A 41-year-old Oneonta man died in a bar fight Saturday night in Laurens.

What a damned stupid way to die.

What an asinine, unnecessary, inglorious waste of a human life.

Laurence W. Miller, 41, was a big man, about 6-foot-5 with a hefty build. A state police investigator said Miller had words with another patron of the Country Rock Cafe on state Route 23.

According to witnesses, Miller threw a punch, which was blocked. Then the other man responded with a blow that knocked Miller down. He hit his head on the hard barroom floor, fractured his skull and died.

For what?

For nothing.

The bar fight, of course, has a special place in American culture thanks to countless movies in which they appear to be such fun.

It almost wasn’t a John Wayne movie if it didn’t have a bar fight in it somewhere. It didn’t matter if it was a western or "Donovan’s Reef" or "The Quiet Man."

Or maybe it was a Burt Reynolds flick or those of any number of other stars. Everybody fought ... and no one got seriously hurt.

At worst, someone would spit out a tooth and grin about it, slap his former foe on the back and buy him a beer.

But real life isn’t the movies.

Real life means real danger, real blood ... and in the most awful

circumstances, real death.

Miller, for the past two seasons a full-time groundskeeper at the Oneonta Country Club, lived with his grandfather, William T. Burrows.

Burrows said fights happen when people go out to the bar, drink and get "frisky."

Frisky.

We suppose frisky can mean all sorts of things.

The dispute that led to Miller’s death was apparently over a woman. But the reason doesn’t seem to matter much when people get liquored up and start thinking they can fight like Muhammad Ali.

Maybe it’s a dispute over politics or religion. Maybe it’s about whether the Mets or Yankees are the better team. Maybe it’s somebody changing a song on a juke box.

Maybe it’s no reason at all except someone not being able to have a couple of drinks without getting belligerent.

In the last several years, it hasn’t always been men trying to prove their manhood by beating up someone in a bar.

Some women have apparently been trying to prove their manhood, too.

This is regarded as great sport in some misguided male circles.

Writing in the July 2004 issue of Men’s Journal, Jonathan Miles had this to say about the phenomenon of women fighting in bars.

"If you’re accustomed to ladies of a genteel sort, there’s a world-upside-down element to them," Miles wrote, "and they can sometimes have the frightening appeal of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel."

Whether it’s men or women, it’s so absolutely unnecessary for anyone to be hurt or killed in a bar.

The shame of it all is that until the alcohol-purchasing public learns that there is no glory to be had in any bar fight, there will be more tragedies.

And more tragically unnecessary sorrow.