On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 8:22 PM, Bryan<[email protected]> wrote: > >>> You just can't help yourself, can you, Kevin? >> >> Men helping themselves is what made Farrah's poster so popular back in the >> day. > > What I meant about this was that you never seem to let something pass by > without > making a snarky, innappropriate comment. The Michael Jackson post, and this > one... > what a really unhappy person you must be.
I've lived five blocks from the Pacific Ocean for a week now. I've almost forgotten what the word unhappy means. Bryan, I'm not a huge fan of journalism covering non-news about celebrities, and I'm not a huge fan of worshiping false idols. Today was a two-for-one deal on both fronts. I don't dislike either Jackson or Fawcett, but the reverence in which they are being held borders on the clinically insane. I reacted the same way when Tony Snow (who I definitely did not like) passed a while back, so this isn't just me being contrary today for the sake of getting cheap laughs. I appreciate that it is considered rude to speak ill of the dead, but I consider it equally rude to place people on pedestals who do not deserve it. If Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett are what passes for inspirational in modern society, than modern society is in bigger trouble than I could have imagined. Two famous people died today. Sad, but not news. A few days back when Ed McMahon passed away, his death was dealt with mostly in the world of late night TV, which is as it should have been. To the best of my knowledge, helicopters didn't hover over his house (or the house that Trump paid for him to continue to live in), and the press didn't converge on his corpse like vultures. McMahon's peers paid him tribute, and then we moved on with the business of living. And I say that as a fan of McMahon's work on the Tonight Show. If you haven't celebrated the man's life while he was still living, there is little point in doing so after he has passed away (someone remind me sometime to share the story of the time I met Ed McMahon). Just because we remember where we were the first time we heard Michael Jackson sing "Beat It" (or the first time we beat it to Farrah Fawcett) doesn't qualify any of us to bring our lives to a screeching halt upon hearing news of his (or her) death. And just because journalists have footage of Wacko Jacko (or whacked out Farrah) being bussed from home to funeral home doesn't mean legitimate news of war, riot, and nuclear weapons gets preempted. And if my parenthetical asides seem too crass for your sensibilities, my response is simple: These two celebrities did not live with dignity, so why must my response to news of their respective deaths be more dignified than their lives? By all accounts, Fawcett and Jackson lived their lives without a moment's thought about what others might think about them. I'm just giving it back. I'm not unhappy. I'm on vacation. -- Kevin M. (who, indeed, hopes to fart around at his own funeral) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... Smart (TV) People on Ice! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
