What is the origin of kick the bucket?

• IN THE 1920s Chicago gangsters used to punish "double crossers" by tying them to a heavy chair with their feet in a bucket filled with wet cement. The victims of course struggled and kicked the bucket. By the night, when the cement had hardened, the double crosser was taken for a ride to Lake Michigan and dumped in. Peter Helsdon, Chelmsford (100113.266@CompuServe.com)

• TONY AITMAN is also incorrecect concerning the origin of the "word" OK. This is actually a acronym taken from "Old Kinderhook," a nickname of an early American President, Martin Van Buren.

  Eric Boysen, Albuquerque, NM, USA (hecht@unm.edu)