Matthew Pearlstone dead, not drunk
Matthew Pearlstone, 19, was found dead in a University of Virginia dorm on Friday morning. While police sergant Melissa Fielding said “we don’t know the cause of death,” his grandfather acknowledges that his grandson was partying it up on Saint Patrick’s day:
“He went to sleep and never woke up,” Howard Pearlstone said. “The whole thing is beyond my comprehension.” [src]
While an autopsy will be performed, the cause of death appears to be illegal underage drinking. He writes about his spring break plans:
Visiting UVA/Drinking in St. Louis: It’s St. Patrick’s Day at UVA, what do you think I’m gonna be doing?
Matt’s self-chosen facebook picture–in front of a trunk full of Bud Light–spells it out:
Although I didn’t know him personally, friends confirm that Matt Pearlstone is never far from a drink. Clearly, the cause of his death is drinking at a UVA fraternity. If you’d like to know more about Matthew Pearlstone, his personal details are as follows:
Born: 01/12/1987
Home town: 9800 Sundown Sq, St. Louis, MO 63141
Email: mtp33@cornell.edu and matt.pearlstone@gmail.com
AIM: lucifer11287
Cellphone: 314.662.0849
One Katherine Collins, an alumnus of Auburn, presciently noted on January 12th, “Happy bday pstone..hope college is going well and you are drinking yourself to death.” Michael Gabel, a Dartmouth undergrad, also wrote on Matthew Pearlstone’s birthday, “why do i have a sneaking suspicion that this is the last night that pearlstone will be alive…” How sad that such a promising young student of Computer Science should meet his end, not drinking it up on his birthday, but on green Saint Patty’s day.
Update
Pearlstone’s facebook profile has been yanked. Additionally, the coroner confirms that his death was due to alcohol poisoning, as we already knew. The LD50 for Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is accepted around .40. As a heavy drinker, Matt Pearlstone probably had even more in his system. However, the coroner refused to release his BAC, so we’ll never know.
Update 2
If you’re unaware of the other resources I’ve gathered about Pearlstone, please review these links:
| This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 21st, 2006 at 2:02 am and is tagged with blood alcohol content, heavy drinker, happy bday, sneaking suspicion, saint patty, bud light, gmail, facebook, sergant, st louis mo, matthew pearlstone, hope college, matt pearlstone, ld50, saint patrick, underage drinking, alumnus, cause of death, friday morning, coroner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
36 Responses to “Matthew Pearlstone dead, not drunk”
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Have you no decency? That is the meanest thing you could possibly do to someone’s memory. You should be mourning him, not criticizing him. Your article implies he deserved what he got and that he was some kind of ridiculous lush, neither of which is true. I feel like you are drawing a direct correlation between alcohol and death: if you drink, you will die. That is such stupid logic. He drank too much and didnt surround himself with people who could help him. He made a mistake, it was an accident, and he paid for it with his life. Isn’t that enough? I am utterly appalled by your site and I hope you realize how offensive and wrong your article is. For your own sake, have some resepect.
Somehow, I feel that writing an article about how Matt Pearlstone drunk himself to death is quite productive. He was indeed a notorious drunk, and after drinking however many drinks he had in that span of time, certainly should have died! His death may have been accidental, but the pattern of alcoholism that led him to it was certainly not.
This is so ignorant. Have some respect, this could happen to ANYONE! Is your life that sad that you need to disrespect the life of a kid who was taken too soon in order to feel better about yourself? It is people like you that give the rest of us Cornellians a bad name.
[...] Matthew Pearlstone dead, not drunk [...]
elliott – hopefully others will read your posts on mr. pearlstone, who in other respects appeared to be a bright individual with a good future ahead of him, and not be so complacent about the dangers of alcohol.
Elliot I want you to know that you are the most inconsiderate *******. I was one of Matt’s friends and neighbors at Cornell. I want this blog down right now. How dare you do this to his friends and roomates. YOU dont even know the kid or ever met him. So f-you for describing him in a few sentences. Ive already contacted some people at Cornell and I will make sure that this is removed so that all of his friends do not have to read it.
