I dunno, maybe I'm just naive or thick, or the kids today are much more sophisticated and/or knowledgeable and/or f'd-up than I or my friends ever thought of being back in the day, but-- even during my teenaged years, at the height of my sexual heat and hormonal frenzy, I never, EVER, thought to myself, "Hey, y'know, if I strangle myself with a piece of rope in the closet while I'm diddling myself, the orgasm is gonna be INTENSE!!!" Somewhere along the line between the time I graduated from high school and now, kids did somehow come to that creepy knowledge, because from what I've heard and read, autoerotic strangulation amongst teenagers has risen dramatically over the past decade or so. Kids figure it will intensify their orgasms, they lose control, and end up strangling to death. Of course, it's not just limited to teenagers. Character actor Albert Dekker, who appeared in such films as "East of Eden", "Dr. Cyclops", "The Killers", and "The Wild Bunch", died this way in 1968, and it is regarded as one of Hollywood's kinkier demises, and Hollywood is a city noted for kinky demises. According to the website Findadeath, "Dekker was kneeling nude in the bathtub. A noose was around his neck but not tight enough to have strangled him. A scarf was tied over his eyes and a horse’s bit was in his mouth, fashioned from a rubber ball and metal wire, the bit had chain 'reins' that were tightly tied beneath his head. Two leather straps were stretched between the leather belts that girded his neck and chest. A third belt, around his waist, was tied with a rope that stretched to his ankles, where it had been tied in some kind of timber hitch. The end of the rope, which continued up his side, wrapped around his wrist several times and was held in Dekker’s hand. Handcuffs clamped both wrists with a key attached. Written in red lipstick on his right buttock was the word, 'whip.' Sunrays had also been drawn around his nipples. 'Make me suck,' was written on his throat, and 'slave,' and 'c***sucker,' on his chest. On his stomach was drawn a vagina. He had apparently been dead for several days." Sadly, I know I'll never be able to watch "Dr. Cyclops" in the same innocent way I did as a child ever again.

Ever see Super Troopers?