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Puts me in mind of this verse from 2 Kings 19:35: And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
Or in other words, they died in their sleep and woke up dead.
In 1911, the Springfield Republican reported that in 1910, 100 people woke up dead because of the motorcar, and 1100 were injured. I'm surprised so many were falling asleep in those uncomfortable, noisy contraptions.
First cite I can find for the phrase was an 1886 book about the Kalahari desert. They came across a hunter who jad apparently sey doen aside a bush to rest, and woke up dead,
Then in 1909, a guy is telling that his father had gone to bed feeling well, but woke up dead, unlike granps, who died suddenly at 103.
That's the way I want to die, all of a sudden, instead of dragging it out for hours or days. And it could well happen tonight. I have the thermostat turned high, nut my toes feel like they'll shatter like an icicle if one was to touch them, and the thermostat is all the way up, and my feet under the blankets for hours.
I neglected to mention the classic Monty Python sketch with similar phrases: The Pet Shop.
http://www.montypython.net/scripts/petshop.php
[...]
Customer: 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! He's f*ckin' snuffed it!..... THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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