It's holidaysandhappilyeverafters — Meenakshi Moorthy, 30, and Vishnu Viswanath, 29 — a married couple with a lovely Instagram account.
They have been identified as the bodies found at the bottom of a 3,500-foot cliff in Yosemite National Park, the NY Post reports.
“Diagnosed with the ‘curious case of interminable travel bug’ and a huge believer of ‘happily-ever-afters,’ we share with y’all our holiday escapades, travel hacks, tips (and quips!),” read a description of the couple’s blog, “Holidays & Happily Ever Afters.” “I will be also shining my pink light of positivity from time to time, on what can get use close to the ever elusive ‘happily-ever-afters,’ or whatever that sh-t means.”ADDED: From the NBC report, here, I see that the bodies were found 800 feet below the lookout point. It wasn't a 3,500-foot fall. Also, the husband's brother "said the couple had set up their tripod near the ledge," which supports the inference that they were posing for a selfie (not deliberately leaping).
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76 comments:
Watch "The Eiger Sanction" sometime. It has a terrible plot but the stars do their own mountain climbing stunts which makes the movie gripping. You feel like Clint Eastwood is your friend risking his life.
I posted a link to that story in the pancake thread.
"Doing what you love."
No selfie is worth a life.
Better than choking to death on pancakes.
There was a story in the WaPo a couple years back that said that about half of all selfie-related deaths occurred in India. I guess in this case, they outsourced it. Sad.
Also, what are Indians doing using the word "y'all"? Cultural appropriation, big time!
I notice that Althouse got the last two posts from the New York Post.
I used them as part of the centerpiece of today's blog post on TMR.
I don't do Darwin Awards.
You can tell the morons by all the stickers they use in their posts.
Also by the stupid shit they do.
Had they yet procreated?
You couldn't pay me enough to stand near the edge of a 3500 foot cliff. And I would note that 'near' is probably a lot further away for me than most of you. You might call it a phobia.
Nikki Haley. Apu. Now them.
I pray for those guys that post ads on your site in the comments.
Did anyone else see the Silicon Valley op-ed earlier in the week by the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who indicates that the "Devil is in our screens"? That these social media execs are keeping their young children as far away from their own product as possible? That - as I've heard quoted - social media is killing us?
Well...I give you people's exhibit A. Yes, people are literally dying for likes on snapchat and Instagram. I don't know what system in the human psyche is being short-circuited by social media, but something is definitely haywire.
Suicide pact or accident?
The photos they took are really beautiful. wow.
"Mother Nature doesn't care if you're having fun." ~ Larry Neville
I once hiked to Angels Landing in Zion Park. My friends talked me into it, and I had no idea what I was getting into. It includes holding onto a chain on a narrow path with people going in both directions. One false move is an instant fatality (which happens occasionally). The view was spectacular, and it was a great sense of achievement. But I would never do it again.
Selfies are not necessarily selfish. You could say that they died in pursuit of beauty. In the annals and aesthetics of stupid deaths, I would give this more dignity and worth than being strangled by a pancake.......Just about every person buried under those endless rows of little white crosses at Ypres and the Somme died a more foolish and unnecessary death than these selfie overdosers.
At instagram.com/womenwhoexplore/ there are more puppies than POCs!
They died doing what they loved: taking ridiculously dangerous photographs with zero safety precautions, so that less than 2,000 people would approve of the photograph(s)...which they were presumably not monetarily compensated for taking.
Not the way I'd want to go...but did you see all those likes?
taking ridiculously dangerous photographs with zero safety precautions,
I scrolled thru all their pics and only one looked dangerous: skydiving.
Live by Instagram. Die by Instagram.
"which they were presumably not monetarily compensated for taking."
I wonder about that, too. Travel is incredibly expensive. The money has to come from somewhere.
One or both of them were rather good photographers.
And as above, none I saw were obviously dangerous other than the skydiving photo. .
Travel can be expensive, but not incredibly so.
If you are a two-income tech-industry couple you are in the $200-$300,000 income ballpark and can afford quite a lot of travelling, especially in the US, as most of their pictures indicate.
And as above, none I saw were obviously dangerous other than the skydiving photo. .
You don't see the route they had to take to get to that photogenic spot.
Stay home.
