7/2017
The movie Texas Chain Saw Massacre came out in 1974. Here a group of teenagers is stalked by ritualistic cannibals with chainsaws.
The movie Mash came out in 1970. It was a spoof on the Vietnam war through the venue of the Korean war. In the movie, a prime character had an episode of erectile dysfunction and became depressed about it. The Docs of the MASH unit in the film decided to help him along with a last supper type of farewell. A song, later to become the theme song of the movie was written for the part.
The film director’s son helped write the lyrics for the song, Suicide is Painless. He was 15 y/o. His dad, the director, made about $70,000 off his director duties and the son made over$1,000,000 off his contribution to the lyrics. The lyrics basically describe why the protagonist feels that suicide is OK.
So, what prompted all this is a recent patient that wanted to kill himself. With a chain saw. He failed. He did have a cut on his left shoulder just above the collar bone, where he tried to cut his head off with the chainsaw, that I had to repair.
Seems to me that a chain saw would not fit into the painless category.
Musings from your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.
Weary.