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  #1  
Old 07-21-2011, 11:28 AM
Wyatt Burp Wyatt Burp is online now
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Default Three Swept Off Falls In Yosemite

Three guys in their twenties jumped the guard rail to take "better" picture at Vernal Falls which is the first falls on the great but steep Mist Trail. Others told them not to do it but they did anyway and witness watched in horror as they went off the 317 foot falls screaming. When my son and I hike that trail last year he wanted to climb the guardrail and for me to take a picture of him. I wouldn't let him do it and if he did I wouldn't take the picture. I just e-mailed the article to him in Afghanistan to let him know where I was coming from. I believe this picture here is Nevada Falls higher up.
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Old 07-21-2011, 12:17 PM
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Don't mess with water falls, don't go where bears are going, don't go into old mine shafts, don't use outhouses with rotten boards, don't stand under trees during a storm...and on and on. Its just too much for some folks.
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Old 07-21-2011, 12:45 PM
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It was certainly a foolish way to die, and I’m sure many of us have crossed guardrails to take the perfect photo, myself included.

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Don't mess with water falls, don't go where bears are going, don't go into old mine shafts, don't use outhouses with rotten boards, don't stand under trees during a storm...and on and on. Its just too much for some folks.
Here’s another one……..never pee on an electric fence.
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Old 07-21-2011, 01:15 PM
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I worked there in 1960 seasonal NPS. Tourists think it`s disneyland soon as they get through the gate. They see a animal, they will stop the car right in the middle of the road around a blind curve, bail out with cameras and leave the doors open! The year before I was there I understand two employees were standing on half dome, one lost his balance and fell to his death. As he slipped he reached out to his buddy and grabbed his glass`s off his face!
One time my boss and I were returning to camp, rounded a curve by a turnout near glacier point. Couldnt belive what I was seeing! A woman was hand feeding a coyote that was a usual sight begging from the tourists at that turnout, another car had pulled up and the driver was injuning around the car to get a bead on the coyote she was feeding! My boss was driveing and pulled tight between the guy and his target. He says alright fella, give me the gun! The guy says, aint no one takeing my gun! The boss gets out and grabs the shotgun and both are playing tug-a-war! I had to get out the passenger side, come around and dive in, of course we won. We effected a citizens arrest and had him follow us to the ranger station. I dont know what the outcome was as we just gave a written report. In a way I felt bad as the couple had kids with them, and I hate belittleing a man in front of his family. I guess LEO run into that every day. I wouldnt like that part of the job!
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Old 07-21-2011, 01:27 PM
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Darwin has caught a few at a local trail/pool. We're talking people who will take off up a multi mile hike in 100+ degree heat with no water.

Solution: Close the trail and pay a couple of Rangers to park at the head to keep people off.

No wonder this state is in the outhouse...
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Old 07-21-2011, 01:39 PM
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I worked there in 1960 seasonal NPS. Tourists think it`s disneyland soon as they get through the gate.
A ranger once told me he observed a parent attempting to place a child on the back of a buffalo to take its picture. Rangers are there to (1) protect nature from the humans, and (2) protect humans from their own stupidity.
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Old 07-21-2011, 01:43 PM
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Is that Tommy Chong?

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Old 07-21-2011, 02:01 PM
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Steve in vermont; True story! When I was with the NPS I heard of a story where a father placed his kid on the back of a bear in yellowstone to take a picture and the bear killed the kid!
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Old 07-21-2011, 02:07 PM
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There is a steep tall falls on the kern river just south of johnsondale california. The road goes right alongside of it and there is a fenced off turnout to look off the falls. About 10 years ago a guy on a little rubber raft or air mattress went off it with his family watching and got killed.
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Old 07-21-2011, 02:08 PM
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About 10 years ago a guy on a little rubber raft or air mattress went off it with his family watching and got killed.
"Y'all hold mah beer."
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Old 07-21-2011, 02:39 PM
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This weeks Darwin award goes out to the three twenty somethings who forgot they were mortal. I'm sorry for the families but sometimes natural selection has to come into play.
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Old 07-21-2011, 05:20 PM
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A three-fer Darwin moment...that's pretty efficient. Did they find the remains yet?
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Old 07-21-2011, 05:40 PM
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When I was stationed in Iceland my roommate and I drove out to some of their waterfall sites. Some of them are quite impressive. We discovered that the Icelanders apparently subscribe to the Darwinian system...there are no fences or guardrails to keep you away from the waterfalls, nor any of their geysers, hot springs, or bubbling mud pools. I guess they figure if you're foolish enough to venture too close...you get what you deserve!

