How do you want to die?
Happy Friday! Let’s talk about this!
We have a relatively new database up on STLtoday that describes the ways people in Missouri and Illinois have died. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction to the database, which you can explore by clicking this link:
More than 150,000 people die each year in Missouri and Illinois. The information comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which compiles mortality data for the U.S. from death certificates in each state. Some deaths occur from multiple causes, but an overarching cause is determined for almost all deaths. More than 36,000 people in Missouri and Illinois died of some form of cancer in 2004. In St. Louis City, Jackson County, Mo., and Cook County, Ill., more people died from homicides than motor vehicle accidents in 2004.
In my home county in 2004, for example, 10,712 people died. Of those, the lion’s share were by what is described as “natural causes.” Ischemic heart disease was the leading single cause with 2,529 deaths.
I intend to live a good long life and then die in my sleep quietly at home; it isn’t going to be a surprise to anyone. Wish me luck with that.
How do you want to go?
Kurt is the director of social media for the Post-Dispatch, where he has worked since August 2002. He's been a journalist since 1982, covering municipal government, courts, education and two hurricanes as a reporter before becoming an editor. 
An hero.
I want to go whistling by the graveyard.
In the arms of the only woman that I ever loved. If that happens I know that I will have spent my last minute on this earth very happy.
Hopefully of a heart attack in my sleep. I live alone so I hope someone finds me rapidly. I don’t want to lie there and stink for a week.
Ms. Knowitall… How can you be Ms. Knowitall when my ex-wife knew it all?
Right after I leave the confessional,or in the confessional.
Fast and painless, doing one of the many things I love! (I’ll forgo the fast and painless part if I am fortunate to be doing one of the many things I love)
I want this topic to die so we can move on to something else!
I want to go to sleep and just never wake up
Jamming to some tunes