Today is the Coz's birthday, in case anyone was unaware. And since his photo was on the main page of the IMDb (which I can only assume most of us are familiar with) I decided to visit his page and read some of his quotes -- since he always has very interesting things to say.
I started just glancing down through the trivia while I was there and something caught my eye. A strange Brokeback Mountain-esque coincidence that I'm not sure if it has ever been pointed out or not.
Now, I had known that he had a son that was tragically murdered years ago... but I didn't really know the specifics. But according the the IMDb, his son's name was Ennis and in January 1997 he was murdered while he was fixing a flat tire. Does this not strike anyone as hauntingly strange?
Just some food for thought: if I'm not mistaken (and forgive my true Broke self if I am) the story was published in the Fall of 1997, no? Do you think that this incident could have possibly had some sort of influence upon her writing? Or is it just one of those "Napoleon Dynamite" coincidences?**
(Note that Napoleon Dynamite was an alias that Elvis Costello used but it was unknown to the filmmakers of Napoleon Dynamite until well into production.)