“I feel that writing an article about how Matt Pearlstone drunk himself to death is quite productive” – Elliot back.
If you wanted to be productive and contribute to society, you should write an article that is a proponent against drinking, showing that people with futures are the biggest loss to this world when they die so untimely. Your article is a piece of worthless garbage. It fails to list any of the other things he had on his profile, the fact that he was taking 25 credits and still made the Dean’s List, that he was getting a double major in CS and ECE in three years, and he was an active member of the CUAUV team.
Matt was a truly incredible person, had you actually known him rather than made harsh judgements. You are in no way an expert as to what constitutes a dependency on alcohol nor have any idea what Matt Pearlstone drank that night. You only rely on HIS FACEBOOK!!! to make your pitiful 1-dimenstional arguments. A person’s facebook is a minor figment that cannot possibly convey their personality.
Matt Pearlstone was a good friend of mine and this article was the most hurtful thing you could have written to his friends and family. Your complete disregard for the people that were closest to him is appalling.
he was a living, breathing human being. i don’t care what kind of research you did into his life. you didn’t know him and now unfortunately never will. the fact is, it doesn’t matter how someone died, the fact is it happened and you are in no position to judge Matt’s life. you are a pathetic person for seeing yourself as a voice of reason, you never knew Matt, you were never friends with him. you based your judgements on pure statistics and online comments, you’ve hurt those closest to Matt, i hope your efforts are now validated.
You may have known all there was to know about him as you’ve purported, but you’ve managed to write something that didn’t portray Matt in anything but a negative (and not truthful) light. I hope it’s because you didn’t know the facts, because if you dislike him for no reason then you’re a tool. And a ridiculous douchebag nerdass for having a blog in the first place.
But anyway, I’m the guy who wrote the facebook comment “Pearlstone is single and he knows his hydration.” That was a reference to the Wilderness Reflections pre-orientation camping trip we went on this past summer. As a marathon runner, he had trained himself to not drink any more water than the bare minimum during periods of exertion. When we would offer him some water after long periods of hiking, he would decline and say “I know my hydration.” We thought this was funny. It had nothing to do with alcohol. Your quotation of my posting on his wall is completely out of context.
Most basic thing you should learn from this post:
facebook stalking = not good reporting
Aight so I’m reluctant to post because I’m sure it just fuels your ego, but whatever, it’ll make me feel better and I’m sure you’re happy enough. So I figured I’d just go through everything you wrote and pick out extraneous things that are added to make it more negative, or stuff that’s just false.
While an autopsy will be performed, the cause of death appears to be illegal underage drinking.
- “illegal underage” has nothing to do with the cause of death. Underage, maybe, if he were 10 years old.
He writes about his spring break plans: Visiting UVA/Drinking in St. Louis: It’s St. Patrick’s Day at UVA, what do you think I’m gonna be doing?
- A lot of people drink…
Matt’s self-chosen facebook picture
-”self-chosen” as opposed to forced? Just trying to make him out to be the bad guy
Matt’s self-chosen facebook picture–in front of a trunk full of Bud Light–spells it out:
- I have the same picture in my car’s trunk, as do a number of my friends from prom weekend. It doesn’t imply anything.
Matt Pearlstone is never far from beer.
- That’s just made up. Unless of course you have evidence of that.
Clearly, the cause of his death is illegal underage drinking
- Again… “illegal underage” is not the cause of his death, all it does is add negative connotation.
According to Aristotle, drinking yourself to death is equivalent to suicide.
- You don’t even follow this up with anything, this is just completely extraneous in order to have a great man, Aristotle, “look down” on Matt, and relate the story to suicide, which again brings negative connotation.
