Today’s Most Interesting Headline
No Poison Found in Legendary Poet’s Remains
That is such an intriguing headline. But isn’t Rod McKuen still alive? And why would anyone want to kill him? Is Hallmark still stuck with a long-term contract?
What other poets had enemies? Was Robert Browning hoping to bump off Elizabeth so he could marry Queen Victoria? Probably not, but I just sold the script to the History Channel.
What about Heinrich Heine? In the 19th century, the customary treatment for syphilis was mercury. So, if there was no poison in his system, Heine was the victim of medical malpractice.
Would anyone poison Lord Byron? I think that we could narrow the list of suspects down to cuckolded husbands, betrayed mistresses, the cricket teams at Cambridge, and everyone else in Europe. However, the headline was not about him!
Pablo Neruda’s death coincided with the overthrow of the Allende government. Most of the deaths at that time in Chile were not coincidences if you happened to support Allende. Neruda must have been a lucky exception.