We were able to walk out as close to the waterfall as we wished, and we got some great photos. I was so close that I literally could have stuck my arm out into the gushing water...and undoubtedly been sucked into the water and plunged to my death. Still...an exhilarating and awe-inspiring moment. I did note that the ground we were walking on was very slick from the spray...kept me tense.

The most tragic part of this story of the 3 young men is that their family will have to deal with the loss of loved ones as a result of such a stupid and avoidable act.

Tim
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Old 07-21-2011, 08:21 PM
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Guys dont you think we should give one or two of them a break? As I heard one or both gave their lives trying to save the first one! If that was a solider in battle or a off duty cop or fireman every soul here would be singing their praise, dabbing their eyes with a hankercheif and hopeing obama would give them some kind of civilian medal of honer!
Think about it! Am I right or wrong? Instead we are aplauding about cleansing the gene pool. Shame on ya!
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Old 07-21-2011, 08:24 PM
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When I was at the Grand Canyon a couple of years ago, there were several places with no railing. My shaking legs let me know when I was close enough to the edge.

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Old 07-21-2011, 10:47 PM
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Quote:
Instead we are aplauding about cleansing the gene pool. Shame on ya!
Interesting food for thought.
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Old 07-22-2011, 12:01 AM
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Look Ma, no hand (rails, that is).

Same here with the shaking leg syndrome.

BTW, this was atop Sentinel Butte, ND.

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Old 07-22-2011, 12:09 AM
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Yosemite is intoxicating in its beauty.

I can see how someone might easily stop thinking clearly long enough to get killed.
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Old 07-22-2011, 12:47 AM
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I dont know what the average number is of tourists that go through the popular national parks like yosemite and the grand tetons a day is, but it is always tremendous durring the summer season. When you have that many you see strange and stupid stuff every day. I did 6 months in both of them. They could only work us 6 straight months back then, anything more than that and they had to make us permanet employees. Those jobs were some of the best days of my life. I suppose our jobs and camp life must have been almost the same as the old CCC camps.
One of my friends came in from work and told a funny story. Much of our job was working by ourselves. We had been told that if we were working near a road and took a break to eat our lunch or whatever to try to stay out of sight so the tax payers wouldnt get upset if they thought we were loafing. My buddy was working above a road cut and took his lunch. A car skided to a halt below him, the tourist runs in the brush directly below him and un, does his business. Then he is looking around for some handy leaves. My buddy was sympithetic. He threw a short roll of toilet paper most of us carried down on him! Praise da lawd!
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Old 07-22-2011, 12:56 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by feralmerril View Post
I dont know what the average number is of tourists that go through the popular national parks like yosemite and the grand tetons a day is, but it is always tremendous durring the summer season. When you have that many you see strange and stupid stuff every day. I did 6 months in both of them. They could only work us 6 straight months back then, anything more than that and they had to make us permanet employees. Those jobs were some of the best days of my life. I suppose our jobs and camp life must have been almost the same as the old CCC camps.
One of my friends came in from work and told a funny story. Much of our job was working by ourselves. We had been told that if we were working near a road and took a break to eat our lunch or whatever to try to stay out of sight so the tax payers wouldnt get upset if they thought we were loafing. My buddy was working above a road cut and took his lunch. A car skided to a halt below him, the tourist runs in the brush directly below him and un, does his business. Then he is looking around for some handy leaves. My buddy was sympithetic. He threw a short roll of toilet paper most of us carried down on him! Praise da lawd!
With all your stories, you should write a book. I do enjoy them immensely.
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Old 07-22-2011, 01:20 AM
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I certainly don't take pleasure in anyone's death, even one caused by his own stupidity. This event illustrates the greater problem this country faces. As this country developed, people were always expanding the frontier. Evolution is a cruel truth. Many of the less-endowed died because they were not strong enough, or smart enough, or lucky enough to survive that experience. The people that descended from them got some of that genetically.

We've now had about 100 years of progressively more effort by the Government and others to protect people from their own stupid acts. While it's a good thing in most ways, it has not allowed much of the natural selection that would have taken place and prevented these unfortunate folks from reproducing. I think that many of the ills facing society today are cause by a general drop in smarts in the population at large, not allowing natural selection to take place. I don't necessarily mean consequences like death. I mean no proper emphasis on education so people can better themselves, a reluctance to work and having no consequences, dumbing down of everything so that the lower achievers will not have bad self-images, or the explosion of obesity that threatens to turn out a generation of couch potatoes that don't really do anything except play games. I'm sure you all could relate similar examples.

Going back to Socrates, old men like me have always complained that the younger generation is going to Hell in a handbasket, and I know that there's some of that in my rant. But I have lived long enough to see profound changes in the educational system, from lack of respect for authority to physical attacks on teachers. I have seen over half of the parents in public schools provide little encouragement or support for their children, and I have seen too many teens trying to disrupt the educational process to the detriment of those who want to learn. And it's not getting better...

