Super Sailor 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
Picking up my Champaign News-Gazette today, I saw the following headline on page B-6 (obits)"Zion Man Drowns in Lake Michigan". Since many people die in Lake Michigan, usually of garden variety stupidity, I was not sure that this story had much to offer, BUT.....you decide..
According to AP, a 25 year old Zion, IL man and his 20 year old female companion stole a rowboat from Monroe harbor and rowed it into the lake with the back end facing front according to Officer John Clifford of the Chicago PD Marine Unit. "He was rowing the boat from the wrong direction and water kept on splashing in, and it sank"
Witnesses jumped in the water and tried rescuing the couple. Clifford said that neither victim could swim and neither was wearing a life vest. The woman was rescued but the man drowned. Names had not been released pending notification of relatives.
I believe that this qualifies for a Darwin for the following reasons.
1) Age of our hero...25 years old, his gene spreading was curtailed, eliminating 20+ years of gene pool pollution.
2) He was the author of his own demise, even attempting to clean the pool with a twofer.
3) The outright goofyness of his final voyage..a rowboat (stolen) going into a lake so large that it has it's own tides and breakers, rowing shallow end forward so as to guarantee swamping, and doing it all without the proverbial safety net (lifejacket and knowledge of swimming).
I therefore humbly submit this heroic tale for your judgement. Submitted on 07/20/2003
Submitted by:
Jack Nalett, aka, OpusDaPenguin
Reference:
AP, Chicago, 7/20/03
Copyright © 2002 DarwinAwards.com
|
