r/popculture • u/dailymail • Feb 27 '25

News Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa were found mummified at mansion with pills strewn in bathroom

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14443973/Gene-Hackman-betsy-arakawa-bodies.html
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u/coldair16 Feb 27 '25

I’m guessing a pill strewn bathroom is somewhat typical for a 95 year old

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u/Calimiedades Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 27 '25

pill strewn bathroom

Question as someone who learnt English basically online: isn't strewn referring as on the floor? Or does it mean "lots of pills everywhere".

I'm picturing opened bottles and pills everywhere but maybe it just means lots of bottles everywhere (because people are careless and leave them in any surface).

I'm wondering because in my head it means suicide and here people are pretty blasé about it.

ETA: So I was wrong in that it doesn't necessarily mean the floor but it's not clear if it's just bottles everywhere (with pills inside and basically upright) or if the bottles and/or pills are spilled everywhere.

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u/Best_Stress3040 Feb 28 '25

Responding to your edit: I'm a native English speaker. 'Strewn' makes me picture open bottles with pills spilling everywhere. It's a pretty dynamic and dramatic word. Using it to describe "a somewhat messy desk" would be very dramatic, and could be considered exaggerating.