Farrah and Michael Jackson. That's my childhood right there. The '70s and the '80s. Ach.

"...People always told me, be careful what you do, don't go around breakin' young girls' hearts..."

Thanks rose!

I just heard that Patrick Swayze died today too

Trying to see if that is true or just a rumor...

ETA: So far I can't find it anywhere online, so for now I am going to assume it's a rumor.

My heart breaks for the loss of Michael J. I hope he is finally at peace....

I wanted to buy an Michael Jackson CD to play on the school bus tomorrow morning (for kids who only have a tiny, tiny idea of his influence, but anyway...), but by the time I was able to get to a couple of the stores in town, there wasn't a one left. And I'm too tired to burn a mix CD.

It makes me sad that a man with a talent like his wasn't able to make his comeback and end his career on a high note. Now I know what it's like to lose an icon...

i heard the song "ben" on the radio this morning and cried like a baby.

Don't I feel silly for posting about an obscure opera singer, only to have MJ die a few hours later. I've been trying to avoid a lot of the media coverage - just kind of sick, but I guess we all love a freak show, especially a dead one. Have been watching some of the steam of videos MTV has been playing - caught Jackson 5 doing ABC before I left for work this morning. Seeing him as a young, cute kid was sad, knowing what a train wreck his life was.

Jerri Nielsen, the doctor who treated her own breast cancer while in Antarctica has died.

I read about that, CH. She was an amazing woman.

Betty Allen had an amazing life, and such hard beginnings.

I don't want to hear anything bad about Micheal Jackson today! He's the first boy I pretended to kiss (on his fold-out Thriller album) and he brought a lot of joy to ghettos all over the world. I'm one of those people who believes he was victimized by greedy parents.

MJ was talented. There is no denying that fact. I have the bass line from ABC in my head. Sadness.

i agree

I'm still in shock Michael Jackson is gone....he always seemed immortal, or something. Sure, he had is Whacko Jacko moments, but there is no denying he had some awesome songs. I've been pumping the old school MJ jams all day (and secretly practicing my moonwalk/crotch grabbing dance moves!)

Y'know, I think I lost my virginity to the song "thriller"...whilst the song was indeed good, my virginity loosing didn't live up to the song. Heh.

" and mother always told me...be careful who you love, be careful what you do, cause the lie becomes the truth...billie jean..not my lover."

I'm not trying to sound rude, I won't miss this guy but Billy Mays is dead! He was 50. Apparently his wife found him.

Hmmm... he was just in a reality show I watched last week. That's weird. Was it a suicide?

No, sassy. They think it made be related to potential head trauma. Here is the article.

oh, i'm with you, candy, the world is a much quieter place without him... thank maude.

I agree. Within the first couple of hours [and then again the next afternoon], I heard a mocking joke about his demise, and it's like...he had just died. Just too soon to be makin' funnies, for me.

Re: MJ. This is just a coincidence, I know, but the day [or maybe two] before he died, I was having a memory that my dad told me about from when I was three: that I saw Thriller and was scared, but then we watched the behind-the-scenes/making-of of it, and I was fine. Really, more a memory of my dad, but still funny to be thinking of him so close to his death. Also, my little sister and I went out for drinks after work that day [she's the MJ fan], and she was telling me how she had been looking for love songs, and found the lyrics to I'll be There, loved them, and listened to it [I guess having never heard it]...and found it beautiful. This was also like the day or so before he died. We were planning on seeing him in concert this year.

Sad how things turn out in life sometimes. Between him and Farrah F., I can't even watch half of what's on TV this weekend...I kept bursting into tears.

I FEEL BAD FOR SAYING THIS, BUT JEBUS, I WILL NOT MISS BILLY MAYS!!!!! I HOPE NEITHER HIS SON NOR HIS CURRENT WIFE CHOOSE TO TAKE UP HIS MANTLE!!!!!

TOO SOON?!!!!!

ETA, Damn. I hate when a really bad obvious joke tanks like that. It made me laugh, I guess.

i don't feel at all bad about billy mays. i said it soon as i found out. sorry, but the man was an irritant and he knew it. the yelling was his schtick. his last ad had him elbowing regular people to shout for arm and hammer. on the reality show pitchmen he only yelled for his commercial, although he knew that the cameras and booms were around. he's earned that disdain. it brought him his fortune.

I was surfing the net yesterday with the TV on in the background, just for white noise, when my attention was suddenly hijacked by the most obnoxious ad for Oxyclean. It was just so loud and so jarring and so annoying, and I was thinking, who the hell is this guy and why is he yelling at me? So strange, the day after I first really noticed the guy and wished he'd just shut up, he died. Makes me feel kinda creepy.

...or all powerful.


ETA:for such an obnoxious cuss, mays did die interestingly, or perhaps it was a pitch to make sure he got headlines. not that it was intentional. how could it be? he was on a plane and it was a very rough landing. the overhead compartments came open and carry on bags were flying around the compartment. a suitcase brained him. a while later he didn't feel so good. his wife couldn't wake him the next morning.

it looks like the cause of billy mays' death was homicide by luggage.