One Katherine Collins, an alumnus of Auburn, presciently noted on January 12th, “Happy bday pstone..hope college is going well and you are drinking yourself to death.” Michael Gabel, a Dartmouth undergrad, also wrote on Matthew Pearlstone’s birthday, “why do i have a sneaking suspicion that this is the last night that pearlstone will be alive…”
- So he’s known to be a big drinker. Have you never “laughed yourself to death,” got “scared half to death,” etc? These are just common colloquialisms that you extort to your purposes.
He was indeed a notorious drunk, and after drinking however many drinks he had in that span of time, certainly should have died!
-You know what notorious means, yes? If anything his, may I say skill, in drinking made him famous. Notorius is just thrown in for, again, negative connotation. In addition, he’s not a drunk… He drinks on the weekends at parties like most other college kids.
His death may have been accidental, but the pattern of alcoholism that led him to it was certainly not.
- Pattern? He drank, his liver got rid of it, he drank, his liver got rid of it… I guess you could call that a pattern. But his death is quite a discontinuity in that pattern.
Editor’s comment: Elizabeth Condos happens to be on Pearlstone’s friend list, as she says. As such, rational explanation of the circumstances of his death is lost in the emotion of grieving for him. While his friends and family may prefer to mourn rather than pry, it’s important for the non-involved student body to know exactly what happened, and why.
- Such an unwarranted “holier than thou” attitude. Further, your psychobabble may make you giddy, but it, of course, only comes off as pretentious, since none of it intrigues anyone as to your insight into the human condition. Plus, you failed in letting the “non-involved” student body “exactly” what happened.
I have made extensive review of the written material that lives on as Pearlstone’s legacy, which clearly indicates a compulsive early-onset drinking problem.
-Except for drinking too much one time, if he is to be “diagnosed” with a “compulsive early-onset drinking problem,” then probably about 85% of all college students have it as well.
his BAC was at least .40, or more than a dozen screwdrivers in an hour.
- Yeah, good math skills, yay for you. How about… half a dozen per hour for 2 hours? Or 3 per hour for 4 hours? I don’t think he downed 12 screwdrivers in an hour. While you didn’t say he did, I’m sure you wanted to imply it to make it sound worse than it is.
k, yeah.
I mean he didn’t deserve to die, but he was in every “blacked out drunk” group on the facebook. Kind of a bonehead move. Maybe someone could have seen this coming. What did you guys, his “friends,” think about his drinking habits?
This is Matts Sister. Ive read your lil article and first off your compelelty full of **** and so is your article. Matt had no onset drinkin problem he binged drank on weekends like every other college kid. And u make it sound like it is just soooooo horrible that he drank on st partricks day what was every other freshman in college doin? and on the facebook stuff GROW THE **** UP its FACEBOOK you could join and group you wanted ITS ONLINE it doesnt mean **** about the actaul person and if all you can say about matt is that he drank to much and that then dont say anythin cuz that it is enough that i just lost my brother to not have to read stupid articles like this
and he SHOULDNT have died and who do u think you are saying that have u ever driven drunk? u dont see people going around sayin you deserve to die to jackass
[...] Matthew Pearlstone dead, not drunk [...]
[...] Matthew Pearlstone dead, not drunk [...]
it is sad to think that you are too proud to admit that what you wrote was rude, distasteful and pretetnious. people make inpulsive decisions, and i am certain that you have made them too in your life. unfortunately, the one that matt made cost him his life. however, this does NOT mean that he deserved it. the tone of your article makes it seem that way. no one deserves to die, and no parent should have to bury their child. all you are doing is adding to the pain of the victims.
Elliott – This is completely ridiculous. Do you have absoultely no sense of respect for the deceased? Apart from blatant disregard for those who cared about Matt, not to mention Matt himself, the argument you are making here is based on very little in the way of fact. Facebook profiles are, as most people know, less than accurate depictions of a person. So Matt designed it to be focused on alcohol — does that really mean anything beyond the fact that yes, he did drink, and enjoyed it? It COULD, but that doesn’t mean it DOES. You can’t make such assumptions when talking about something this serious.
