I was sad to hear today that Evel Knievel has passed on. I don’t know how many of you can relate, but as a plaid-plagued child of the 70s I remember receiving for Christmas an official Evel Knievel stunt set. This basically consisted of a plastic stand upon which you mounted a 12-inch EK doll on his signature motorcycle. Then you wound this crank on the side until the gear inside reached a fever pitch (the sound of which could ultimately only be heard by dogs) and flipped a switch. The motorcycle then jetted off to do many interesting EK stunts (mostly involving going about 3 feet and then falling over and doing sideways donuts on the floor). In any case I had seen the movies and my imagination was more than enough to fill in the childhood entertainment gap.
Of course, regardless of what the news outlets have said, he could have died of only one thing: bad-assness.
Yes, the same ailment that took John Wayne, Johnny Cash, and will someday claim Ted Nugent. Bad-assness.
In my secret heart of hearts I, too, want to expire due to an over abundance of bad-asseness…but I fear it it will not be so.
Goodbye, Evel Knievel. You will be missed.
