I'm not a fan of his, in fact I haven't read any of his books, but I was mildly surprised to find out that Phillip K Dick was on drugs.

It seems many persons of prominence or talent are either dysfunctional or deviant (as judged by society), one way or another. For example, Alan Turing was gay (and committed suicide), Pee Wee Herman was arrested for jerking off at the South Trail Cinema (an XXX theatre), the Beatles were on drugs and Adlai Stevenson killed a 12 year old girl at a Christmas party (no, really).

Are dysfunction and deviancy side effects of genius and/or success, or a pre-requisite, I wonder?


HK Property Tycoon Says He Is Opposed To Political Change

"Chan also argued that because about half of the city's population is poorly educated and living in government-subsidized housing, expanding the number of popularly elected lawmakers would lead to it being dominated by those determined to expand welfare benefits."

Bah.


Me and my big mouth. I sent a message to Soulseek asking why I got 30.5 days of privileges free and they took them away from me.

Boo hoo.


Unusual Celebrity Deaths

My favourite ones (and this is only the first sixth of the list):

Sherwood Anderson - writer
1941 --- after swallowing a toothpick at a cocktail party he died of peritonitis on an ocean liner bound for Brazil.

Sir Francis Bacon
1626 --- pneumonia. He was experimenting with freezing a chicken by stuffing it with snow.

Kimberly Bergalis
1991 --- died of AIDS. She had contracted the disease from her dentist.

Salvatore "Sonny" Bono
1998 --- crashed into a tree while skiing.

Catherine the Great - Empress of Russia
1796 --- a stroke, while going to the bathroom.

Anton Joseph Cermak - mayor of Chicago
1933 --- assassinated by accident when riding with Franklin Roosevelt in motorcade.


Lucky I'm off tomorrow... I still feel sick, have no appetite and just now felt a bit cold, in a slight relapse of monday night's chills.