Pavarotti is kaput

This is how the news was announced to me by a Spanish friend this morning. It was awkward to be told a sad thing in a way which made me laugh. Kaput!

I have a colleague whose resting physical state at room temperature is "frenzy". She told me the other day about a death in the company. As she told me, her eyes were wild with astonishment and her hair twitched with the weight of an undropped bombshell. The gist of the conversation is reproduced below (some details have been changed to protect the dead).

Frenzied Colleague: You know Bob Dead, works in accounts in North America?

Bob Hughes: I know the name

FC: Young guy, not yet 40?

BH: Erm, yeah?

FC: he goes into hospital one day - and guess what? He never comes out! Died! Dead! Young guy just drops dead!

BH [smirking inappropriately]: wow, er, that's awful.

And it is awful. But the delivery was priceless, which made me feel like a sicko for wanting to laugh.

The fat man has sung.