DD 081-085.999 (Tony) The Darwin Awards II (081 NOR)

by Wendy Northcutt
After having read the War and Peace equvilent of a bathroom reader, I decided to go with something small. I had already read volume one of The Darwin Awards during various trips to Hillsborough's local hangout: the Carolina Coffee Cafe So when I had the chance to read the second volume for this category of our Dewey project, I readily picked it up.

The Darwin Awards are tongue in cheek awards given out to people who are so stupid, they help benefit the future of humanities survival, but removing themselves from the gene pool. Most entries are about people who end up killing themselves doing dumb things like trying to blow up their ex-wife's house or looking inside the mouth of a lit pyro-technic display. Doing something less than brilliant and in return sterilizing yourself count as award winners. Near death experiences are only granted "honorable mention" status, though most of the stuff done in this book, is less than honorable. And for fans of Urban Legends, check out the sections of the same name spread throughout this book.

Those wanting to enjoy the fatal exploits of morons should beware: <THIS BOOK HAS A HIDDEN AGENDA! Wendy Northcutt, the author of this book, and the website which began the awards, also doubles as a graduate in molecular biology. So almost every chapther begins with an essay in evolution. As an opened minded beleiver in creationism (who went to a private Christian school his whole life), I enjoyed reading about the others sides view of why evolution is "better" than creationism. Hey, I even believe in adaptation evolution (in which you put a sphinx cat family in the artic and 10 generations later, the descendants end up being furry little snow cats.) I just did not appreciate the authors attitude that it's her view and nothing else.

So if you are a closed minded creationist, this book is probably not for you. But, if you still want to learn about stupid ways to kill youself or painfully dumb sterilzation techniques, then do yourself a favor and skip not only the lettering writing campaign to all of the Darwin award website and publishers sponsers; but skip the intro essays to each chapther.

Oh, and one more thing! With this book published in 2001, many of the Urban Legnds in this book have been covered on the Discovery Channel show Mythbusters. So for updates on the validity of tales like Barbequed SCUBA diver and the leagend of Lawnchair Larry, check your local listings to see them put to the test.