Secondly — you cite the grandfather as knowing that his grandson was out partying on St. Patricks day by quoting him saying his grandson went to sleep and didn’t wake up and he didn’t understand why..then linking it to a page that does not exist. Maybe I’m missing something, but I fail to see anything relating to Matt’s drinking.
As for Aristotle, I’m not even sure if he DID think that drinking yourself to death was equivalent to suicide. All he said was that alcoholics should be held responsible for their actions — that they are the ones in control, so to speak. But this is not the same as saying Matt wanted to kill himself, which even you should know is a complete fabrication. Aristotle also said that objects of different weights will fall at different speeds under the same force of gravity, which unless you live under a rock, you know to be false. In other words: Aristotle can be wrong. So can you.
Lastly, to the cause of Matt’s death. They did not release his BAC — don’t you think maybe there were other things that were not released? Maybe Matt hadn’t eaten enough all day; maybe he didn’t realize how much alcohol was in his drinks, if they were made by someone else. Maybe he had some drugs (and I mean pharmaceuticals here) that intensified the affect of alcohol. Certain pain killers or allergy medication are as simple an explanation as any. The truth is, you don’t know, and you can’t possibly, so why make these nasty claims? If you’re going to argue something like this, you need to be POSITIVE that you are right. There’s no way you could be.
Now that the coroner has stated that the cause of death was alcohol poisoning (and for all we know, something else as well), what purpose do you hope to achieve here? Matt made a mistake that night. What exactly it was, and whether or not it was intentional, we will never truly know — but we do know that he paid with it for his life. Is that not more than enough? Let him rest in peace. All you accomplish with this is to add to the grief by implying that he was a bad person. THAT IS WRONG! It is an atrocious thing to say about someone who you clearly did not even know or care for! Can you possibly understand that? Your article serves no necessary purpose. If you have any decency whatsoever, you will take this down immediately.
And one more thing. The legal notice on this website says, I quote:
“You agree to follow all applicable laws when using this website. You agree you shall not upload or post unlawful, threatening, HARMFUL, obscene, DEFAMATORY, or OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT…”
Since you appear to be too blinded by your own ego, perhaps the number of outraged replies to your blog will do something to convince you that this certainly falls under those three headings.
This makes me sick.
Elliott’s posts are getting a lot of criticism. While he always writes bluntly, I do not see an intent to harm.
It surely is painful to learn that Matthew Pearlstone had a real drinking problem, and that such heavy drinking continued unabated without intervention until a tragedy occurred.
I thank god that a close relative of mine who drank very heavily for a good bit of college did not suffer the same fate. In that case, many people (including myself) failed to step up and help this person. I can rationalize my own behavior with fuzzy memories as time passes. The internet will not accord the same luxury to the friends of Matthew Pearlstone.
Ok, I agree with everyone that the person who posted this makes Matthew seem like an idiot and that the posting is somewhat insulting.
however, if anyone should be mad it should be at his friends who are defending him now that he’s gone when they should have been helping him b/c he had a major drinking problem.
It’s nice you are all there for him NOW..where were you when you knew his drinking was little too excessive? If you contributed to his drunkeness or encouraged it, then we should all be mad at YOU.
The blog, while mean and offensive, at least shows people that it’s not cool to just post funny comments on someone’s wall about drinking. Drinking isn’t fun and games if you have no self-control.
I feel so bad that he died bc we’ve all gotten drunk before, but I think this is an eye opener that we should all watch out for each other when we decide to drink.
