I’ve never had a heart attack but my heart’s taken quite the smack

It brings my hand to my breast as my heart pounds my chest

I tell myself to move but it’s me I can’t remove

I take air in large drags and breathe out into a bag

I miss you, dear

you leave and it’s all clear

You’re on my mind full time.

All my love does is climb

Sometimes I forget

what it’s like to hold you

But then I see you

and it’s all anew!

I get to look in your eyes

and my heart just dies

But my heart does not decay

It’s actually right at bay

Because you still make it rush with blood.

The University of Minnesota has rules for their mortuary science program which specifically entail the students to be respectful and discreet when dealing with cadavers. The university was also deliberate with not blogging about cadavers. Tatro knew these rules and the consequences of these actions coming into the program, yet she still chose to violate them. For her punishment, Tatro was flunked out of her anatomy course.

The Inside Higher Ed article “A cadaver, Facebook, Free Speech” by Scott Jaschik sets out to remind readers that their first amendment right, freedom of speech, only goes so far. Just as one can not scream falsely that there is a fire while in a crowded theater, there are also limits for posting certain things on Facebook depending on how they connect to a student’s academic program. This article covers the story of Amanda Tatro, a junior in the mortuary science program at the University of Minnesota, and how she got involved in with the Minnesota supreme court through her Facebook statuses.

Amanda Tatro posted four Facebook statuses that concerned readers of her ability to become a professional in her field. She spoke of one of her cadaver’s whom she named “Bernie” after a comedy film about a corpse; entailing she cut off a lock of the cadaver’s hair to keep in her pocket, stressing about who she will hang out with after Bernie’s burial, and stating her aspirations to accompany him to the retort. She talked about how embalming is therapeutic and wanting to stab “a certain someone” in the throat with an embalming instrument which holds the job of pulling fluid out of organs. She proceeds to talk about making a fifth death list and becoming friends with the crematory guy, ensuring that she knows the code to get into the crematory. Lastly, Tatro posts about hiding her scalpel in her sleeve so it doesn’t get taken away from her.

The university had support from many other colleges and were able to punish Tatro because “it was a case about the academic freedom of a university to set and enforce reasonable course standards and reasonable campus rules. The course standards at issue were designed to teach ethics and professional norms to students enrolled in a professional program.” Being aware of a University’s rules and obeying them is important for any college student. This case doesn’t only have to apply to mortuary science majors but for other major’s as well, such as nursing. The article uses an example of the year prior to Tatro’s case, nursing students at a community college got booted out of their program for taking pictures of themselves with a human placenta and posting them on the internet.

Steven Paul Smith, better known as Elliott Smith, is known to be one of the greatest songwriters of the nineties. His acoustic guitar fills listeners ears with the most heart-felt folk-pop stories they could imagine. Full albums that accommodate depression, alcoholism, and drug dependence, leave audiences questioning where these thoughts came from and how he became known as the world’s most depressed man. There is a reason why Smith’s whispery voice and daunting harmonies brought him a substantial fanbase; although his success couldn’t carry on after his tragic death.

Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska on August 6, 1969. When he was one year old, his parents went through a divorce. Smith was taken by his mother, Bunny, who went to live in Duncanville, Texas; where Smith spent the majority of his childhood. Several people in Smith’s family were musicians, but never made music their career. While living in Texas, Smith was surrounded by a great deal of country music. Not being a huge fan of country music, Smith found interest in Hank Williams; one of his musical influences. The beatles were Smith’s number one influence. When his father played the White album for him at age five, he dreamt of becoming a bass player. "How could you not want to be a bass player, after hearing Helter Skelter?" (Sweet Adeline). At age ten, Smith entered an arts festival in Duncanville. He won a prize for his performance of an authentic piano piece titled “Fantasy”. Smith’s father moved to Portland, Oregon after the divorce. Elliott went to visit his father when he was twelve; when he received his first guitar. Starting with the basic’s, Smith shortly started learning AC/DC and Bob Dylan songs.

During Smith’s freshman year of high school, he moved to Portland to live with his father. He started getting experience with recording when he was fourteen; using an old friends four-track. In high school, Smith and a few of his friends created a band called Stranger than Fiction. Stranger than Fiction did most of their songs on tapes, and never really performed in front of an audience. After high school, Smith went on to study science and philosophy at Hampshire College. “It was while he was at Hampshire that Elliott met and befriended Neil Gust. Neil's was the face you saw when you groped through racks of CDs and finally found a copy of Roman Candle [a song Smith wrote in high school]; his picture appears on the cover of the disc” (Sweet Adeline).  The two of them formed the band Heatmiser. Heatmiser was building success; however, Smith didn’t enjoy the feeling of being in the band. He described himself as being disguised behind a loud rock band. “Roman Candle, Elliott's first solo album, was released in 1994, the result of J. J. Gonson sending a copy of the tape off to a producer at Cavity Search Records” (Sweet Adeline). In 1995, Smith switched record deals to Kill Rock Stars. With this label he released albums such as Elliott Smith and Either/Or. Around this time, Smith dated bassist Joanna Bolme and fell in love; however their relationship was cut short. Elliott became suicidal. “Elliott's chronic despair came to an abrupt anticlimax late one night when he jumped off a cliff and nothing happened” (Sweet Adeline). He fell into a depression: heavily drinking on anti-depressants, heroin, blacking out, getting into disputes he couldn’t recall. Everything was coming together for Smith career-wise, but his personal life was spiraling down. At this time, Smith wrote the song “Miss Misery”. It featured in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting; with more of Smith’s tracks. He performed the song at the 1998 Oscars and won a golden statuette award for it. He couldn’t bring himself to be happy about his achievement; saying that he was in a suit he could never afford and didn’t deserve to win against the other nominees (Trisha Yearwood and Celine Dion).  

