I Hate It When We Have a Darwin Award Finalist This Early in the Year

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You’ve probably heard of the “Darwin Award,” and I’ve mentioned it before. It’s a tongue-in-cheek award to the stupidest way to die. The premise is Darwin’s evolutionary “survival of the fittest” idea, and that the weaker species will nix themselves. Some of them will make you laugh, despite the fact that we are talking about a human’s death. One of my “favorites” was a man who wanted to “prove” to tourists that the glass in a high-rise was shatter-proof, so he got a running start....and went right through it and down a couple of dozen floors. The notion of seeing something that you think qualifies for an award “winner” this early in the year is not good. You know that there are people, in America especially, who’ll read something and have a “bah, hold my beer and watch this!” reaction to it. Still, I think this one will be hard to top. On February 8 a Nashville resident had a “great idea:” he and his buddy would stage a fake robbery, and film it for his You Tube channel. Of course, he didn’t tell anyone it was fake. And the person he picked to attack with fake weapons had a gun with which to defend himself in such cases as an attack. Which he did. The prankster, Timothy Wilks, was 20. While the man who shot him is not (or not at the time of this discussion’s posting) facing any charges because he acted in self-defense, Nashville police said the friend of Wilks who helped plan and pull the stunt might face charges. So there’s our first Darwin Award finalist for 2021. The story: