Dying is bad, any way you look at it, but I don't know what's worse: Dying after celebrating bowling a perfect game, or having your colleagues throw you in the air in celebration at your retirement party and then dying because they didn't catch you.

I vote for the co-workers not catching you.

Having heart attacks and dying after a big event, such as watching your team win the Super Bowl, or bowling 300, are tragic events I've heard of. But this type of celebration that the man's wife is alleging led to his death, is something new. Aren't retirement parties supposed to be calm?

According to the Reuters story, a 60-year-old man in Japan was thrown into the air in celebration at his retirement party. His colleagues didn't catch him and he fell to the floor, damaging his neck and backbone, leaving him paralyzed, the Mainichi paper reported on its website. He eventually died of blood poisoning.

The man's wife filed a police complaint against colleagues who threw him up into the air, accusing them of gross negligence. The man died in September, 10 months after the party attended by around 40 people at an unnamed transport company at an inn in Ritto, near the ancient capital of Kyoto in central Japan.

"He worked until the retirement age. We had been looking forward to going to various places as a couple and were excited that we would be able to spend a relaxing time together," his wife is quoted as saying to the newspaper.

Aaron Crowe is an unemployed journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Read about his job search at www.talesofanunemployeddad.blogspot.com