>>>>>>>>And therefore the reason for the need to tell the difference between:
• a well hung man
• a well hanged man <<<<<<<


I once used a line that played on this difference in a song. The phrase was "hung like Absalom." (For strangers to the Old Testament, Absalom was a son of King David and he, Absalom, died when his hair was caught in a branch while he was riding.)

I got questions such as, "So, how big was Absalom's dick?"
Exasperated, I would say, "That's the wrong hung! He was hung from a tree a died."

I *could* have said "hanged like Absalom" and saved myself the trouble. But I wanted the humor that came from knowing the reference *and* getting the joke. But in this case, the joke was on me.

The whole idea of public executions is so horribly gruesome. I can't imagine taking the kids to the town square to see someone hanged or beheaded or whatever. The evolution of society can be rather interesting.

And here's a story that funny in a really sad sort of way. A friend of a friend tried to hang himself, but he was too tall and wound up just standing there. Hearing that story brought me to one of those moments where you don't know quite whether to laugh or cry. Certainly, it's awful that he wanted to kill himself, and good that it didn't succeed. But funny-sad that he didn't realize his height in relation to the rope or whatever.

It's almost as bad as some kids in my area who died while bungee jumping off an old train trestle. The bungee cords were slightly longer than the height of the bridge. Didn't they think to measure it before jumping? I mean, seriously, couldn't they just through it down first and see if it lands?

Yes, it's actually quite difficult to confirm that someone is really dead. It was terribly difficult in the old days to distinguish between death and coma or other cases of extreme respiratory and cardiac depression. Back then, they would just hold a mirror to the nose and look for fog. Now, we have EKGs and advanced stethoscopes and all of that. The difficulty and common problem of burying people alive is really the reason we started to embalm bodies before burial.

It's interesting now to see a trend to "green burials," where bodies are not embalmed and left to return to the earth naturally. I have hard that it's only allowed in a few states now, but spreading. I think I would much prefer that. I've always said that I'd like to be buried without chemicals or coffin, simply placed in the ground with a tree planted over me, so that my body could feed the tree and become part of it.