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The labor shortage is such that even morons can earn a living.  Then they can use some of the money and take a vacation at Yellowstone National Park.  Many of them then go home and share details of their near-death experiences.  About once a day, a video surfaces where some dummy is tempting fate.  Click here and you can see what I’m talking about.  You don’t pet the bison.  It’s a bad idea—the same with the bears.

A video surfaced last week of a bison breaking a wooden trail in the exact location.  The combination of ornery and powerful can make them lethal.

It’s apparent the warnings aren’t working with many park visitors.

I’m reminded of a terrible story I covered twenty years ago.  A teenager was killed during a forestry class.  As a big tree was cut and falling, he tried to impress his classmates by running underneath as it was felled.  He was crushed and died instantly.  Back at the office, an editor looked at me and said the gene pool in the kid’s hometown was better off.  Nobody would ever say that to the young man’s family, but I believe that kind of gallows humor exists because people are searching for answers.

If you leave Yellowstone in the back of a hearse, you’ll never be able to share stories about your trip with the people at work.  You’ll never have another vacation.

There aren’t many pleasant ways to die.  I suspect most of us don’t want our legacy to be people thinking we were idiots.  As the comedian Brad Stine explains, you'll get no sympathy from the animals.

Offbeat adventures: Travel to the coolest hidden wonders in every U.S. state

Fuel your offbeat travel dreams. Stacker found the coolest hidden wonders in all 50 U.S. states (plus D.C.) using data from Atlas Obscura.

[WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter private or abandoned property. By doing so you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing.]

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