So my post is to respond to the responses of my first post, but first I’ll make a few comments about the new ones I just read. The main thing is that people that support this article are taking as a granted fact that matt had a drinking problem. One might say he had one because he died from alcohol poisoning, but as someone said in the above posts, he just made an impulsive decision that he paid dearly for. I like to think that using something, whether it be alcohol, weed, etc., only becomes a problem when it interferes with what everyone can agree as his “real life.” I think we can divide life, as it is in college, into 3 categories – academic, social, and self. His social life was fine (or better than fine). Other students like him, his neighbors relied on him, and, as I saw at his memorial service, his teachers like him as well. And, with a gpa of 3.72 (I think it was), I don’t think anyone can say his academic life was in any jeopardy. As for his self, except for the night of his death, he never did himself much harm with his drinking. He never, at least that I know about, would run to the toilet to puke, stab himself with a knife because he couldn’t feel it, or whatever. In addition, he kept himself in great shape by running and diet. Only when his drinking starts to interfere with this does he have a problem. Which, of course, he did not.
Anyway, moving on! Responses to elliott’s comments of my post. Also I’d like to say, elliott, that I understand, while disagree, where you’re coming from. I would like you to consider that as we argue back and forth, and deal with my comments with respect and not just waive them off.
While an autopsy will be performed, the cause of death appears to be illegal underage drinking.
- “illegal underage” has nothing to do with the cause of death. Underage, maybe, if he were 10 years old.
Editor’s note: Drinking under the age of 21 is illegal in the United States of America.
- This only further proves my point. I believe it is fair to say that Matt could handle his alcohol just like any other 21 year old, so that argument is out. As for the illegal part. It being “illegal” has absolutely nothing to do with the cause of death, unless of course he was shot by police or something. The only thing that “illegal underage” is adding to this statement is negative connotation. “The cause of death seems to be alcohol poisoning” would suffice to inform the “non-involved student body,” as you put it.
Matt Pearlstone is never far from beer.
- That’s just made up. Unless of course you have evidence of that.
Editor’s note: If I chose to portray myself to the world as the guy with a trunk full of beer…
-If the rest of your sentence there is, “…then that means I am never far from beer,” then you are absolutely wrong. As I said, I had the SAME picture taken of me and my trunk full of beer. However, I HATE beer. I can’t stand the taste of it. Additionally, I drink probably one or two times a month. Your inference is clearly incorrect.
One Katherine Collins, an alumnus of Auburn, presciently noted on January 12th, “Happy bday pstone..hope college is going well and you are drinking yourself to death.” Michael Gabel, a Dartmouth undergrad, also wrote on Matthew Pearlstone’s birthday, “why do i have a sneaking suspicion that this is the last night that pearlstone will be alive…”
- So he’s known to be a big drinker. Have you never “laughed yourself to death,” got “scared half to death,” etc? These are just common colloquialisms that you extort to your purposes.
Editor’s note: While laughing yourself to death won’t ever happen, it’s quite possible to drink yourself to death. It’s not just a literary trope.
-The plain fact is that it IS indeed a literary trope, which I might admit I don’t know what that means, but I’m assuming it means what I was saying it is. When posting those comments on his wall, they didn’t actually expect him to drink himself to death, as you would not expect someone to laugh himself to death. Furthermore, if we’re going on the argument that drinking one’s self to death is possible and laughing to death isn’t, then let’s consider being scared to death. Get scared, heart attack, die. Or whatever.
He was indeed a notorious drunk, and after drinking however many drinks he had in that span of time, certainly should have died!
-You know what notorious means, yes? If anything his, may I say skill, in drinking made him famous. Notorius is just thrown in for, again, negative connotation. In addition, he’s not a drunk… He drinks on the weekends at parties like most other college kids.
Editor’s note: To be famous for drinking a lot is to be notorious at drinking, because over-drinking is not a positive quality.
-That’s only true if you allow society to limit your scope to what “everyone” thinks. “Drinking is bad” is a “granted” fact because society says it is. But society isn’t always right. As I said at the beginning, Matt’s drinking did not interfere with his “real life,” therefore did not have a problem, and therefore is NOT a negative thing. Additionally, who said he over-drinks? Granted the night he died, but we’re talking on a regular basis. Whenever I drank with him, he knew when to stop, and he most likely did other times as well.
his BAC was at least .40, or more than a dozen screwdrivers in an hour.
