Maverick to shame all mavericks Evel Knievel, 69, died today, and I think the fountains at Caesar’s Palace should spout at half-mast. Riding in a Greyhound–he jumped over 14 of them in ‘75–will never be the same. And I can never drive past the Los Angeles Coliseum without thinking how he jumped over 50 cars there in ‘73–as 35,000 gridlocked voyeurs rejoiced. He held the Guinness record for most broken bones–35, and you can see them mapped out here. Before his afflicted 1974 jump across the Snake Canyon River via “Sky-Cycle,” he famously conjectured on the outcome:

“I’ve always said that when the canyon jump comes, if I miss it I’ll get somewhere quicker where you’re all going someday,” Knievel said. “And I’ll wait for you, because dying is a part of living and none of us is going to get out of here alive. If Mother Nature don’t get you, Father Time will.”

“Evel Knievel: The Rock Opera” debuted in LA this past October, and Six Flags St. Louis already has dibs on an eponymous roller coaster, coming in 2008.