What a Way to Go

Okay, show of hands. (Be honest!) When you first heard that “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin was killed over the weekend, wasn’t your first thought “Did a croc get him?” I know mine was.

Don’t get me wrong – I feel bad for the guy, and twice as sad for his wife and kids. But you had to figure that one of those ‘biggun crocs’ finally had enough of being his 3-ringed circus star, and revolted in a way that only a set of humongously powerful jaws can do. Snap, snap, bye-bye baby. Just like the Gingerbread Man.

But no – it was a freak accident with a stingray, which I suspect has a whole lot of people out snorkeling at Stingray City in the Cayman Islands a little bit nervous this AM. The Lovely Mrs. G. and I swam with stingrays in Grand Cayman a couple of years back, and we both came away thinking they were fairly docile creatures, with the only thing really on their little jelly-esque minds was where to find some free lunch. As long as you didn’t step on them, they were pretty gentle. So it must’ve just been a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So I’m sorry to see Steve go like that. I wasn’t a huge fan of his show, but he really did a lot to present nature to kids who probably wouldn’t ever have a chance to see a giant crocodile in the wild. And if you can say anything good about his passing, it’s that he went quickly, and he died doing what he loved. Not too many people will meet their maker and be able to say that they went out on top.

Still, given the choice of being shivved by a stingray and dying peacefully in my sleep, I’ll take the eternal nap any time.