I told a few people at a party last night about Billy Mays, and no one was really sad about him. Mainly because he was so annoying and was always screaming at you from the televison. I have no idea if he was like that in his personal life, but I had a similar experience to erinephrine the other day, and just wanted him to shut up.

aww, I still feel bad that he died. It's not like he was old and ready for it. He had a family, didn't he? He might have been a really nice guy in his personal life.

That said, I do hope they stop airing those annoying commercials.

Then again, going to sleep thinking everything is normal and then not waking up is a great way to die.

I heard they think it was actually heart disease that killed him; the airplane thing was just a coincidence.

It would be in poor taste to continue showing his commercials, but you know they'll find someone else to yell at us. He had a 3-year-old daughter and an adult stepson. I feel sorry for them, but not sorry I won't have to hear him again.

:sigh:
i heard that polly. argh! it's like everything i post turns out to be wrong. pass the hot sauce. i'll take my crow fried, please.

still, homicide by luggage is much more interesting.

"and strangers stopped him in airports to chat about the products"

omg really?.... REALLY???

Everybody beat me to the punch regarding Billy Mays. I hate to see anyone die but he so annoyed me. He made my little ears hurt with all his shouting. The mute button on my remote will get less of a workout now. You can't get me to buy something by shouting at me. Car dealer commercials are just as guilty but they are sometimes worse by all the fast talking they do.

The art world lost one of its greats today: Leo Mol has died. Those lucky enough to live in Winnipeg can visit his sculpture garden anytime they wish. One of his Shevchenko series is on display in Washington, D.C. A walk through the Mol collection is an exercise in peace.

RIP, Leo. And thanks.

Robert McNamarra. JFK called him "the smartest man I've ever met." The architect of the Vietnam War who spent the second half of his life tortured by the role he played in it.

Goodbye, Oscar Meyer.

walter cronkite has died. i'm old enough to remember him being THE news man. there was no competition. even his voice was reassuring, and even in a black household, he seemed like family, like someone you knew and you could trust completely. he educated you on the world. i would that there was someone who was as good as him on tv now. he was one of those people who you think about and you feel sorry for those who never got to hear him reporting the news, because they will never know how remarkable it could be. there would be no evening news without him.

"walter cronkite adressed the nation, everyone else just did the evening news."

frank mccourt died. obit

I was just thinking about Frank McCourt yesterday. I went through a few years of being kind of obsessed with him. Ugh... I love him.

He was a good guy. Back when Angela's Ashes first came out, before he got really famous, it was right around my mom's birthday and my dad found out he was signing books at, of all places, a Sam's Club in a nearby suburb. The book was getting good reviews, and my mom is a lover of all-things Irish, so my dad surprised her by taking her to the book signing. Almost no one came to have their book signed, and my parents ended up sitting there for a couple hours talking to him. I know it was one of the highlights of my mom's life!

While I read Angela's Ashes from cover to cover, and literally could not put it down, I have to say that local responses to Frank McCourt's vision of the city of Limerick were mixed. Many people from Limerick felt he had made their hometown look horrendous and felt resentful that he capitalised on that misery.

Certainly he (and his family) suffered, but he and his brother Malachy arguably created careers from themselves out of that misery. Which if it comforts them is all to the good, but McCourt has been arrogant and disparaging about Limerick since, long after he left, which has not gone down well with the locals.

In 2003, I participated in a week-long photo trek in Ireland. Frank McCourt was the "celebrity" on the trek. I tried, I really tried, to read Angela's Ashes ahead of time, but just couldn't get into his writing style. Instead, I listened to it on CD, being read by McCourt. That took a while, but it was worth it. McCourt was delightful, though a bit of a ham. He could talk on and on and on......

*turns green with jealousy at billybonka*

I didn't hear he died till a few days ago. Paperboy and I were on vacation and we were listening to CBC's Writers in Company on the radio and I heard Frank McCourt on so we listened to what we could before we lost reception. I was telling my mom about it a day or two ago and she told me he'd died.

I loved his books. I think Paperboy would really enjoy 'Tis in particular. I liked Angela's Ashes because it seemed like it was written through the eyes of a child. It was very point-of-fact the same way a kid sees things and just accepts them. I loved 'Tis just because he had so many interesting stories from his life.

RIP John Hughes.

I'm so sad that John Hughes died.

Aw man. Bummer.

I'm so watching Pretty in Pink tonight.

I wish I didn't have work in the morning, because I would definitely spend all night having a John Hughes marathon.

Yeah, now I wish I had all of his movies. I only have two.

The Breakfast Club was one of my favorite movies in high school and college. It's one of the reasons I became a school counselor. Pretty In Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off are still among my all time favorite movies. This makes me so sad.