Tabishland

Well said!
 

And now Billy Mays makes four.
 

Thanks, Nell. I've been away this week-end and missed all of the media attention to this... so thanks for posting. There was one bit in the Sunday paper in Denver that I happened to catch about why celebrity deaths seem to effect us so much. Of course, these articles always come out when some celebrity dies. But the truth is, it certainly does have an impact on our lives because these people (or more accurately their personas) are part of our lives.
 

John Updike (another major figure who recently passed, and part of my own white-male small-town Pennsylvania ethnic literary canon) once wrote a story called "Deaths of Distant Friends." I remember little about it except the feeling I took away, which is similar to what Kim is suggesting: that when even a "distant friend" (or celebrity whose career we've casually followed) passes away, they take a small but unique part of us with them. This feeling comes out in a different way in his poem "Elegy for a Real Golfer" (published in his new collection titled ENDPOINT) about the strange death of Payne Stewart.
PS: Hello from the Wolverine state, where I'm spending the summer. I've been keeping up with the blog, but just haven't had anything to say. Have enjoyed the pics from Baltimore and more.
 

"Wolverine State," I confess I had to look that up. I also have to confess I think "Wolverine State" sounds a hell of a lot cooler than "Michigan" and I think they should consider a name change. Whatcha doing there?
 

Musicological research, highly classified, but let's just say it involves playing Stratego with my daughter. (Anybody remember that game? It had been about 30-plus years since I played it last.)