On June 12, 1999, George Herbert Walker Bush celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday by jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Wife Barbara Bush was not amused. Nor was she pleased when, five years later, he jumped again (to celebrate his eightieth birthday). "If the jump doesn't kill him," she said, "I will!"

In fact, Barbara nearly got her wish. What happened? George "forgot" to pull the rip cord on his parachute!

[Fortunately, another jumper had the presence of mind to do it for him.]

[Psychologist Bruce Ogilvie once tested 250 athletes from a variety of extreme sports, including sky-diving and auto racing. He found that risk-takers possess superior intelligence, emotional stability and independence.]