Death Fears

Two big death fears among my friends are that their brains will suddenly implode or they will spontaneously combust. No one has actually admitted these fears to me, so I might be projecting a bit.

Unfortunately, the medical literature doesn’t address imploding brains. Too bad. However, there is good news with respect to spontaneous combustion. According to John Heymer in his book, The Entrancing Flame, victims of spontaneous human combustion apparently remain motionless while on fire, show no awareness of burning, and die peacefully. A nice way to go.

Parking in America

I suspect your brimming with excitement knowing the National Parking Association has released its first annual Parking in America survey of parking rates in the U.S. and Canada.

The report provides rates for stashing your jalopy in 131 markets across the United States and Canada, representing nearly 7,400 facilities with over 2.1 million parking spaces.

First-hour central business district parking rates vary from $4 (Milwaukee, Wis., Tulsa, Okla., Springfield, Mo., Salt Lake City, Bellevue, Wash., and Arlington, Va) to $16 (Century City, Calif.). Brooklyn, N.Y., at $15 and Boston at $14.25 follow Century City as having the most expensive first-hour parking rates.

New York, N.Y. leads the pack for highest monthly parking rate of $478.75.

The report is interesting to scan if only to toss out a random quip from time to time, such as “Betcha don’t know what five bucks can get ya in Austin? Well it won’t be an hour of parking. That’ll set you back $8.”