[Chris]

A 23 year old woman was arrested in Memphis, Tennesee last week for the death of her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend had accused her of stealing MP3's and apparently decided to take justice into his own hands by deleting over 2,000 of her songs from her iPod. Enraged by the loss of three months of downloading, she promptly lost it, stabbing him to death with her iPod!!!

The boyfriend died from "40 to 80 blows to the head from the iPod," said the coroner, "His death was not instantaneous, that's for sure."

First road rage, then air rage, now iPod rage. It's a shame someone has to die a gruesome death for me to laugh, but if the death occurs anyway - I'm gonna laugh.

Here's the story.

[Mr. Gary]

I don't think I've **EVER** laughed quite that hard at someone else's misfortune before. Man, I'm so goin' to hell ... [/b]

[Chris]

Glad to have you aboard, Gary.

I think what really made the story work for me was that she bludgeoned him to death with the cause for the argument. If she had just shot him, then it's funny, but not hilarious. Because she used the very instrument that was the root of the problem to both solve it and bring forth a problem anew (I'm not sure if that grammatically stands up, but I like the way it sounds), it really resonates as a story with an arc. It's almost beautiful.

[Mr. Gary]

Well, of course -- the story wouldn't be nearly as humorous if the end result was anything less than a severe bludgeoning via the exact iPod in question.

What Big Matt and I and another co-worker were trying to figure out at work today, however, was how exactly this woman was able to strike her boyfriend about the head that many times with an iPod? I mean, wouldn't you figure that after the first four or five, he'd get pissed and do something about it? We're assuming she planted the first shot right in the temple or something, putting him in a nice state of unconsciousness.

I will say this, though - that story is unintentionally GREAT press for Apple. I mean, seriously, it sounds like that iPod held up after something like 40 shots to that guy's skull, meaning that folks sure as hell won't be breaking one by dropping it a few times (because folks like me are clumsy and need to worry about those things).

[Chris]

I suspect it was either one of two things. Possibly, like you suggest, the first shot was so powerful that it knocked him down and the fight was over early. Unfortunately, she did not hear the bell and he suffered.

My other thought is it could have been that the boyfriend simply didn't take getting attacked by an iPod very seriously. I mean, come on. If your angry girlfriend starts hitting your chest with her iPod because of something you did, and you don't view the iPod as a threat, are you going to hit her back? Or are you going to weakly defend yourself until she stops spazzing out? Then, out of nowhere - BOOM - two or three shots to the head. You go down confused. Trying to gather you senses, she knocks you another half-dozen times to the noggin. At this point you finally realize, "Hey! This iPod thing might actually hurt me!" but it's too late.

[Mr. Gary]

I can TOTALLY see the RIAA using this as a PSA.

"Illegally downloading music KILLS."

Heh.