| Author |
 Topic  |
|
Stalean 
"Back...OMG"
|
|
|
RockGolf
"1500+ reviews. 1 joke."
|
 Posted - 09/05/2006 : 13:27:11
|
| Went down, underwater |
 |
|
|
duh 
"catpurrs"
|
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 16:59:30
|
This time, for real. (Through the years there have been many false reports of Irwin's death and his website even had a page about that.)
"I have no fear of losing my life - if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it." |
|
|
|
ChocolateLady 
"500 Chocolate Delights"
|
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 20:45:05
|
| Six Feet down, underground! |
|
|
|
Markandlain
"Lacking in four sight"
|
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 22:19:55
|
Given Australia Zoo is only about 20 minutes away from our place, there is a major downer happening around here.
Flags at half mast. My wife was in tears. It's kind of the Queensland equivalent of John Lennon's murder. |
|
|
|
Chris C 
"Four words, never backwards."
|
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 22:38:54
|
It's kind of upsetting that somebody seemingly indestructible has gone. I suppose that it was fitting that he died doing something he loved, and that brought so much to others. 
Ray sting, peace.
|
Edited by - Chris C on 09/05/2006 22:48:36 |
|
|
|
duh
"catpurrs"
|
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 23:06:39
|
quote:
Originally posted by Markandlain
Given Australia Zoo is only about 20 minutes away from our place, there is a major downer happening around here.
Flags at half mast. My wife was in tears. It's kind of the Queensland equivalent of John Lennon's murder.
It is nice to hear that his countrymen are honoring him; I had the idea that perhaps Australians found him to be embarassing.
I'm proud to say that I used him as my avatar once. |
|
|
|
thefoxboy 
"Four your eyes only."
|
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 23:20:08
|
|
|
|
|
MguyX
"X marks the spot"
|
Posted - 09/06/2006 : 09:50:46
|
There are those who walk into the jaws of death. And there are those who invite it for dinner. Steve Irwin is a man who asked death, politely, to share a meal of excitement.
No, I never met the man. Though I would have liked to. Steve Irwin pulled from his heart the very thing that gave him life: the result of danger.
Last year there was a self-proclaimed bear conservationist named Timothy Treadwell. He was a ne'er do well who became a nature lover. But he didn't study nature as we know it: he thought to figure it out on his own, without the benefit of all those who have streived and died to do so. He was a smart ass. His fascination was bears. He wrote a book or two about his communion with the ursa majois of this world. He believed that he was one with the bears. He talked of bathing with them, and hunting with them. In a foretelling moment, he expressed a desire to die at the hands of them.
What he didn't do, was learn all about them, and their world, and their place in the world, and our place in their place in this world.
Timothy Treadwell took his adoring girlfriend with him to an Alaskan campsite and pitched his tent in the way of their excrement (for all you Yeats fans): he struck camp in the middle of a bear trail.
They had videocameras. And so there is the video and audio of some great bear mauling Treadwell, as his girlfriend yelled "Play dead! Play dead!" There is footage of her trying to fend off the bear with a frying pan.
Timothy and his girlfriend died. Because he put them both in the way of danger, not bothering to find out what the ecosystem and wild instinct dictate.
Steven Irwin was a conservationist extrordinaire. Quirky, with his "Crikey!" yell, he was a man of nature. He was educated in the ways of nature. With that knowledge he tested the bounds of nature's poisons -- never harming others -- but with an in-bred love of nature -- and with skill. To be true, the incidence of a stingray spike to his heart is a freak accident. Even for a man who dared poisonous snakes, and who wrestled crocodiles on a routine basis.
He wasn't just a daredevil.
He was a man with a mission. Steve Irwin's life was about the preservation of wildlife, not its subjugation. Steve Irwin's life was about awakening us all to the myriad secrects that life in the wild will ever promise us to give. Whoever wished and wanted to see him tackled by some croc knows now the folly of that desire. Steve was tackled by fate. By a creature who could not kill him. Like Achilles, he was tackled by a thorn.
Irwin's death is a lesson and a monument to us all. Steve lived an upright life in the wild. He bucked our convention, not nature's. He lived to tell us about our place in the wonderful biology of life.
When he pulled that barb from his heart, he showed us, once again, that we are masters of our fate, and that our fate is intrinsically linked with our mother, Earth.
There is no greater way to die. |
Edited by - MguyX on 09/06/2006 10:00:17 |
|
|
|
Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
|
Posted - 09/06/2006 : 11:58:04
|
| Inevitable, sooner or gator. |
|
|
|
Cheese_Ed
"The Provolone Ranger"
|
Posted - 09/06/2006 : 14:22:33
|
Steve: Urn in. |
|
|
|
Stalean
"Back...OMG"
|
Posted - 09/06/2006 : 15:01:38
|
quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
There is no greater way to die.
Very nice tribute, Mguyx. Steve will be sorely missed--especially by the people who 'got' his message of nature and protecting all that is beautiful. |
|
|
|
GHcool
"Forever a curious character."
|
Posted - 09/06/2006 : 17:32:22
|
Crocodile Done-dee.
See you later, alligator. |
|
|
|
Conan The Westy
"Father, Faithful Friend, Fwiffer"
|
Posted - 09/06/2006 : 21:21:39
|
quote:
Originally posted by duh
quote:
Originally posted by Markandlain
Given Australia Zoo is only about 20 minutes away from our place, there is a major downer happening around here.
Flags at half mast. My wife was in tears. It's kind of the Queensland equivalent of John Lennon's murder.
It is nice to hear that his countrymen are honoring him; I had the idea that perhaps Australians found him to be embarassing.
It's been the major topic in my Grade 6 class over the past two days. His family have been offered a state funeral and I haven't seen so many flowers at a site since August 31, 1997.
Sure many Aussies cringed at him being so Aussie he was almost a caricature but the majority thought of him with affection.
Having seen his zoo a few years back I can vouch for his acumen. He may have appeared a clown at times but he was a shrewd operator or smart enough to employ others to cover his weaknesses.
There was one particular article by Aussie ex-pat Germaine Greer which started off with a few backhanded tributes but ended with as much toxic venom as many of the dangerous critter Irwin delighted in handling. However I doubt she'll be missed in the way Steve is.
This article replying to Greer's diatribe is worth a read.. |
Edited by - Conan The Westy on 09/06/2006 21:31:04 |
|
|
|
Willy Weasel 
"Look left and right."
|
Posted - 09/06/2006 : 22:29:37
|
I wouldn't worry about Ms Greer Conan, she makes a living out of being controversial. Her biggest achievement is to have given feminism a bad name. I hadn't heard of Steve Irving before today, I think Benj took down the main news server in Devon.  I do recall seeing Steve at a friend's house prodding snakes with a stick. I had no idea he was so well known, and comparisons with John Lennon and Princess Diana's deaths strike me as bizarre. My brother pointed out that it is good that a conservationist is getting so much respect paid, but I fear it is more down to his celebrity status in line with Paul Hogan and Barry Humphries before him. One Aussie representative I would remove my hat for and who will deserve this amount of grief is good old Rolfie. I recently saw a catalogue of his paintings and he appears able to emulate the style of many of the great painters. His works are finally fetching prices they deserve. Anyway, it is sad that the man died and unlucky as to the circumstances. I think MguyX's tribute was well thought out too, unlike Germaine's clumsy attack on a man no longer able to respond. Obviously she doesn't give a shit for his widow - so much for sisterhood. |
|
|
|
thefoxboy
"Four your eyes only."
|
|
|
Topic |
|
RIP Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter)
