Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Charged with Stupidity

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Darwin awards?

If not, allow me to educate you . . .

These rather spectacular awards do not involve any kind of prize because most, if not all, of the people who achieve top status don’t live to brag about it. ‘Darwin’ awards are for those who, through their own foolish actions, take themselves out of the gene pool.

Most are cringe-worthy. Some downright shocking.

Some, fairly laugh-able.

This is my favourite:

Larry decided he wanted to witness life from a few feet in the air. Say 30 or so.

With this in mind, he roped a folding, aluminum lawn chair to the ground then tied 45 weather balloons to it. He buckled himself in for ‘safety’ with a BB gun to shoot at the balloons when he was satisfied with defying gravity and wanted to come back to earth . . . and cut his anchor rope.

He definitely went up.

But not to the 30 feet he had been anticipating.

Nope. He zoomed up to 15,000 feet.

Justifiably terrified, Larry hesitated shooting out any of his balloons, not knowing how quickly such an action would bring him back to earth. Thus, shivering with cold in his lawn chair, and clutching his gun to himself out of fear and the fact that his cold hands simply wouldn’t let go, he drifted into LA airspace.

And was reported by passing aircraft intent on landing.

I can just picture the cockpit conversations: “Erm, base? We have an armed interloper floating through our airspace in a lawn chair. Response?

Helicopters were sent out to investigate/rescue the hapless man.

Sadly, they couldn’t seem to get close. Every time they approached, their whirring blades blew him away from them.

Finally, they decided to try coming down on him from above and managed to get a line to him and pull him in.

Back on the ground, he was immediately arrested.

What was his crime? Trespassing? Posing an armed threat? Unconventional use of weather balloons and/or lawn chairs?

Myself? I think he should have been charged with stupidity and leave it at that.


Today is National Stupid Guy Thing Day. Seriously.

What an untapped treasure trove!

Go and see what the other entrants have concocted!

Karen at Baking in a Tornado

8 comments:

  1. I hate to say it, but in a crazy, mixed up way, it made sense. Alas, thank God I don't work for NASA.

    ReplyDelete
  2. He was very lucky that he didn't achieve a Darwin award. We have several of the books from the series and are blown away at just how stupid some people can be/were...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amazing he lived to breathe another day. I'm sure he must have wet his pants.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I remember when yearly emails circulated with the award winners and "honorable mentions". I didn't know they were still awarding these but I just looked and they are! Awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, i've heard of Darwin awards, and of Stupid Guy Thing day. Sometimes the way men think just boggles the imagination. Or maybe it's the way they don't think.

    ReplyDelete
  6. If he had thought it through, he could have shot one or two balloons at a time until he began descending, that way it wouldn't be a high speed drop.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh my goodness, what makes (male) people come up with ideas like this? And why can't they do a mini test flight in their neighborhood first?
    In Australia we talked to tour bus drivers who used to be national park rangers. They said they were so over rescuing stupid tourists hiking in flip-flops, not bringing any water or sun protection,...

    ReplyDelete

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