Celebrity Deaths

[PhantasticSanShiSan]

      Guy who drove cars in circles for a living(no wonder the Saudis laugh at us) Dick Trickle dead via self inflicted lead posioning at 71.

        Personally, I think it's incredible he made it to 71. With a name like that, I would have offed myself before my voice changed.

Man, THAT is why I love you. You've still got it man!  And didn't Dick Trickle have one of the very best sports names EVER?

[Eddie Coyle]

Man, THAT is why I love you. You've still got it man!  And didn't Dick Trickle have one of the very best sports names EVER?

Rusty Kuntz of the early 80's White Sox/Tigers is my all time favorite. One of those baseball cards I took delight in finding. I'd loudly announce "look at my Rusty Kuntz!"


        Let us not forget former Red Sox pitcher Dick Pole, either.

[PhantasticSanShiSan]

       Rusty Kuntz of the early 80's White Sox/Tigers is my all time favorite. One of those baseball cards I took delight in finding. I'd loudly announce "look at my Rusty Kuntz!"


        Let us not forget former Red Sox pitcher Dick Pole, either.

It's kind of weird - You'd think that nascar would own that dominion, but overall baseball has always had fantastic names.  I mean, Dick Trickle even sounds like it's supposed to be a baseball name.

[Eddie Coyle]

It's kind of weird - You'd think that nascar would own that dominion, but overall baseball has always had fantastic names.  I mean, Dick Trickle even sounds like it's supposed to be a baseball name.

The NBA owns the foolish names department...but baseball has just enough oblivious hicks to compete with Nascar. Dick Trickle indeed sounds like a minor league instructor in Mariners organization.

[West of the Rockies]

Alan O'Day, singer/songerwriter (best known for "Undercover Angel") passed away today at 72.  Wow, how is possible that he was that age?  It seems like just a short time ago that I heard that song on the radio.  Damn... I am getting old(er).

[Sardondi]

Alan O'Day, singer/songerwriter (best known for "Undercover Angel") passed away today at 72.  Wow, how is possible that he was that age?  It seems like just a short time ago that I heard that song on the radio.  Damn... I am getting old(er).

Holy crap. Up until now when most pop/rock musicians have died, I've been able to avoid thoughts of my own mortality by looking at the circumstances of the deaths and saying, "junkie", "alky" "depressive no-talent One-Hit Wonder who committed suicide". But 72? That's like, dying from old age. I could stand it when Pal McCartney actually made it to 64. But now he's 72. These people have gotten not just old but elderly. They are now officially the exact generational equivalent that Tommy Dorsey was to our parents and grandparents when popular music was made to suit us. I realized the other day I am no longer confident of being able to prevail in virtually any knockdown brawl. I can't stand up straight to save my life, and have lost 3 inches in height. I can't remember names of public figures or celebrities that 5 years ago I rattled off. It's not the dying I mind at all: it's the damn humiliating decline of growing old.

Will nobody stop this damn runaway train of aging?

[onan]

Will nobody stop this damn runaway train of aging?

I know right? What really hurts is, I remember what I thought of some of the older people I used to deal with. I used to get annoyed with people that fumbled with finding the right word. I used to be slightly revulsed by wrinkles and age spots. I couldn't be bothered waiting for the slow driver ahead of me. Now that is me, and I see that same thought process running across some of the faces I deal with... It brings shame to my youthful memories and sadness that some of my associates are now having the thoughts I did 30 years ago.

[Juan]

The 25-year old children I used to work with called me a "crazy old man" so many times, I've embraced it.

[West of the Rockies]

Hey, Sardondi (and Onan, UFOFill)... Wow, that Tommy Dorsey reference really resonates.  When we were young whippersnappers listening to our crazy rock-n-roll music, Dorsey would have seemed like some cultural relic.  Now people like Mick Jagger (Bloody Sir Mick!) somehow are 72!  And,  yes, in a fist fight, I would no longer feel terribly comfortable "mixing it up" with a lot of guys....  I'm sure I'm slow and simply about 99% less interested in testing my metal. 

Well, he who runs away today lives to run another day, eh?    (By the way, Sardondi, kudos for the English historical reference.)

[Eddie Coyle]

           I've rather unwisely chosen to be an assistant coach for my kid's baseball team of 13-15 year olds. The other two coaches/fathers are 52 and 49. I'm 37. But to these kids, I can sense they think I'm in the same age group as the other two. To a 13 year old, they seem to fail to dilineate the difference between 37 and 52. In their eyes, we're equally "old" or so it seems.