Just about every person buried under those endless rows of little white crosses at Ypres and the Somme died a more foolish and unnecessary death than these selfie overdosers.
Just wanted to take this opportunity to say I couldn't disagree more.
I see "William" has a blank profile. Pretty obnoxious comment.
Now, if you wanted to make a comment about Douglas Haig< I might support you but I suspect you don't even know who he is.
I've walked among. those crosses and I think you're full of shit.
I put these two with the other folks who lose their homes, or their kids, or themselves, with nothing in common but a NewAge culture run amok, keeping a shallow society unwilling to look beyond it's surface.
I realize it's not easy to see the "logic" behind "the conspiracy theory that led to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting" but there is, and the better we grasp it, the less likely such catastrophes are to continue. I say, we let it happen, because we refuse to do otherwise.
These are not accidents.
I have told this story here before, I think. On a trip to the Grand Canyon with my youngest sister, I walked right to the edge of a cliff that you can look down several hundred feet- literally with my toes over the edge so that I could look down. I did this without thinking about it- I don't have a fear of heights to any significant degree. However, later that day my sister flayed me verbally for doing so because it scared the shit of her. I quit doing that right then even though I didn't really understand her complaint- or rather I thought she was being unnecessarily emotional about it. A few years later while on a trip with her to Hawaii, we were snorkeling in a bay on Oahu and she returned to the boat without telling me that she had done so- one minute she was there a few yards away, the next moment I couldn't find her in the water anywhere. I really thought she might have drowned. I can't remember any feeling I have had in my life worse than that sense of dread for those few minutes before I realized she was on the boat.
I don't think they deserved to die for their reckless use of emojis, but God makes Her own plan.
@tim/Vermont: Didn't know the stars in The Eiger Sanction did their own stunts. Very interesting!
I can't argue with you about the plot - but so what? Any movie that has both Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy is worth seeing!
I'm sure many of those men at Ypres and Somme died fitting and proper deaths in the service of their country. I'm not knocking them. I suppose they died in defense of their country, but the post mortem results were Bolshevism, fascism and WWII. I repeat that their deaths were foolish and unnecessary. If Petain had not rallied the mutinous troops, it would have been far better for France (and for the long term reputation of Petain).
I've mentioned this before, but "Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon" is a fantastic book about the many ways people have been dying in the GC since it was discovered by a bunch of white guys. Who mostly proceeded to die in the GC.
Buy it through the amazon portal of Ms. Althouse.
-XC
On a recent visit to Crater Lake I saw a large sign that stated: "Warning: Falls can cause injury or death".
What It Really Means to Be Open-Minded
It's not what most people think - and that's why shit's so fucked-up.
"Ironically, it's usually those accusing their critics of being closed-minded that tend to be the most closed. They are closed to the possibility that they are wrong."
When explaining tax planning strategies to my clients, they sometimes ask why I don't recommend doing 'X', since 'X' is something the client's golfing buddy had reportedly done. I explain that what I've recommended is like going to the Grand Canyon and stopping at a view area and walking up to the railing to enjoy the view. A nice, safe, view. What golfing buddy did was step over the railing, walk out to the edge of the canyon and dangle his toes over the edge. Safe? With the sandy, friable soils in the area, its not very safe and the view's not all that much better than it is from the other side of the railing.
Most of my clients 'get it' and don't opt for something for more aggressive than what I recommend. I sounds like this couple would have been fine with the most aggressive strategies available.
"Ironically, it's usually those accusing their critics of being closed-minded that tend to be the most closed. They are closed to the possibility that they are wrong."
Hell, yes!
I will assume someone slipped, someone reached to help, and both went over.
In my day, there would've been one left, holding the other's beer.
@Yancey Ward,
That was a very cruel way for her to get back at you.
I see she mentions depression in her Instagram account, so I hope that had nothing to do with this.
Bless them both. I'm sorry their ever after was so very short.
If you do this above a really big drop then if you fall you'll have some time to think about the wisdom of your choice on the way down.
Unless you're terminally nerdy, in which case you'll use your descent time to calculate how many seconds you have left.
Yancey Ward said...
"On a trip to the Grand Canyon with my youngest sister, I walked right to the edge of a cliff that you can look down several hundred feet- literally with my toes over the edge so that I could look down. I did this without thinking about it- I don't have a fear of heights to any significant degree."
