Occasionally going to class is worthwhile...

...because you get to learn interesting little tidbits of history...

So, as relatively educated people, I'm sure most of you have heard of Jeremy Bentham. If you have not...well, he was a 19th century British philosopher, tutor to the infamous John Stuart Mill and a so to speak "Big Wig" at the University of London, primarily in the philosophy as well as a Professor of Juris Prudence.

All that being said...he was a rather important man. A Stephen Hawking of his day, if you will. Well...all lives, no matter how great or how influential, come to an end. And his did. I guess he was about 70. But one of the unique thing about very important people is that, when they die, their last wishes often get carried out. Basically...they get what they want. In most cases, this is good. I think everyone deserves to have their last wishes fulfilled and I think this is twice as applicable to those who contributed great things to humanity.

Except in the case of the British, 'cus as Bentham has proved (and as I will tell you) those people are a special kind of crazy.

In Bentham's will, he requested a few things. Among them was not to be cremated or buried but to be STUFFED LIKE A PHEASANT. Furthermore, he wanted his body to lie permanently in state at the University of London. And it gets worse. He also requested that his body not lie flat on his back as any respectable dictator would (you know...Lenin, Mao Tse-Tung). Nonono...Bentham requested that his body be contorted so that he could sit on a throne like chair inside a glass encasing that I'm going to refer to henceforth as the Benthamobile. As if that's not enough...want to take a wild guess at what the last, creepiest and most important of all his requests was? Bentham wanted the Benthamobile wheeled into every meeting of the Board of Trustees of the U. of London for the rest of the university's existance. I bet Ben Ladner wouldn't have embezzled if he had to stare down Jeremy Bentham on a monthly basis.

Those Brits may heart their dead philosophers, but that, ladies and gentleman, is the truest definition of power that I have ever heard.