Oh, Dear
Posted on January 31, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 16 Comments
John M Scalzi dies in head-on car accident.
Clearly, not me. Nor my father, for that matter, as the age is wrong and he doesn’t live in Massachusetts. And as far as I know he’s no direct relation to me. Very sad nonetheless. Also, of course, disconcerting to discover that someone who has your name right down to the middle initial has died.
Don’t feel bad, man, it was him or you.
Probably not. There are several John Scalzis that I know about personally, in any event; so far as I know none of us is in open competition.
Wow. That beats my “same name” story all to heck.
Here’s mine anyway – roughly summarized:
When I was teaching writing at UTC a few years ago, I had a student who was in a car wreck. He was eventually okay, but laid up for awhile … and he asked permission to send me his paper a week late – over spring break. I told him “sure,” that he could email it to me.
The last day or two of spring break, I got a very strange email from a woman whose email address was *almost* exactly the same as mine. She went on to tell me that a student of mine had submitted a paper to her, and she’d been confused.
His name didn’t ring any bells. He said he was in her 10:00 writing session, but she didn’t see him on the roster. He said I told him it was okay, but she couldn’t remember this conversation to save her life. Eventually, between the two of them, they deduced that the paper had been erroneously submitted to the wrong Cherie Priest, who had a very similar email address, and was a writing teacher at an altogether different university in another state.
It was true. I looked into it.
Weirded me out, it did.
I’d be looking over my shoulder if I were you. According to that horror movie out now (which looks so bad that I have apparently mentally blocked out the name) if you cheat death he apparantly holds a grudge and kills in a horribly photogenic way. I’d stay away from bowling ball factories for a while.
Congratulations. You are now the Ken Bruen of science fiction.
A couple years ago, after Ken won his Shamus for THE GUARDS, the Galway council moved to have a vote of sympathy for him. Then someone pointed out they only did that for dead people.
Then, a year later, the Bureau of Inland Revenue inquired as to when his wife wanted to do the accounting of her late husband’s estate.
However, I’ve seen Ken eat garlic and have gone drinking with him in the daytime. So he’s not a vampire.
Um… John? The only time I’ve talked to you in person was after dark. Something you want to tell us?
I read your blog through LiveJournal’s RSS aggregator, which puts everything into my journal style. I tend to start reading entry text before making note of the name of the journal or feed. Thus, when that headline popped up, I didn’t initially realize that it was you posting it and got quite a shock.
My sympathies to his loved ones. I’m glad it wasn’t you.
Let me see if I’ve got this straight; John Scalzi is dead, but you’re still writing.
Are you trying to say that “Old Man’s War” is about emotional truth? ;)
Or, you are blogging from Beyond the Grace.
The hazards of Googling yourself… you will find your own obituary…
If a big, robotic-acting guy knocks on your door and asks “Are you John M. Scalzi?” the correct answer, clearly, is NO.
Hi John
I found another John Scalzi:
Call #: TA684 .B82 1968
Author: Bresler, Boris.
Title: Design of steel structures Boris Bresler, T.Y. Lin, John B. Scalzi.
Publisher: New York Wiley 1968.
Pages: 830 p. : ill.
Subject: Steel, Structural.
Building, Iron and steel.
Add. Author: Lin, T’ung-yen. Scalzi, John B.
Note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
You can now rightfully use a quote from another famous author.
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
– Mark Twain
A friend of mine got a phone call about his dad dying in their home state. The name, hometown, year of birth, spouse’s name and military service written on the obituary matched and were almost identical to his dad. It was surreal as he called home and his dad answered the phone like it was an episode of the Twilight Zone. Coincidence? There is a very high probability of having the same name as another person. Also, the probability of dying in a car accident is a lot higher than getting killed by a terrorist.
I had a similar experience when I was ten or eleven. My grandmother and I were in the car, and she asked me to read her the obits list from the front page of the local paper. I couldn’t. There was a Mary S. (same middle name as me!) Adkins listed. When we reached our destination, we opened the paper and found out it was a woman in her eighties. I wish I’d saved that just for the freakishness factor.
Every time we get pulled over- which is a lot, because I tend to have a drug-induced weave to my driving- we get surrounded by police. My husband has the same name- down to the middle initial- of some dude who quite literally got away with murder in Alabama in 1991. The tension is huge, until one of the officers figures out that my husband isn’t black.
Hi+there%21+Just+couldn%
ya… I got into a accident! and Im dead now! Im dead… but Im still alive!