End note

One highlight of my vacation was canoeing across beautiful Echo Lake in northern Vermont. In the spot where we "put in" (did I get that right?) there's no beach -- just a small grassy hill with big rocks on either side, and more rocks where the grassy hill meets the water. When we were getting started the other day, the grass was dewy and the footing seemed a little tenuous, especially for someone (in this case, me) wearing flip flops and for someone (again, me) carrying one end of a canoe.

I figured that if I slipped, my head would have been this close to banging into any number of the aforementioned rocks.

"No problem," I said. "Seems perfectly safe."

Then I added, "Famous last words."

Which made me wonder if anyone has ever died immediately after saying, "Famous last words."