Here is another nominee for the 1997 Darwin Award. For those who don't know, the Darwin Award is an annual commendation given posthumously to the individual whose withdrawal from the gene pool significantly advances human evolution.

Apparently, a man upset after a spat with his girlfriend decided to grab a six-pack and search for some solitude from which to engage in some constructive self-examination. Public service officials later pieced the story together.

Driving along I-91 south of Hartford, Connecticut, the fellow spied a metal power transmission line tower and decided that would do. There he sat, 60 feet above the highway, drinking his beer and pondering the mysteries of the universe. After 5 beers though, he needed to do what most people need to do after 5 beers.

The 150,000 volts of electricity arced straight to his highly- conductive stream, traveled up it to its highly-grounded source, and blew the poor dumb shmuck clean off the tower.

Power company personnel observed a momentary outage on this line and sent a crew to investigate. They arrived on the scene to find on the ground a dead man, his fly down, and what little was left of his instrument still smoking. On the top of the tower they found a single unfinished beer.

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Top 8 comments heard at the scene:

8. "Talk about a weenie roast..."

7. "I guess fried stuff really will kill you...."

6. "He died with his boots on, but...."

5. "I've heard of a Johnson fuse, but..."

4. "One hell of a blowjob...."

3. "What a way 'to go'..."

2. "Ouch..."

...and the #1 comment heard at the scene:

1. "So...anyone going to drink that?"