Hot to trot Oregon suitor turns self into hunk of burning love
to propose
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - To prove his love, a 38-year-old man set
himself on fire before going down on one knee and asking his
girlfriend to marry him.
About 100 people gathered to watch Todd Grannis perform the flaming
stunt Monday, which involved wearing a cape soaked in
gasoline.
Grannis climbed up a three-metre-high scaffold, was set on fire and
then plunged into a swimming pool, dousing the blaze. Emerging
unscathed, he went down on one knee and proposed, as a friend
standing nearby slipped him the engagement ring.
"Honey, you make me hot," he told his sweetheart, Malissa
Kusiek.
"I hope I'm getting the point across that I'm on fire for
you."
Kusiek, who has been dating Grannis for several years, said "yes"
but added she was a little angry because of the danger.
"At first I was mad, because I thought: 'He's not a stuntman,"'
Kusiek said.
"Then, of course, the tears started flowing. Of course I said
yes."
"I was so thrilled."
Grannis said he came up with the stunt through the help of his
friend, professional stuntman Eric Barkey.
Barkey pulled out a photo of himself on fire and said: "You could
do that," Grannis said.
Grannis met Kusiek, the owner of a local hair salon, when she cut
his hair.
"I kept telling her sometime before I'm 50," said Grannis, who
co-owns an Internet wholesale company.
"She wasn't expecting it. She had no clue."
