Death by ... Toothpick

Who or what event is portrayed in this story?

“Shall I hate and fear my own body, this house in which I must live, or shall I respect and care for it? Well, the devil! The question is not worth answering. I shall take life as it offers itself.” Sherwood slammed the thick, hard-covered book down on the table.

“Bravo,” many in the audience called out.

“Read more,” shouted one man.

“No more,” Sherwood replied. He picked up his third martini and gulped it down also, olive and all. “If you want to learn more, buy the book.” He pumped his chest with his fist to help the olive down.

Sherwood had enough of the crowd. They all asked him the same questions: How do you feel about the comments that this book marks the decline of writing? How does that make me feel? What are they, my shrink? He raised his hand and asked for another martini.

Another drink came and he looked at the olive, stuck with short toothpick, floating around the top. His last empty glass passed his face and he thought, what happened to all the toothpicks? He hadn’t swallowed them had he?

That’s when he noticed the first sharp pang in his stomach.

Who or what event is portrayed in this story?

The previous Death By … story is based on:

Thomas Midgley, Jr. was an American mechanical engineer and chemist. Midgley was a key figure in a team of chemists, led by Charles F. Kettering, that developed the tetraethyllead (TEL) additive to gasoline as well as some of the first chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). In 1940, at the age of 51, Midgley contracted poliomyelitis, which left him severely disabled. This led him to devise an elaborate system of strings and pulleys to help others lift him from bed. This system was the eventual cause of his death when he was accidentally entangled in the ropes of this device and died of strangulation at the age of 55.

Midgley died three decades before the ozone depleting effects of CFCs in the atmosphere became widely known. Another adverse effect of Midgley's work was the release of large quantities of lead into the atmosphere as a result of the large-scale combustion of leaded gasoline all over the world.

High atmospheric lead levels have been associated with serious health problems. J. R. McNeill, an environmental historian, has remarked that Midgley "had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history."

Sources:

http://itthing.com/most-ironic-deaths

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley,_Jr.

http://www.nndb.com/people/727/000205112/

http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/trek/4wd/lead2.htm