Final Exits

<p>To die kick the bucket to meet your Maker dead as a doornail get whacked smoked bite the dust sleep with the fishes go six feet under--whatever death is called it's going to happen. In 1789 Ben Franklin wrote In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. Death remains a certainty. But how do we die? It's the enormous variety of how that enlivens final exits.</p><p> According to death certificates in 1700 there were less than 100 causes of death. Today there are 3000. With each advance of technology people find new ways to become deceased often causing trends that peak in the first year. People are now killed by everything from cell phones washing machines lawn mowers and toothpicks to the boundless catalog of man--made medicines. In <em>Final Exits</em> the causes of death--bizarre or common--are alphabetically arranged and include actual accounts of people both famous and ordinary who unfortunately died that way. (Ants bad words Bingo bean bag chairs flying cows frozen toilets hiccups lipstick moray eels road kill starfish and toupees are only some of the more unusual causes.)</p>