In the middle of the year, while most are bogged down with work or finals, we can feel like death. As a midyear pick me however, here’s some of the strangest ways that people have kicked the bucket.

1. Crushed by a Cow

In 2013, João Maria de Souza, a 45-year-old man from Brazil was lying in bed with his wife Leni. As the two settled into sleep, probably the last thing you’d expect from a sane world occurred. A three thousand-ton cow fell through his room and crushed the man to death. While his wife suffered a leg fracture, her husband later died from injuries sustained during the bovine body-slam. It was speculated that the cow had climbed up a hill that sat over the couple’s house before tripping and becoming a farm themed airstrike.

2. Death by Falling Tortoise

In the year 445 BC, the famous Greek playwright Aeschylus was outside, and according to legends was foretold by prophecy that he would be killed by a falling object. Seeking to avoid the bad juju, he bided his time outdoors where the falling objects things would generally not happen. Fate however, in its infinitely bad sense of humor, would not be defied. An eagle, attempting to pry open a tortoise by dropping it onto some rocks then made the classic blunder of mistaking someone's head for a boulder. In the second example of animal directed airstrikes, Aeschylus was struck and killed by the falling animal, which allegedly survived.

3. Killed by Flying Lawnmower

There is an awful trend to people being killed by falling/flying objects. Perhaps the people who wear helmets all the time have a point. Kevin Rourke Bowen was attending a Patriots game in December 1979. During the halftime show the stadium, realizing there weren’t cheerleaders or a band to play, began to display its discount airshow by flying RC planes all around the stadium. One of the controllers, Philip Cushman, decided to up the ante through daring tricks, stunts and murder. Piloting a flying lawnmower, which just sounds plain terrible, he put Kevin Rourke Bowen on the receiving end of a plane in control of a pilot the exact skill level opposite of Captain Sully. After taking a lawnmower to the face, he, perhaps unsurprisingly, died.

4. Crocodile Flips a Plane

In an aversion of being struck and killed by a flying object, the 20 passengers of the 2010 Bandundu Filair Let L-410 were the flying object in question. According to the lone survivor of the accident, one of the passengers had smuggled a three-foot long crocodile on board within a sports bag. Like in a vaudevillian comedy, the animal escaped and chased passengers in what I hope was a Scooby Doo-esque chase around the plane with people popping in and out of doors. Unfortunately, reality ensued and the passengers, desperate to get away from the animal, crowded near the front of the plane as it entered descent. The plane’s small size coupled with the sudden shift in weight caused the plane to crash, killing all on board except one. In perhaps a terrible twist of irony, the crocodile survived the crash.

5. Killed by a Circus Clown

I actually couldn’t find any details on this one beyond the headline from 1854, which simply reads, “William Synder was killed by being swung around by the heels by a circus clown. I don’t really have any commentary for this one, only that this makes clowns more terrifying than before.