Mother of 3 dies competing for Nintendo
When will Americans learn that our time and our lives are worth more than their trinkets and their dollars?
This is quite possibly the most tragic case of media madness I've ever encountered.
A woman who won a video game console by downing massive quantities of water in California radio contest said Monday she was shocked by the death of a fellow contestant."You don't think water's going to kill you," Lucy Davidson told CNN. "You're at the radio station having fun."
Jennifer Lea Strange, 28, mother of three, died late Friday after drinking over a gallon of water in station KDND 107.9's "Hold your Wee for a Wii" contest, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Contestants in the California city of Sacramento competed to see how much water they could hold without going to the bathroom.
The prize was the highly sought Nintendo Wii gaming console that was hard to come by during the Christmas splurge.
After the 6 a.m. contest, Strange went to work but complained of a headache and went home, the Bee reported. She was found dead about 2 p.m.
During the contest, a nurse called in to the station warn of the dangers of drinking too much water quickly. Her worries were dismissed by the disc jockey, The Bee reported.
Experts said too much water can dilute the body's chemical balance, or even cause organs such as the brain to swell.
The winner, Davidson, said she was "sick" afterwards.
"I was throwing up, I couldn't even function, I couldn't do anything," she said.
To make matters worse, because she died (as opposed to surviving with a disability) and because she probably didn't earn much money at her job, the 'dollar value' the court places on her life in a wrongful death suit will be nominal compared to the pain and loss her family and her children will forever suffer in the wake of this tragedy.
UPDATE: Good news. The family is suing the station for punitive damages - and ten people were fired, so far.
There may even be criminal charges filed. Serves them right. Maybe next time others will think twice before exploiting people so recklessly and callously.
This is what George Carlin have been talking about in his comedy routine.
Warning, foul language ahead. Video
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My blog Last Throes of US Empire
george carlin is so funny, and such a philosopher too!
What do you think of "Life is worth losing" HBO special?
It's shown in full feature length at Google Video or available on DVD.
Personally, I find his routine half funny and half bitter. Kind of sad to watch even as he tries hard to lighten up with his unique brand of delightfully profane humor.
I posted the full transcript routine on my latest blog entry called "Rockets and P**ises in the Persian Gulf". Amazingly dead-on and funny albeit vulgar. Read it or listen to a track sometime if you didn't hear his routine on this topic yet.
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My blog Last Throes of US Empire