Quite peculiar. I have a very strong fear of heights, to the point I have trouble with tall ladders. I have always assumed this is because I am descended from a long line of people who did not fall to their deaths. But it seems strange that some people would be completely without this protective mechanism, if it is so important.
some advice from Van Halen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq-potK_7Ts
Actually, one of the people I am descended from damned near to died when the tall ladder he was on fell over, leaving him hanging from a second-story gutter over a concrete patio. But I was scared of heights well before that happened.
They are closed to the possibility that they are wrong.
Like people who are obsessed about reparations, for example. . .
We took the kids up to Glacier Point near the trail to Taft Point. GP and the vistas were awe inspiring. In reading about “fissures” on the way to Taft Point I decided it was not worth the angina having 3 boys pushing the limits.
Darrell said...
They are closed to the possibility that they are wrong.
"Like people who are obsessed about reparations, for example. . ."
When any of you can claim a better understanding of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Black Civil Rights Movement, then I will defer to your claim I'm "obsessed", and y'all ain't just continuing to be racist bastards, as you have been for the previous 350 years to my birth.
Keep ignoring that statue you built to MLK, as it keeps reminding me of your betrayal of him, as well.
Martin Luther King was obsessed? And Darrell knows more about race and justice than he did - naturally.
It seems everybody understands race but whites talking shit about it.
I like that fucking with me never triggers the idea y'all fuck with a black guy for sport. You can be as racist as you want and - in a white environment - you can get away with murder.
If you were around blacks, you would be scared to be called a racist - all of you have admitted it: you're racist cowards.
"Republican: A conservative, who's scared to be called a 'racist,' but not enough to stop being one."
The first line of my next blog post.
Blacks, considering the party, ought to know.
mockturtle said...
On a recent visit to Crater Lake I saw a large sign that stated: "Warning: Falls can cause injury or death".
As long as the NewAge mantra that "you can believe what you want to believe" is allowed to hold sway, you can post all the signs you want and, you know, they won't mean a God damned thing - so why waste the money?
Everything happens for a reason, right?
I love irony.
Crack Emcee said, "and y'all ain't just continuing to be racist bastards, as you have been for the previous 350 years to my birth."
I am pretty sure not a single white person that comments on Althouse has been a racist for over 350 years.
I am just an average white guy that works hard to take care of my family. However, my relatives fought slavery in West Virginia and then moved to the Kansas territory to fight slavery again. You seem pretty comfortable lumping my current actions (average white Republican) in with people that held slaves long ago. I just don't understand how you think that wins more adherents to your cause.
At the top of Half Dome I watched a friend walk up, place his toe on the edge, and look down thousands of feet. His rationale was that he wouldn't be scared of tripping in his living room, so why should he be scared of tripping at the top of a precipice? I reminded him that I had seen him fall years before on the stairs inside his own house, resulting in a broken foot. In his defense he was taking them three at a time.
Some people are constructed different than others.
Fortunately, I'm scared of Heights. People don't tell you this, but the Eiffel Tower sways in the wind. We had planned to go all the way to the stop, but first stopped roughly 1/2 way. The swaying and great height made me so uncomfortable, my wife and daughter had to go up without me.
Same thing at Zion Park. Was going to go on the Angel trail, but after getting a good look at it, in person, I said no thanks.
So, I'm a poor candidate for Death by selfie.
The Crack Emcee said...
"If you were around blacks, you would be scared to be called a racist - all of you have admitted it: you're racist cowards."
On the street, damn straight. But in an office environment blacks are safe enough. Something tells me you wouldn't know much about that.
BTW, there isn't a National Park in the land where someone has ignored the "Danger, Unstable Cliff" and fallen to their deaths.
Yosemite has a lake above a waterfall, that is plastered with "No swimming, dangerous current" signs. Yet, people go for a swim and are swept over to their death about every 4 years.
One rarely sees black people camping in our national parks.
Because....racism.
I read a book, Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon, on how people have died in the Grand Canyon. The most common method is to goof around near the edge. "Hey, look at me!" And then, whoops. The first 20 feet is all it takes, then you bounce down from there.
Getting lost while hiking and flash floods are also a common cause of death. And don't stay too long in the Colorado River. It's cold.
Stand at the edge of the Slieve League cliff in County Donegal on a stormy day. It will blow your mind. Very strong in that place is L'appel du vide.
