in memoriam

evel knieval died yesterday. he had been suffering from diabetes (bad diet), pulmonary fibrosis (smoking) and hepatitis c (contracted from a blood transfusion) for several years prior to his death. i assume you all know about his accomplishments, but just in case you don't, he jumped over a lot of enormous crazy things on his motorcycle, some of them on fire, and broke most of the bones in his body. he once spent a month in a coma after attempting to jump the fountains at caesar's palace in las vegas. the following are some quotes of his that i found poignant, touching, and hilarious by turns.

"I foresee the Chinese ruling the world. What are you going to do to stop it? No president of the United States will ever have enough power to stop the Chinese when they want to take over the world."

"I've been in a treatment center for drinkin'. I stayed for two days, then escaped. "

"But you come to a point in your life when you can't pull the trigger anymore. "

"The other thing I wanted but never got to do had something to do with Liz Taylor but she's getting a little old and a little fat. "

"I thought I was bulletproof or Superman there for a while. I thought I'd never run out of nerve. Never."