England’s answer to the howler monkey

Back in the fall of 1995, I visited Costa Rica with a friend of mine, and one of the first things we did was take a hike through the rain forest in a beautiful national park encompassing a small range of active volcanoes. While crossing a stream in the forest we heard a low-pitched sound so loud and disturbing my first thought was that it must have been a rhinoceros in the throes of death or, possibly, the throes of passion.

Obviously, I know there are no wild rhinos in Costa Rica or anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere, but the sound was so bizarre and terrifying I could think of no other animal capable of producing it. Read More »

Suicide is painless, or should be

Normally, here at “I’m With Stupid,” we make a point of avoiding deeper issues such as politics and murder and war and so forth. Sure, politicians and murderers and wars are generally pretty stupid, but they’re usually not terribly funny, so they don’t make for the most entertaining column fodder. Every once in a while, though, a story comes along that demands some sort of comment, regardless of how contentious an issue it might involve.

Such was the case last week with a widely reported story about a British couple who passed away at a voluntary euthanasia clinic in Switzerland. Read More »