O-Bits: Bringing Out The Dead Edition

We can agree halfway with this Forbes story that claims cell phones and marijuana are killing American pedestrians. We’ve seen people looking down at their phones as their about to cross the street, narrowly escaping a car making a turn. But marijuana. Given the strenghth of most of today’s weed, we think all but the most seasoned pot smokers probably stay inside, locked to their couches. Of course, if anyone gets behind the wheel stoned, they deserve whatever hell traffic court can send their way. (I leave out one friend who has smoked consistently since their teens, and is a calmer, more rational person for it. For them, I might go to court and testify we’re all better off if their stoned. Anyone else, throw the book at them).

In Port Harcourt, Nigeria, the hospital mortuary has a problem: more than 800 unclaimed corpses are stored there—some for more than a decade—and they’re running out of room. To solve the problem, they’ve issued a order that, unless the bodies are claimed in 14 days, they will be subject to a mass burial.

Finally, TMZ reports that Charles Manson was cremated yesterday, after an open casket ceremony. Good riddance, we say!

Steven Mirkin

Steven Mirkin’s diverse career has taken him from politics to pop culture to high art, offering him a front row seat to some of the most fascinating events and personalities of our time: writing speeches, fundraising appeals and campaign materials for Ed Koch, John Heinz and independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson; chronicling the punk/new wave scenes in New York and London; interviewing musicians such as Elton John, John Lydon and Buck Owens; profiling modern masters Julian Schnabel, Paul Schrader and Jonathan Safran Foer; and writing for TV shows including 21, The Chamber, Let's Make A Deal, and Rock Star: INXS.