A Box of Rattlesnakes

Nobody puts together a better obituary section than the New York Times, and today, when it really counted, the writers didn't disappoint. The Evel Knievel quote that they set off in the print version perfectly captures his life in 13 words: "I knew I could draw a big crowd by jumping over weird stuff."

And while we all know about his jumps over the fountain at Caesar's Palace, the London buses, and the Snake River Canyon, leave it to the Times to get the details of his first, somewhat more modest, but no less weird, attempt:

When he was 27, he became co-owner of a motorcycle shop in Moses Lake, Wash. To attract customers, he announced he would jump his motorcycle 40 feet over parked cars and a box of rattlesnakes and continue on past a mountain lion tethered at the other end. Before 1,000 people, he did the stunt as promised but failed to fly far enough; his bike came down on the rattlesnakes. The audience was in awe.

Weren't we all. Rest in peace.