us with the fate of Jim Fixx, author of The Complete Book of Running, which sold more than 1 million copies in the 1970s? It rapidly stopped selling when the 52-year-old New Yorker died while out jogging in 1984.
Or of Euell Gibbons, who became famous in the US in the 1960s for his series of books about healthy eating (including Stalking the Healthful Herb)? Despite never knowingly ingesting a single toxin, Gibbons ascended to the Ironic Death Hall of Fame at the age of 64 by dying of a heart attack.
Another health champion floored by a bad heart was Jerome "JI" Rodale. An early evangelist for organic farming in the US, Rodale founded a successful publishing empire on a range of health food books and Prevention magazine, which advised readers on nutritious eating. Appearing on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971, he boasted to the audience about how healthy he was, before slumping in his chair and appearing to go to sleep.
"Are we boring you, Mr Rodale?" bantered the host.
Having died of a heart attack, Rodale declined to reply.
The show was never aired.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under