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Dinner Party Delight: Car Accidents & Tsunamis


At a dinner party the other night, there were three of us discussing life in general. The convo soon took a turn for the macabre when my brother stated that he had a bad flight to Chicago recently. “It didn’t help that I was looking at air flight mishaps on YouTube the night before.”

We agreed, it did not. From airplane disasters, we (un)naturally went to the topic of car accidents and deaths on this small New England island on which we were dining. It triggered a recollection from Person 2, on my left. “Did you hear about the car accident where the daughter fell off the sidewalk at the very moment a huge truck was behind her? She went down, and the truck ran over her head. It sounded like a watermelon squooshing. Plus, her mother was behind her watching it all happen.”

“Speaking of holding things down,” said Person 3, on my right. “We were on a boat delivery to Bermuda. It was a 50-foot sail. We left Menemsha on a blustery December 4 and made our first stop at Noman’s Land. Fat Tony was the chef and decided to make spaghetti. But he boiled the spaghetti in seawater. Fat Tony thought he was ‘conditioning’ us for the trip. I got so sick. Couldn’t keep anything down for days.”

“Which brings us to tsunamis and tidal waves,” I said, trying to change the subject to the YouTube rabbit hole I often find myself in. “I go from watching stupid people stand in rogue waves (CLICK HERE) to tsunamis (CLICK HERE). It fascinates me. Terrifies me. Gets my blood going. I literally can not stop watching them.”

After everyone at the table was equally horrified and/or grossed out, we were anxious to flip the page and bring on the next course.

Dessert, anyone?

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