- Yeah, good math skills, yay for you. How about… half a dozen per hour for 2 hours? Or 3 per hour for 4 hours? I don’t think he downed 12 screwdrivers in an hour. While you didn’t say he did, I’m sure you wanted to imply it to make it sound worse than it is.
Editor’s Note: A male weighing 145lbs needs 16 mixed drinks in the first hour to reach the LD50 limit. Over four hours, that number increases to 17-18. Death by alcohol requires incredible consumption.
-All right, the filtering over the hours fact did indeed slip my mind. However, my point that the way you delivered such information is misleading still stands. Whether you consciously did it or not, you are implying he sat down at a table with a dozen screwdrivers, and had to drink them within an hour to win some drinking challenge or something.
So that’s all for now.
If we want to abide by the Classicists such as Aristotle, perhaps we should remember the Roman custom to speak well of the dead. While I think Matthew’s death could teach others about the dangers of excessive drinking, I don’t see how a portrait of his personality (that too, a portrait based on quotations from a facebook profile) would help others. It offers little information that I don’t know about a typical college student.
You should make your aims clear here. Is your aim to prevent future underage drinking? If so, then I think you had accomplished your goal within the first few posts. If anything, you’re just antagonizing the students you are trying to help.
Do you want to present a real picture of Matthew that, as you said, would shine light on the negative aspects of Matthew’s life (which the newspapers didn’t cover)? I don’t have anything against your giving us an accurate picture of Matthew, but at the same time, maybe you should make it balanced. It doesn’t make sense to focus only on the negative side of his personality just to “counterbalance” newspaper reports. I think an honest and well-rounded assessment of Matthew’s character is due (if there should be any assessment or judgment of his character at all).
[...] My personal experience with Dean Hubbell is limited to an email I received from him insisting I call him as soon as possible. It turned out that this was in regard to Matt Pearlstone’s death. I was confused why someone whose “role is principally as an advocate for students on campus” would call me and hint that the information I’d posted should be removed. He had received second or third hand information about the relationship of my website to the Pearlstone family, and been convinced by this other party to call me. In this case, Kent Hubbell seemed more interested in granting outside wishes than advocating a Cornell student’s right to free speech. An old friend described the role of the Dean of Students to me over AIM: He’s the faculty liaison from the S.A. Basically, he listens to them and relays their stuff to the admin so the admin can say “We listen to students! leave your complaints with my underdog, Hubbell.” [...]
[...] Two University of Virginia students were arrested for providing an unknown minor, possibly Matthew Pearlstone, with alcohol the night he died. After attending a party at Sigma Phi Epsilon’s Rugby Road house, he was found dead of alcohol intoxication in the Cauthen dorm for freshmen. [...]
Passingby said:
however, if anyone should be mad it should be at his friends who are defending him now that he’s gone when they should have been helping him b/c he had a major drinking problem.
***********************************
I’m sorry, haven’t you heard of free will? You know…where no matter what others might say, it is the individual that has the final say? Quite certainly, we should’ve held a GUN to his HEAD and threatened to SHOOT HIM for drinking, yes? WTF, man. There’s nothing more that could be done than warning Matt against what he was doing. Don’t think for a minute that his friends and family didn’t desperately attempt to make Matt slow down his habit. If there was a way to keep him from drinking, I can almost completely assure you that those close to him would’ve done it. What an ignorant statement.
Elliott, simply put — you’re an ******* who could use a class in media ethics.
I’m an alum who is compiling a notebook of tragic news stories about kids – to give to my kids when they are old enough to be exposed to alcohol/drugs and hopefully scare them a bit. So I did a Matthew Pearlstone search on Google and this blog was in the top 5. His story will definitely make my notebook, and hopefully the tragedy will be read by my kids when they are older and make them think twice about abusing alcohol.
