I read in the local newspaper that my county currently averages 1 suicide every 14 days. That's on pace for 26 a year. If that seems high, it's because it is.

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Americans kill themselves nationally at a rate of about 14 per 100,000, which implies that Coweta County, Georgia, population 155,000, should expect something near 22 suicides per year. For Coweta, that figure is an aspirational number.

What's so bad about living in Coweta? I can only guess.

Of course, thanks in part to our poor healthcare system and our easy access to guns, Georgians kill themselves more often than average Americans. (That's just the price you pay for freedom!) By Georgia standards, Coweta should see 24 suicides per year. So maybe our higher rate is our friendly way of helping prop up those counties that aren't pulling their weight.

Back when I was in a Coweta County high school, the statewide suicide rate was only 13 per 100k (national average 12/100k), yet I knew several people whose parents had killed themselves, and I knew students who attempted it. If people are finding things more bleak and hopeless now than they were then... as a community, maybe as a whole society, we just must be doing something wrong.

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Has 2020 pushed you to the brink? Thankfully, there's a Superman for that!

Superman #361 (1981)

Saving 21st-century balcony leapers is the least bonkers thing in this story. It turns out that Superman III has 2 secret identities: computer-traffic controller Jon Hudson and tennis professional Lewis "Lew" Parker (and he's kind of bad at both jobs).

2020 is a strange year, even in the comics.

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All-Star Superman #10

Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain, an estimated 865 less-famous Americans.... This week could have used a little more Superman.

(See also: "Superman and the Jumper" from Superman #701.)

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I just finished a book called 100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know. I can't attest to the accuracy of that title. 100 Things You Probably Don't Know but Might Like to Know is probably more accurate, but not by a lot. The book jacket promotes such tidbits as "Most corporations pay no income tax," and "SUVs are three times more likely than other cars to kill people they hit." Neither of those qualify as breaking news.

The book was originally published in 2002. Maybe most of these 100 things were secret back then. Certainly, it took some people a long time to cotton onto the insidious misuse of the Patriot Act against everyday Americans. Certainly, no one in 2002 had seen Spotlight and may not have known that the Catholic Church was actively aiding pedophiles. However, I don't think that the facts that the Korean War never officially ended or that Victorian-era feminists opposed abortion qualify as stuff I'm not supposed to know. Maybe they're just stuff we don't care about.

To its credit, there were two things in the book that I didn't know and have now committed to memory. The first is that the highest suicide rate in America belongs to the elderly (nearly 55 males per 100,000 over 84), and the overwhelming method of choice is a handgun. Was I supposed to know that? Because I didn't.

The other new fact was Exodus 34:14:

For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God

That's right, God's name is "Jealous." I thought I'd read the whole Bible when I was much younger than I am now, but I certainly didn't remember that. The Bible seems like a bad place to hide things I'm not supposed to know.

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There isn't really any good way to report a suicide and put a positive or humorous spin on it. However, sometimes, such as with the self-inflicted death of racing legend Dick Trickle — the inspiration for the surname of Tom Cruise's character in Days of Thunder and longtime SportsCenter punchline — there's no way to avoid it.

"NASCAR drivers recall Dick Trickle as unique and fun," reported USAtoday.com yesterday.

I was never a very big NASCAR fan, but I always kept an eye out for Dick Trickle myself. Thanks for one last one for the road, Dick.

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