The Sudden Death "Mystery"

Above, Lionel Atwill and Basil Rathbone in Son of Frankenstein. Universal Pictures.

Recent sudden deaths of athletes of different ages, celebrities, politicians and others have become news fodder. This is beginning to bother people to an extent that news organizations are looking into it with some degree of hysteria.

Some people are trying to link these sudden deaths to COVID vaccines.

Recently, some physicians were asked recently on what they see in all of this.

From CNA Lifestyle:

Over the years, you might recall reading about active individuals – age notwithstanding – dying suddenly for seemingly no apparent reason.

The passing of Creative Technology founder and CEO Sim Wong Hoo at the age of 67 would be the most recent incident that comes to mind. While no cause of death has been revealed officially, friends who attended the tech pioneer’s wake said they were “shocked” as he ran marathons and had appeared to be in good health. The family has declined to speak to the media.

What is the likely cause (or causes) of a sudden death that afflict fitness-conscious individuals? Are there warning signs that could save lives if these had been heeded? CNA Lifestyle asked some doctors for their views.

To read more, go here. 

WSJ: Where Our Monsters Come From

Above, a Universal publicity photo for Son of Frankenstein featuring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.

Halloween is only days away and it is the perfect time to see where our monsters came from.

The Wall Street Journal has an article that does just that.

They begin with:

The Halloween season is upon us again and, with it, all the lurid paraphernalia of
assorted ghosts, ghouls and goblins. It’s all in good fun, but our favorite seasonal terrors
also say something deeper about what scares us and why. Halloween itself we owe to the
ancient Celts, whose festival of Samhain marked the beginning of the dark part of the
year, when the souls of the dead revisited the earth, but many of our current monsters
reflect more recent anxieties. 

Most anthropologists date the beginning of civilization to the institution of funerary
rituals and designated cemeteries, and it is hardly surprising that our imaginations,
even now, dwell on the disquieting line that separates the living from the dead. In many
cultures, too, ghosts are often angry because they represent, in guilty consciences, those
who been murdered, forgotten or somehow improperly laid to rest 

Religion also played a part. When the Protestant Reformation did away with the concept
of purgatory as a transit point to paradise, it opened the doors still further for unsettled
ghosts to roam the earth. Disputes between Protestants and Catholics over who could
best invoke angels and keep demons at bay ensured that those emissaries from the
invisible world would continue to be vivid realities for many believers.

Can you believe that 15 years from now the Universal Pictures horror classics Dracula and Frankenstein will be 100 years old?

To read more, go here. 

Iran's "Old Ygor" Survives Hanging

Above, a publicity still of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff from "Son of Frankenstein."

Sometimes life imitates art.

The Washington Times reported:

A death row prisoner in Iran is to be hanged for a second time once he regains strength after he survived an earlier attempt. 

Alireza M, 37, was “put to death” at Bojnourd prison last Wednesday for drugs, but when his family went to collect his body at the morgue the next day, they noticed he was still breathing, the Daily Mail reported.

This reminds me of the Ygor character played by Bela Lugosi in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and reprised in Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). Ygor was a blacksmith in the village of Frankenstein who was hanged for grave-robbing ("Because I stole bodies, dey said," said Ygor in Son of Frankenstein). Ygor survived the hanging, but with a broken and deformed neck and was refused a burial. His "lifeless" body was thrown into the ruins of Henry Frankenstein's laboratory instead.

The Iranian in question may not be so lucky.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/16/iranian-prisoner-will-be-hanged-again-after-he-sur/#ixzz2hupgTuTH
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