The death of Elliott Smith remains a mystery today. Many of his fans and even some close friends of his believe that he committed suicide; however there’s no definite reassurance. His song lyrics and personality lead family and fans to make that conclusion. In fact, his close friends even got comfortable with the fact that Smith always threatened to commit suicide or joke about doing so. On October 21, 2003, Smith and his girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Chiba, apparently got into an argument; resulting in Smith threatening to kill himself. Used to these overdramatic threats, Chiba locked herself in the bathroom of their home to get away from the bickering. “She [Chiba] then heard a scream. Returning to the living room, she found Smith standing with his back to her. When he turned around, she saw a kitchen knife sticking out of his chest. Smith had stabbed himself in the heart. Despite emergency surgery, he was pronounced dead 20 minutes after arriving at hospital. He was 34 years old” (The Guardian). A few weeks after hearing Chiba’s story, people started to doubt that Smith stabbed himself. “The [coroner] report said that Smith had been stabbed twice - both wounds had entered his chest cavity and one had perforated his heart. That in itself is not suspicious: gruesome as it sounds, suicides who choose to stab themselves to death frequently jab the weapon into their chest a number of times” (The Guardian). The direction and placement of the stab wounds suggested possible homicide. When the coroner came out with this report, Chiba was silent and refused to speak in interviews or to detectives; making her a suspect to the public eye.

Having worked in the fast food business for two years and being a drive-thru customer my entire life, not once have I thought about giving a tip to the person who handed me my order as I grab it out of their hand and set it down in the passenger seat of my 2003 Buick Century. During my work experience at Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen, I’ve come in contact with many people each and every day. People of all different races, ages, genders, and attitudes. Each customer carries themselves differently, as every individual does, but some better than others. Every person has a different way of going about getting what they want, whether it’s saying their correct order is wrong to get free food or asking to fix a mistake employees make (like getting their mild chicken replaced with the spicy chicken they originally asked for). Although each customer is there for the same thing, fried chicken, some have better attitudes than others.

Fast food is the stereotypical job for failures, because you don’t need a high school diploma, a degree, or any previous work experience. Although the job is extremely stressful and fast-paced. A day at work for me includes taking orders for people who dine-in and drive through, including packing their food under heat lamps that are so hot they could spark a cigarette by just touching it to the bulb. The food has to be handed out to the customer within 180 seconds at the most, and that includes the time it takes to take the customers order. It isn’t a surprise that employees make mistakes, and it doesn’t help when they’re under added stress of an angry customer screaming at them to hurry up. I’ve had a customer throw a metal napkin container at me because it’s policy that we cannot substitute more sides to replace biscuits in a meal. The napkin container didn’t only hit me, but knocked over multiple brand new, styrofoam side cups into the hot water sitting in the steam table to keep side orders warm. I was only doing my job. It wasn’t my fault that he couldn’t substitute out the biscuits, after suggesting not getting the meal and just buying sides separately, there wasn’t anything I could do to help him. However, I had to clean up the mess that he created anyway.

The majority of customers don’t really understand how much control an employee has over the business or what their responsibilities are. Rude customer after rude customer, I was starting to lose hope that the next car that pulled around to the drive-thru window or the next person to walk inside the restaurant would be considerate and/or polite. It seemed like the angry mob of customers would never end, until one Tuesday. A cute over-the-hill couple pulled up to the drive-thru window while I was working. Every Tuesday, Popeye’s has a special that’s two pieces of chicken, one regular side order, a biscuit, and a drink for $3.99. The meal costs $6.19 on any other day. This particular couple was unaware of the weekly promotion, and thought that I specifically gave them a discount. When I handed them their food, the old man told me to reach out my hand, afraid of what he might do because of previous customers actions, I was timid to the idea. The man was being very persistent, and because I only have 180 seconds, I finally reached out my hand. I felt a crisp but crunched piece of paper in my hand. When I pulled away, and opened my fist, I saw a dollar bill in my hand. I asked the old man

“What’s this for?” and told them about the weekly promotion.

The man and his wife laughed at me and told me that the money was for me to keep. They told me I seemed like a hard worker, and that they find joy in finding certain people who deserve a reward for just doing their everyday work. He then thanked me for educating him about the weekly promotion and insisted they would come back every Tuesday.