On April 25, 1792, French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person to be executed by that wonderful French invention that made everyone lose their head, the guillotine. While the specifics on the crime the committed to earn such a distinction are somewhat lost to history, his Wiki page notes that the French citizens were somewhat underwhelmed by this new method of public execution as it was too swift and failed to properly entertain as much as more drawn out affairs like hanging, draw and quartering, or a good old manual decapitation. While we tend to associate the guillotine with late 1700’s Revolutionary era France and a more unenlightened time, the guillotine was still the legal method of execution in the country up until capital punishment was banned in 1981 as saw its last head drop in the ancient year of 1977…
And The Nest would be remiss if we didn’t mention that today is also the 16th anniversary of what I’ve considered to be the creation of this blog’s flagship character, Evil Squirrel. Without him, I am not here today to educate you on fun methods of execution or to answer the wonderful Share Your World questions Di has for us this week!
Have you ever attended a First Aid Course?
No. If you need urgent medical attention, I am the last person you want to need it around… as I not only am probably going to run for the hills, but with no cellphone I can’t even call someone who might save your ass…
Incidentally, we got one of those zapper things at Mecca now that’s supposed to help restart a heart if someone goes into cardiac arrest. Communication is always poor on the night shift, but we have been wondering if anybody in the store is even trained to use it…
Apart from grazed knees and applying a band aid, have you ever applied First Aid?
No, as I’m busy heading for the hills. I’ve had to tend to my own cuts at work before, and I don’t even like doing that, because………..
Are you squeamish about the sight of blood?
I’m squeamish at the mere mention of blood. Those ads they like to do on the radio for blood drives alone are enough to make me sick to my stomach. I can’t even look when they draw my blood for testing. And yes, if you’re familiar with the SCT stories I used to tell here, that is probably a major shock to you… but it’s true. For some reason, though, I can set aside my blood queasiness when it comes to cartoonish situations…
How far away is the nearest hospital?
I grew up just a couple blocks away from the hospital. Now it’s about a three mile drive from my house.
I just realized how well the SYW theme this week tied in to my historical fact about the guillotine…
Gratitude AI Image:
BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!