         In summary. It's over. Back 9 for me.

   *As I typed this I'm watching a Colombo episode that originally aired on 2/10/74. I really am an old bastard.

[West of the Rockies]

           
   *As I typed this I'm watching a Colombo episode that originally aired on 2/10/74. I really am an old bastard.

Yeah, well, at least you don't remember the episode when it first aired!  Hell, I was twelve....

[Eddie Coyle]

Yeah, well, at least you don't remember the episode when it first aired!  Hell, I was twelve....

If it's any consolation, my mother was 17 at the time.

[Sardondi]

I know right? What really hurts is, I remember what I thought of some of the older people I used to deal with. I used to get annoyed with people that fumbled with finding the right word. I used to be slightly revulsed by wrinkles and age spots. I couldn't be bothered waiting for the slow driver ahead of me. Now that is me, and I see that same thought process running across some of the faces I deal with... It brings shame to my youthful memories and sadness that some of my associates are now having the thoughts I did 30 years ago.

Exactly my thoughts as well. I'm so ashamed of what I thought and how I acted.

[Tinfoil Hat]

           I've rather unwisely chosen to be an assistant coach for my kid's baseball team of 13-15 year olds. The other two coaches/fathers are 52 and 49. I'm 37. But to these kids, I can sense they think I'm in the same age group as the other two. To a 13 year old, they seem to fail to dilineate the difference between 37 and 52. In their eyes, we're equally "old" or so it seems.

         In summary. It's over. Back 9 for me.

   *As I typed this I'm watching a Colombo episode that originally aired on 2/10/74. I really am an old bastard.

Ha! Just wait another 8 years my friend. If you think it's bad now...

Middle age ain't for panty-waists.

[Eddie Coyle]

Ha! Just wait another 8 years my friend. If you think it's bad now...

Middle age ain't for panty-waists.

No kidding. People actually assume I'm over 45 anyway so maybe that will lessen to blow...but probably not.
           I could buy beer without trouble at 14...so maybe I can get senior discounts at 42. There is a bright side.

[PB the Deplorable]

... so maybe I can get senior discounts at 42...

The trouble with that is yuh gotta buy something

[Eddie Coyle]

The trouble with that is yuh gotta buy something

What a ripoff.

[UnscreenedCaller]

Ray Manzarek of the Doors is being reported to have passed away at 74. This one really hurts. 

[Eddie Coyle]

Ray Manzarek of the Doors is being reported to have passed away at 74. This one really hurts. 

Ray Manzarek, whose interviews were always really amusing because he employed "man" about every 5th word,but it was actually not annoying in the least. This is definitely a bummer.

[UnscreenedCaller]

      Ray Manzarek, whose interviews were always really amusing because he employed "man" about every 5th word,but it was actually not annoying in the least. This is definitely a bummer.

That was part of his charm. Good times. Bummer is right. This really does hurt.

[Sardondi]

I was 40 when I started noticing significant body changes, like everything sagging and hurting, and walking like a robot for 5 minutes when I woke up. 55 which I recently hit was the damn Götterdämmerung. Holy crap, how I'm now paying for all those orthopedic insults I gave my body when I played football from junior high through college; plus, in decreasing range of demands on my body and also chronologically for date of abandonment of that particular activity - wrestling, basketball, baseball, handball, racquetball, tennis, running, softball, mountain biking and street cycling; not a one of which I've done in 10 years because of pain. Then the wreck and fall down stairs which turned me into a permanently limping and bent old man overnight. As much as I loved it, I must admit football truly is the great crippler of middle-aged American men, with its debilitating injuries often not all that difficult to overcome until later in life when they define you.

I find myself fantasizing about the ease of dying by being hit from behind by a phantom speeding bus; or hoping I have the great luck of having a thunderous CVA/infarct in my sleep. I find myself thinking about stories of easeful deaths: a lawyer of my acquaintance who came home with plans to go out to dinner later with his wife, but who felt tired and sat in his chair to take a quick nap, and just didn't wake up. Oh, what a gift. True bliss.

Glass half-full? Hell, mine has the bottom knocked out of it. Yeah, I'm hurting today.

Ray Manzarek of the Doors is being reported to have passed away at 74. This one really hurts.