I pass lunatics driving on the other side of a little yellow line in my very tiny sparsely populated part of NA every day. Passing some you can see half glazed eyes, maybe over tired, maybe drugged/drunk, maybe a little angry/depressed. We all put some degree of (misplaced) trust in the hands of random strangers who do not merit it. Got to earn your keep so out you go into the streets. Don't stop to think about it, or you will do nothing. Every day there's a story on the radio about a bad accident on this/that road and you think well now that's a damn shame. But I don't (usually) say why why why such a waste.
Some people - I presume this couple - prefer a life of more conscious risk and exploration of the limits, or some such. Apparently the risks inherent in being a random and possibly fated-for-disposable cog in a modern complex civilization doesnt give them a respect or desire for the day-by-day incremental happiness that coming home to a loved one safe and sound after a days labour (or a weeks labour) brings others.
Now if you will excuse me, I'm off to pick fights on the internet. In my daddys day they would have to go down to the bar.
Has to be one of the most ignorant wasy to die - by your own hand while taking a damn selfie to impress people you most likley do not know on the internet.
Yay - tech is so great.
visit Preikestolen in Norway -- the views of the fjord on the way down are to die for!
That is OK. I really don't mind heights, but I do have a thing about edges. Did a motorcycle trip a few years back and we did the Coast Highway in California. If you screw up, you will have a great view on the way down - and probably enough time to enjoy it.
But hey - if you want to go that way - be my guest, but please be mindful of the folks below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdTbOapBLL0/?taken-by=holidaysandhappilyeverafters
"holidaysandhappilyeveraftersYuuup!That is yours truly, twirling �� away doing her “thingamajig” ✨�� at the Oculus at World Trade Center becaaaaause she and her man has garnered..."
If you like to take about 17 minutes to watch two guys climb a difficult Colorado 14er, this is good.
Capitol peak & why that knife edge scares the crap outa me.
Every year, someone dies falling off that knife edge.
DB@H,
From the first glimpse, it seemed we were watchin' dorks.
And then, not even two minutes in, it was obvious this was nerd central.
Anywho, maybe you could recommend a fast forward point, I'd like to see the good stuff while also minimizing beta-paloza trash.
IMHO.
As a wee kid I grew up traveling a chunk of the world w/ 50+ lb packs and more than week and hundred mile long hikes. Sometimes in treacherous terrain/conditions resulting in damage, though not to me.
Anywho, I suppose it's not nice to be judgemental re geeks getting out there.
My bad. Diff strokes fer diff folks.
"In an office environment blacks are safe enough. Something tells me you wouldn't know much about that."
Oh contraire. More than once, I've had the experience of restraining myself from punching the shit out of some white asshole for throwing his weight around, simply because we got on a suit and tie. Y'all love that shit.
Racist as fuck.
Pillage Idiot said...
"I just don't understand how you think that wins more adherents to your cause."
Just as I can't understand how white people think stereotyping every black as working for a cause makes them look less racist.
Pillage Idiot said...
"I am pretty sure not a single white person that comments on Althouse has been a racist for over 350 years."
Why are whites so sure of their innocence when they didn't stop being openly racist until recently? It's amazing. Especially when they're just as sure everyone else is so fucked-up we need constant lectures from whites. Not a recent development, unfortunately.
"I am just an average white guy that works hard to take care of my family."
Who can't envision blacks that way.
"However, my relatives fought slavery in West Virginia and then moved to the Kansas territory to fight slavery again."
All so you can turn around and talk shit to blacks.
"You seem pretty comfortable lumping my current actions (average white Republican) in with people that held slaves long ago."
Maybe, if you weren't adversarial, like they were, that would be different - but you're not - so I lump you in with them. You know, the kind of guy who can see Brett Kavanah screaming "Have you ever drank too much, Senator?!?" and understand that, but if you see a black guy lose his temper, then you can't understand and ether call the cops or claim he's not "helping the cause". I got no time for whites like you.
"I just don't understand how you think that wins more adherents to your cause."
That's because you're stupid.
The only adversarial racist here I can see is the one and only crack mc.
How's that y'all.
Ha - Sitter space.
They are nerds but nice nerds and they climbed a 14er with a knife edge - people die on it all the time.
They are super nerds.
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