death by ass

[flowersophy]

Hi,

What does "death by ass" mean in the following context?
The headline would read "DEATH BY ASS." The newsprint already blazed across my imagination: text bold, black, and all caps. I would have preferred less brevity and more dash. Maybe "Local Man Succumbs to Killer Foreign Ass." (Quoted from High Seas Drifters: Cruise Confidential 4 by Brian David Bruns)

Many thanks!

 

[Copyright]

There must be something before this that gives us a clue – or outright explains it.

 

[Randisi.]

Hard to say without more context.

Could be a donkey. Could be sex. Could be the buttocks part of a statue falling on someone. Could be...

 

[flowersophy]

This is the beginning of the book. I cannot give more clues about it. According to "I would have preferred less brevity and more dash. Maybe 'Local Man Succumbs to Killer Foreign Ass.'" I guess "ass" might refer to "a fool", but I am not sure.

 

[Randisi.]

I would guess the following pages would explain it.

Have you read on past that?

 

[flowersophy]

Here are more clues: Astonishingly, Mom saw this one coming. She always warned me I would die some horrible, unforeseen death if I dared leave my native Iowa. Or the house. I thought she was just being overprotective, yet here I was, thirty years and six thousand miles away, proving her right.

 

[Copyright]

Well, he could be in Cairo, Egypt, which is 6,380 miles from Des Moines, Iowa ... and he could be riding an ass/donkey.

 

[PaulQ]

High Seas Drifters: Cruise Confidential 4 seems to be full of references to historical figures. The use of "would" on "The headline would read "DEATH BY ASS."" indicates that the speaker is imagining an historical event as if it were being written in today's newspapers.

We are probably looking for a classical figure who died in that way.

 

[Copyright]

Based on post 6, he could be imaging his own death as he's traveling astride an ass along a narrow, precipitous mountain path.

 

[Loob]

The answer comes a couple of pages later:

Beneath me, my mount shifted. This nameless beast, who was to be my ride down the nearly vertical cliffs of Santorini, puffed and fussed as much as nearby Fire Island. This was my first mule ride, and I was both surprised and intimidated by the power this humble animal exuded. [...] I hoped my beast of burden was not as capricious as the gods.

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MrC!

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[Randisi.]

Ah, now it makes sense.

The local man is him. He's imagining the headline in his local hometown paper.

Good work, Loob.