OK, rant off!

Buck
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Old 07-22-2011, 09:02 AM
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The wonders of natural selection! Maybe now three less NorCal potheads to vote for democrats???
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Old 07-22-2011, 03:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wyatt Burp View Post
Three guys in their twenties jumped the guard rail to take "better" picture at Vernal Falls which is the first falls on the great but steep Mist Trail. Others told them not to do it but they did anyway and witness watched in horror as they went off the 317 foot falls screaming. When my son and I hike that trail last year he wanted to climb the guardrail and for me to take a picture of him. I wouldn't let him do it and if he did I wouldn't take the picture. I just e-mailed the article to him in Afghanistan to let him know where I was coming from. I believe this picture here is Nevada Falls higher up.
Is the photo you have attached of one of the bodies that was recovered? LOL
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Old 07-22-2011, 03:49 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by feralmerril View Post
I dont know what the average number is of tourists that go through the popular national parks like yosemite and the grand tetons a day is, but it is always tremendous durring the summer season. When you have that many you see strange and stupid stuff every day. I did 6 months in both of them. They could only work us 6 straight months back then, anything more than that and they had to make us permanet employees. Those jobs were some of the best days of my life. I suppose our jobs and camp life must have been almost the same as the old CCC camps.
One of my friends came in from work and told a funny story. Much of our job was working by ourselves. We had been told that if we were working near a road and took a break to eat our lunch or whatever to try to stay out of sight so the tax payers wouldnt get upset if they thought we were loafing. My buddy was working above a road cut and took his lunch. A car skided to a halt below him, the tourist runs in the brush directly below him and un, does his business. Then he is looking around for some handy leaves. My buddy was sympithetic. He threw a short roll of toilet paper most of us carried down on him! Praise da lawd!
Merril:

I was eating my lunch one day at high noon along the Big Oak Flat road below the Crane Flat entrance station. Some tourist reported to the Ranger at Crane Flat that they had an employee loafing by the road. My boss told me to just keep out of sight of the road after that. Of course we were seldom anywhere near a road for lunch so it really wasn't much of a problem.
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Old 07-22-2011, 04:02 PM
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I worked in Yosemite for the NPS the summers of 1964,65,66, Spring of 67 and summer of 70. As I recall after people go over Vernal Falls they stay under for several days or weeks as the water is very cold and it takes a long time for the body to gas up enough to float to the surface. One summer a boy and girl were playing in the water above Yosemite Falls when the water was very low. The boy slipped and went over the falls. One of the Helitack crew members that picked up the remains told me to think of what would happen to a watermelon if it fell a thousand feet and landed on granite and that is what the boy looked like. When I got out of the Army in the spring of 1970 I returned to Yosemite for one last summer of work. There was a motorola handietalkie radio in the Forestry Warehouse that was smashed up and I asked what had happened to it. It seems there had been a rescue on El Capitian and the NPS had hired one of the ragtag hard rock climbers that hung out in Yosemite to assist in the rescue and he had the radio with him as he went over the side. He made a mistake as he rappelled down and fell to his death. A few years later I was working for USGS and told this story to a fellow employee and he quietly told that the climber was a good friend of his.
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Old 07-22-2011, 04:35 PM
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Do they have any idea what the handrails are put there for?
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Old 07-22-2011, 08:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bubbiesdad View Post
When I was at the Grand Canyon a couple of years ago, there were several places with no railing. My shaking legs let me know when I was close enough to the edge.

Ditto -- had the same experience myself. If you want a great read, pick up the book "Death in the Canyon" (I think that's the name) at the ranger station there. Lots of stories of how people have died at the canyon by going over the edge. Scary. Amazing the drop offs right there along the rim trail. Makes me weak in the knees just thinking about it!
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Old 07-22-2011, 09:51 PM
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I went to the Grand canyon when my kids were quite young. I think they were like 3 & 4. We brought along shoulder like harnesses with the equivilant of leashes on them. This kept them from taking off running straigt off a cliff somewhere in their youthful exuburence. I felt a little weird at first, but got alot of positive comments from other parents. Even a few asked where we got them.
On a side note, I saw where a woman was sucked into a whirlpool by Niagra Falls just the other day, while posing for a picture for her boy friend. Luckily a jet boat type tour boat was going by and the capitain was able to save her. If he had not been there, she would have drowned. They say that that spot is so strong, that you won't even stay up with a life jacket on.
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Old 07-22-2011, 09:54 PM
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Maybe just those of us who thought reality could be suspended long enough to try something stupid. I've paid MY dues, and couldn't help chuckling about the guys taking flying lessons.
Luckily, I learned a lesson, so I'm still here to serve as a bad example. TACC1
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Old 07-22-2011, 10:49 PM
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I was working at grand teton NP in 1961. Some of us were up real late one night playing poker and two guys come knocking on our bunkhouse. That morning a moose had run them up a tree and they sat in the tree for something like 12 hours! They said once in awhile the moose walked out of sight, they would start to come down and the moose would charge again! It kept them up the tree until after dark, they chanced comeing down and seen our lights.
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Old 07-22-2011, 10:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by haggis View Post
I certainly don't take pleasure in anyone's death, even one caused by his own stupidity. This event illustrates the greater problem this country faces. As this country developed, people were always expanding the frontier. Evolution is a cruel truth. Many of the less-endowed died because they were not strong enough, or smart enough, or lucky enough to survive that experience. The people that descended from them got some of that genetically.

