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Happy New Year, everyone!

Collecting famous last words is something of a hobby of mine. I'm a collector, I guess you could say. So, inspired by King Kool's movie review thread, I've decided to spend all of 2014 encouraging my hobby. Once for every day in 2014, I will share with you the last words of a famous (and deceased) individual.

However, since last words tend to be rather short, for obvious reasons, I'll also share any relevant trivia I might know about their person or their death. Let's get started! We'll begin with American presidents.

George Washington's last words were "'Tis well." He died of pneumonia...and doctors. See, he caught a cold while riding through his estate in the rain (like you do when you have an estate), and developed pneumonia. He might have recovered...if his doctors hadn't bled him dry with leeches (doctors of the day believed that disease was caused by "bad blood") and prevented him from fighting the disease. Nowadays doctors theorize that he died from an acute strep infection in his larynx, which caused it to swell and suffocate him. A tracheotomy would have saved him, and was indeed suggested by the youngest physician in the room, one Elisha Dick. Unfortunately, it was maligned as dangerous by the elder doctors, and America's first President died that very same night, assuring his wife "'Tis well."

Little do historians know Washington actually said "Criswell", predicting the eventual rise of mentalist Jeron Criswell King.

John Adams died on July 4, 1826, and his last words were "It is the glorious Fourth of July. It is a great day. It is a good day." Then he fell asleep, woke up later and said, "Thomas Jefferson still survives."

Which is a bit darkly hilarious, because that actually wasn't the case. Thomas Jefferson had actually died earlier that same day...

Are you doing the American Presidents in order?

Yup. Not all of them are known, however. I'll have to skip over Franklin Pierce, Chester Arthur, William Howard Taft, Harry S. Truman, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan, since none of their last words have been recorded, to my knowledge.

After that, I was just going to move on to a grab bag, but please feel free to suggest themed weeks or months!

Considering their proclivity towards dying horribly, a Roman Emperors month might be enjoyable.

Of course, I'm still a fan of Villa's "Don't let it be like this. Tell them I said something"

Maybe we should stick to themed weeks. There aren't always enough people with recorded last words in a certain category to fill thirty days.

Ah! Sorry, i missed that this would be once a day. Sure, a themed week then

I think there are enough last words of Roman Emperors to make a week of it.

Please, feel free to share any other ideas for themes as they come to mind.

Reagan's was probably "Bwuh?".
(too soon?)

Bebop Man wrote:Reagan's was probably "Bwuh?".
(too soon?)

Now I'm trying to remeber what movie it was where someone's last words were "Buh?" It was talked about at DB7, I can't remember who brought it up.

Literature Greats Week?

(that might stretch to a full month; those egomaniacs often made sure their last words were known of. )

Sieg Reyu wrote:

Bebop Man wrote:Reagan's was probably "Bwuh?".
(too soon?)

Now I'm trying to remeber what movie it was where someone's last words were "Buh?" It was talked about at DB7, I can't remember who brought it up.

I think it was one of the Aliens movies. The bad one I believe. Never saw them though.

To make this more relevant, is this limited to actual people, or do characters count too?

EDIT: Sniped. :L

Also, mind if I post some "Famous last words"? as in sentences/phrases that are along the lines of "Unsinkable ship" that I don't know if actually happened, or if they were someone's actual last words, but... You get the idea.

Prospero you may want to use a bigger font type or underlining or whatever for your Quote of the Day posts to stand out from regular postin'.

That makes sense, Bebop. I should do that.

Robo, I'd rather you didn't quote the dying remarks of famous people, that's all. If you want to tell us about idiots like the Decca Records exec who said the Beatles wouldn't make it, that's cool too.

Yeah. Sorry about misinterpreting the point of this thread slightly, it was 4AM when I made that post, so I do tend to misread a few things in that situation.

Anyway, I'll be following this thread. Should be fun.

No worries, Robo! There are just only so many last words to go around, know what I mean? I'd hate to have to break your kneecaps. If you still want to share the other style of last words here, please feel free.

You'll recall that John Adams's last words were "Thomas Jefferson still survives." Funnily enough, that wasn't the case. Jefferson had died earlier that same day, on July 4, 1826. His last words were "Is it the 4th?"

Oh! Sorry, Kapol, I missed your question. I'm gonna limit this to actual people. However, if you want to share some of your favorite fictional last words, you can do that here and it won't contribute to my count.

So we've got Roman Emperor's Week, and Literature Greats Week (Probably Month). Keep those suggestions coming!

Maybe an Executions Week?

Hmm...I only know Marie Antoinette's offhand, but I never said I couldn't do any research! On the list.

I always like ones that make you go, wait what?

You read it and think oh ok. Then you think for a second and say, wait what did they say? and reread it, then read from another source, then read what people say they think he/she meant. Then read the historical context, and end up realizing that they were semi senile and in a lot of pain so you cant expect gold.

like oscar wilde

"My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death."

DAMMIT, HOSK. There's a name off the Literature Greats list.

Actually, I understood Oscar Wilde's last words to be "Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

Guess who went.

I have some favourites, but I trust you know them already.


Perhaps this is foolhardy...
-unknown, d. apr 5, 1898

(I made that up.)

Merry Perihelion!

James Madison's last words were "I always talk better lying down." James Madison was one of America's first career politicians, never having a job out of the public eye since graduating from what is now Princeton in 1771. He was a prolific public speaker, but was always rather self-conscious of his high, thin voice. He believed that if he spoke while lying down, his voice sounded deeper and more resonant.

I trust you will be posting John Sedgewick's last words at some point?
(My personal favourite)