Few Last Words Are As Unfortunate As: ‘I’ve Decided to Live On and On’
In the 1960s and early 1970s, Jerome Irving Rodale made a name for himself as an organic farming advocate, and as a self-professed health expert. In reality, the man was a quack who rejected modern medicine, favored folk cures, and was an avowed anti-vaxxer long before that term became popular. However, quackery sells, and Rodale built a health publishing empire that included Today’s Health Magazine. He also wrote a book titled Happy People Rarely Get Cancer. Scientifically and medically speaking, most of what Rodale wrote was nonsense. It was nonsense that people liked to hear and read, though, and it got him on the cover of Time magazine – back when that actually mattered.
A few days later, he went on The Dick Cavett Show. There, among other things, he offered the host asparagus boiled in urine. It was a weird, but nonetheless entertaining segment. As Cavett recalled decades later, he made a mental note to invite him back. During the show, Rodale boasted of his robust health, and said things like “I’ve decided to live to be a hundred“, and concluded with “I am so healthy, I expect to live on and on“. They proved to be his last words. The next guest was New York Post columnist Pete Hamil, and as Cavett chatted with him, Rodale moved down the couch. Out of the blue, he made a loud snoring sound, and died then and there on the couch. The episode never aired.