[lit-ideas] Re: Next up: Hymie "Al" Zawahiri
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- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 3 May 2011 09:13:17 +0200
On 2-May-11, at 9:33 PM, Eric Yost wrote:
Too bad Bin’s skeleton won’t be given to the Smithsonian. They could
have dressed him up. Like Jeremy Bentham, only evil.
My academic ambitions suffered a serious setback in the mid 1980's
when the chair of the department to which I was then affiliated
responded to my query as to whether, should I become comparably
famous, and (probably more importantly) wealthy enough to bequeath a
significant sum to the university, the department would deign to house
a cabinet containing my preserved remains mounted (in leathers, of
course) on my beloved 1981 BMW R100CS which would be opened, thus
giving me nominal presence, at department meetings, with a resounding,
"NO!"
For those who do not know the story of Bentham in his cabinet: at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham
one can (accompanied by a photo of the 'body' in its cabinet) read the
following:
"As requested in his will, Bentham's body was dissected as part of a
public anatomy lecture. Afterward, the skeleton and head were
preserved and stored in a wooden cabinet called the "Auto-icon", with
the skeleton stuffed out with hay and dressed in Bentham's
clothes. ... It is normally kept on public display at the end of the
South Cloisters in the main building of [University College London],
but for the 100th and 150th anniversaries of the college, it was
brought to the meeting of the College Council, where it was listed as
'present but not voting'.
The Auto-icon has a wax head, as Bentham's head was badly damaged in
the preservation process. The real head was displayed in the same case
for many years but became the target of repeated student pranks. It is
now locked away securely."
Chris Bruce,
'present but
not voting', in
Kiel, Germany
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