I know a bunch of you are angry about Elliott’s blog, and I can understand particularly if you were friends or relatives of the guy. But after reading his posts from College Confidential – you all have to admit the guy had some serious issues with alcohol – apparently dating back to high school. Anyone like me who is coming at this for the first time can see it clearly. God bless his family
i think this was an excellent use of time in posting this story, he clearly had a drinking problem, no one needs to binge drink ever.
He threw everything away that night, and it is a sad story that should not be allowed to happen again.
[...] In light of the drinking that goes on at Cornell and other universities, the article is probably a worthwhile read. While just one source isn’t going to act as a preventative for the next Matt Pearlstone, it might help students moderate their drinking habits. [...]
This article was extremely painful to read as a close friend of Matt. Even worse are the responses about how friends should take responsibility, etc. Do you not think we talked to him about it? Do you think we wanted to fuel this sort of thing? Everyone parties and not only was his death horrible for us, but sitting around knowing that it could have been any of us that night is just as painful. I don’t know where anyone gets off adding grief and guilt to those who have been dealing with so much of it. Yes, people make bad decisions. You could decide to drive home after a long night of work, or skateboard without a helmet, or pick up a poisonous snake without thinking. People make harmful decisions often and unconsciously, everyone does. It is unfair to Matt and those who actually know and care about him to post conclusion based on assumption. You assume he is a heavy drinker but have you ever had a drink with him? Have you ever laughed or drove or argued or cried or played pong or watched scarface or anything with him? no. its all disrespectful assumptions. Think before you write next time, please.
You obvouisly had some sort of jealousy for this Matthew character, or you are a Southern Baptist (basically crazy). Get a life. You obviously aren’t an advocate of the notion “Do unto others and you would have them do unto you” – I hope you get what you deserve Elliot.
It’s sad when a young person dies from a rare form of incurable cancer. It’s both sad and pathetic when a young person like Matthew Pearlstone dies because his death was so very preventable. How is it possible for such an intelligent 19-year old college student to make the following statements and then to die from alcohol poisoning?
“Alcohol isn’t long-term bad for your brain.”
“I don’t take blind risks, and I’m fully aware of the risks I take with drinking.”
“I can tell you, both statistically and anecdotally, that it is very rare and comparitively hard for someone to drink themselves to death. Me and my friends are all very experienced drinkers, and we all know exactly how we get when we drink too much, so we go by those signs.”
“Any experienced drinkers who have a reasonable tolerance and a strong stomach can down 12 shots in a short period of time. That isn’t really even that dangerous of an amount, unless you are an unexperienced drinker or very small person.”
“I definately think I am tougher and smarter than most people, and have the evidence to back that up.”
Wow – is this real?
I’d keep a watch out for the Karna Police, Elliott Back. Major disrespect for the dead is enough reason for you to meet your own untimely death, yourself. Of course I’m too much of a gentleman and an optimist to ever want that to happen to you.
Unfortunately for Matt, he cannot defend himself – your blog is a disgrace.
Elliot: Why are you doing this? It just seems so damn stupid to do this to a person or the memory of him. You don’t gain anything from doing it, nor does his friends/family and nor do I who came from google trying to find some information about Cornell university. Seems like you need to grow up and get a life on your own.
To the last few people who ask why I’m doing this, the simple answer is I am not. You’ve arrived at some old posts which are no longer maintained. They’re archived, ancient, old. I don’t have a personal vendetta against Mr. Pearlstone which I maintain to this day.
At the time, I was furious that the Cornell administration labeled his death an accidental tragedy, using wording like, “This could have happened to any Cornell student,” when clearly it would only happen to those students struggling with alcoholism.
Poor kid! Dyeing at this age because of alcohol… GOD! I think teenager don’t know enough how easy it’s to get killed when drinking too much. All the alcohol rehabs are filled up with teenagers and young students. These are the luckiest examples. Matthew wasn’t a lucky one!