[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Didn't Bierce writh another story about a sniper who took aim at an enemy when a shell hit the house he was in.
When the smoke cleared away he found himself trapped under the wreckage with his rifle pointd straight at his head.

[1L]

They made a film version of this. I saw it in high school (or maybe late jr. high). I don't think I read it until college, though.

[BigCinBigD]

Damn Yankees.

[Bon mots]

I always thought Bierce copied the idea of this story from the less popular, but slightly earlier "The Piazza" by Herman Melville.

I have to admit, that Bierce's story is better. It always seems to appear around Halloween time each year... great story.

Years later, Hemingway copied the idea with the "Snows of Kilimanjaro".

[Larry Lucido]

Tie-land?

[Malsua]

Farquat, that the guy in Shrek?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

" There was no additional strangulation; the noose about his neck was already suffocating him and kept the water from his lungs. To die of hanging at the bottom of a river!—the idea seemed to him ludicrous."

I had a similar feeling when I had open heart surgery in 1990.
I was coming out of anesthesia with pipes in my throat and grease in my eyes. suddenly, there was a great thunderclap and all power went off. I threw up and sucked the vomit into my lungs as I beat on the side of the bed to get attention. As the interns worked on me,I thought of the irony, "Great! I had survived the surgery only to die of a power failure."
Then the backup generators kicked in. The intern did get a "dressing down" from the head nurse due to his slow response.

[Rockingham]

"Bitter Bierce" is one of my favorite writers.