Crikey!

It's sad when anyone dies (except Hitler or Ted Bundy). I find it especially sad when a father of young children passes away, having lost my own father when I was ten. I feel bad for Steve Irwin and his family. I liked the guy even though he was a freakin' nut job. I would watch his show and scream at the T.V. "What the hell are you doing you manic? Are you hopped up on pep pills or something? That's a Freakin' Cobra!" Hell I even watched his Movie and really enjoyed it.

I remember the first time I saw the Crocodile Hunter, it was around 1996 and it was on a clip show of TV bloopers. The clip was from an Australian Kids show and Steve was the guest. He was standing there with some weird looking purple muppet thing and a full grown lady dressed as the Tooth Fairy. Mr. Irwin had a python (God I hate Freakin' snakes, which made watching him all the more maddening.) draped around his neck and was explaining to the muppet and the Fairy that the python was not "scared of me righat nowa (the following and preceding misspellings are meant to represent an Australian accent), so he's not gonna biate me.", then I watched as the Snakes head went inside Steve's shirt near his collar and its body started to tense up and twist. Then he explained "Alrighat, he's biting me righat nowa and it reaaaly hurts." At that point both the muppet and the fairy's jaws dropped and they both started backing away slowly (much like the Kool-Aid Man did after breaking through the Courthouse wall in the first episode of The Family Guy). The look on the muppet's face is priceless. I will always remember that clip as the first and only time I have actually seen human emotion on the the face of a muppet. And that emotion my friends was that of Pure Fear.

But when it comes to the Death of the Crocodile Hunter I feel much the same as I did when my hero Hunter S. Thompson took his own life, saddened by the news but not the least bit shocked. I mean c'mon man, he's been dancing on the Razor's edge for years. It's a miracle he's lasted this long. The one thing that did shock me was that he died by being stung by a Sting Ray. Morgan and I swam with them on our honeymoon and they are normally docile creatures, like puppy dogs. They don't usually sting unless you step square on their back. And that usually makes them slash that barb in your leg. So it just leaves me scratching my head a bit as to how it got him in the chest.

Well at least the man died doing what he loved, how many people can say that? Well none....because they're all dead.

Rest in Peace Crocodile Hunter.

Later,
CS