We've now had about 100 years of progressively more effort by the Government and others to protect people from their own stupid acts. While it's a good thing in most ways, it has not allowed much of the natural selection that would have taken place and prevented these unfortunate folks from reproducing. I think that many of the ills facing society today are cause by a general drop in smarts in the population at large, not allowing natural selection to take place. I don't necessarily mean consequences like death. I mean no proper emphasis on education so people can better themselves, a reluctance to work and having no consequences, dumbing down of everything so that the lower achievers will not have bad self-images, or the explosion of obesity that threatens to turn out a generation of couch potatoes that don't really do anything except play games. I'm sure you all could relate similar examples.

Going back to Socrates, old men like me have always complained that the younger generation is going to Hell in a handbasket, and I know that there's some of that in my rant. But I have lived long enough to see profound changes in the educational system, from lack of respect for authority to physical attacks on teachers. I have seen over half of the parents in public schools provide little encouragement or support for their children, and I have seen too many teens trying to disrupt the educational process to the detriment of those who want to learn. And it's not getting better...

OK, rant off!

Buck

Evolutionary adaptations take a very long time, much longer than a few human generations, but cultural adaptations can occur almost overnight --- I recently read that today's US high school students are dismally ignorant of geography, science, history, civics, etc., a consequence of schools and teachers concentrating on "teaching to the test" for reading/writing and math skills, to meet federal guidelines, at the expense and detriment of other curricula. The way we adopt and abandon contemporary social networking sites is a good example --- here today, gone tomorrow.

Kids today are, seemingly, unexposed to practical, common-sense knowledge that we who are "baby boomers" took and take for granted. I recently asked my 18 year-old nephew to read a map while I was driving --- he struggled to make any sense of it, and failing, commented, " I don't use maps, I use the GPS on my cell phone." I guess this will get him to the nearest Starbucks, but not tell him where he is in relation to the world around him, or how to find his way from there...

If there is a God, let's hope he helps us ...
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Old 07-23-2011, 02:19 AM
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According to our local paper, there is a rock in the river above the falls. One guy went over the railing into the water and out to the rock. Then the girl went over the railing and out to the rock. Then the second guy went over the railing into the water to take a photo of the first two. The water is super cold, (fresh melted snow) running very full and very fast. According to the report the couple went over together, the guy with the camera took it solo. I believe this brings the count up to 9 people who have died in Yosemite this year. A couple of weeks ago two DR's died. They were on a hiking trip and came to a bridge that was partially submerged do to high water levels. It would have added another day for them to hike around so they tried to cross were swept over and died. I live a little over an hour and half away from Yosemite.
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Old 07-23-2011, 08:35 AM
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Sad. Many people have little experience with the natural environment. They are simply not aware of how quickly one may endanger ones life or limbs by a foolish mistake. It happened to me on a lake in NH. I took a kayak out and failed to tell anyone where I was going, etc. Got out about 6 miles across a large lake and discovered the realities of wind, waves and fading light. It was interesting trying to paddle back to the island where we were camping. When I finally got back, I didn't need anyone to tell me that I had come awful close to really messing up. Last week we returned to that island. Every day I took a kayak out around one of the nearby smaller islands. But, I will not again take such a small (7') boat across such open water.
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Old 07-23-2011, 09:57 AM
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One really bad decision with really permanent consequences. My prayers go out to their family and friends.
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Old 07-23-2011, 10:13 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rock doc View Post
It was certainly a foolish way to die, and I’m sure many of us have crossed guardrails to take the perfect photo, myself included.



Here’s another one……..never pee on an electric fence.
Now if I can just make the connection to the Congressman whose name lends itself to the jest.
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Old 07-23-2011, 08:15 PM
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I remember back in the 80's seeing a news story. There was an interview at Niagra Falls, at the top. Some type of tourism thing I think. Anyway, the interview is going on, a man goes behind the people on camera, looks into the camera and waves, and then jumps into the river and goes over the falls.
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