Holy crap. As if to underscore what we just said about elderly rock stars. Loved his playing, but I particularly loved hearing him speak. Now there was a radio announcer's voice.

Well, who's #3 gonna be?

[MV/Liberace!]

Ray Manzarek of the Doors is being reported to have passed away at 74. This one really hurts. 

wow.  yet another example... if you are a celebrity of advanced age or declining health and you pass randomly into my thoughts for any measurable amount of time, you will die within a month.  the two most recent examples of this happening are annette funicello and allan arbus.

[PB the Deplorable]

Ray Manzarek of the Doors is being reported to have passed away at 74. This one really hurts. 

First off, how can he be 74?  That's scary.  It's ok if Mick or Paul are 70 something but I always sort of thought the Doors were just a few years older than me.  Guess not.

Weren't he and Robbie just touring last year?  And wasn't he doing a different tour with Roy Rogers (not that Roy Rogers).   Dang, he went fast.

The Doors were easily the favorite band on our floor in my dorm my first year of college, and this was years after Morrison died.  Devo was all the rage elsewhere.

[UnscreenedCaller]

First off, how can he be 74?  That's scary.  It's ok if Mick or Paul are 70 something but I always sort of thought the Doors were just a few years older than me.  Guess not.

Well, Keith Richards has been 74 for the past 30 years at least, to put it into perspective.

[Sardondi]

Well, Keith Richards has been 74 for the past 30 years at least, to put it into perspective.

Keef's liver was 74 by 1972. He just keeps making those annual trips to Hong Kong for new ones. Back in the 70's and 80's he went to Switzerland to literally completely change his blood supply every few months as a way to achieve rapid heroin detox as well as a general program of rejuvenation. It took a few dozen pints of blood to be sure of a complete change-out to "clean" blood, but apparently as The #2 Rolling Stone cost was no object, nor was the availability of blood. It must work - maybe the same theory as changing your oil every 3,000 miles.

[Eddie Coyle]

wow.  yet another example... if you are a celebrity of advanced age or declining health and you pass randomly into my thoughts for any measurable amount of time, you will die within a month.  the two most recent examples of this happening are annette funicello and allan arbus.

I beg of you to think about Bono...a lot.

[analog kid]

         I beg of you to think about Bono...a lot.

And Jay Leno.

And Russell Brand...

[Eddie Coyle]

          Trevor Bolder...bass player for the Spiders From Mars and later Uriah Heep. Dead at 62.

            Not a big name...but more proof that Bowie will probably outlive all of his 1967-1992 band members

[PhantasticSanShiSan]

And Jay Leno.

And Russell Brand...

Watch Russell Brand on Norm Macdonald's podcast. It's therapeutic; now instead of hating him I only mildly dislike him.

[Sardondi]

Trevor Bolder...bass player for the Spiders From Mars and later Uriah Heep. Dead at 62.
            Not a big name...but more proof that Bowie will probably outlive all of his 1967-1992 band members.

One more Bowie associate gone. In the movie The Hunger from the early 80's, Bowie played the BF of Vampire Queen Catherine Deneuve (still one of the most beautiful women in the world IMO). She made him wampyr, giving him greatly extended life but not the youth to go with that lifespan. For fun and to feed, the pair spend their nights cruising the clubs looking for couples to swing with and then feed upon. But his growing decrepitude is a problem, so she must replace him. But apparently under Vampire Law she can't kill him, because she picks the by now elderly Bowie up like a child and puts him in a trunk, which she locks and drags into an attic room....which contains a half-dozen other similar trunks. The movie ends with a shot of Bowie's rattling trunk...or is it one of the other trunks, occupied by his predecessors who have been there for decades or even centuries, as the occupants vainly try to attract the attention of a rescuer, unable to escape, and apparently unable to die?

I've always had in mind that in RL it's Bowie who is the Catherine Deneuve character. He has reinvented himself a dozen times now, for the most part abandoning those eh ran with in his earlier iteration. To reinvent himself Bowie sidles up to the hot new kids of the moment, pals around with them, collaborates on an album, drawing the performer's lifeblood, which is attention and applause, from them. Then when the thrill wains for the public, Bowie abandons the once-hot kids and moves on to the next victims. It's like watching a wise, if treacherous, old dog cross the interstate with a young pup in tow.

How many trunks does Bowie have stored in his attic?