The Grim Reaper and Entertainment

[Andy_N19]

Just heard that Carrie Fisher has just died.
The Grim Reaper is having a bloody field day this week... who next tomorrow?

[SheepRanger]

Ive read our Brucie is in poor health.

Im sure 2016 will continue as those in their 40/50s see those from their teens die. As for pop stars their drug and alcohol issues catch up with them.

I really need to shift a few stone in weight as Ill be 50 in July. Far too heavy and perhaps we all need to take notice of these deaths.

[SheepRanger]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38441206

[222gers]

Ive read our Brucie is in poor health.

Im sure 2016 will continue as those in their 40/50s see those from their teens die. As for pop stars their drug and alcohol issues catch up with them.

I really need to shift a few stone in weight as Ill be 50 in July. Far too heavy and perhaps we all need to take notice of these deaths.

I often wonder if some of them play up to their image. I've shaken hands with John Barleycorn more than a few times in my life but I don't think I could've downed a bottle and a half of Jack Daniels a day for 50 years as Keith Richards has supposed to have done !

[DAVEf]

My wife's dad died a couple of weeks before Christmas following minor back surgery. He worked on early hovercraft development but was never really famous. He was fit (cycled 80km non-stop on his 80th three years ago), never smoked and always did everything in moderation. NHS managed three different versions of what actually killed him. The coroner picked the simplest (and least believable) and that's that. Their wedding anniversary would have been Christmas Eve. She (and my wife) devastated. He won't make the news so I thought he (indeed they) could have a mention on here if only to point out that the deaths of "famous" people is of rather less importance to some folk than it is to others.

[Don]

Well said Mr F. I'm sorry for your loss. Most deaths mean a lot to a few people. I too have had times when I've lost people close to me and those deaths have - as you'd expect - gone largely unnoticed. Then you have people going all Princess Di over someone they've never met. I've heard a number of people claiming these deaths make 2016 the Worst Year Ever. Personal circumstances and happenings will have made it just that for some people. For others (like me) 2016 has been one of the absolute best. It's all about balance.

The Mash has a sensible perspective on it. http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/cele ... 0205105947

[222gers]

I think we all show respect when somebody departs be they famous or the bloke down the chip shop. We put these RIPs up as conversation pieces. Some are musically or artistically significant others less so but it's nice to remember them. Many more died this year but got no RIP on here as they wouldn't have been known to some posters. I'm surprised nothing for Greg Lake though.

[SheepRanger]

I think we all show respect when somebody departs be they famous or the bloke down the chip shop. We put these RIPs up as conversation pieces. Some are musically or artistically significant others less so but it's nice to remember them. Many more died this year but got no RIP on here as they wouldn't have been known to some posters. I'm surprised nothing for Greg Lake though.

He only played the bass which is one step up from the triangle.

[DAVEf]

I think we all show respect when somebody departs be they famous or the bloke down the chip shop. We put these RIPs up as conversation pieces. Some are musically or artistically significant others less so but it's nice to remember them. Many more died this year but got no RIP on here as they wouldn't have been known to some posters. I'm surprised nothing for Greg Lake though.

He only played the bass which is one step up from the triangle.

Says someone who has obviously never suffered artistic and technical struggles with the triangle

[DAVEf]

Rationing ended in the UK in 1954.

Anyone born after a few years before that date was immediately in a world where sugar and animal fats were not only once again available but available to parents who had benefitted from at least 15-odd healthy years in terms of diet and exercise (bombs and bullet etc excepted) but were keen their offsping could have what they hadn't. And most of those born from 1950 onwards were eagily pushed down roads of unhealthy consumption. And then the same age group was also at the front of the chemical experimentation times and lower-activity past-times as they reached their prime.

And so now, those between their early forties and mid-to-late 60s are paying the price and keeling over (made more obvious by so many of the generation that came before which "benefitted" from the hardships of their times still plodding happily on towards big numbers).

Parents out-living their children. And soon we could have grandparents out-living their grandkids.

So it's not a surprise or a shock or a jinx on the year ---- these famous people are mostly all in the right age-group for popping off around now and any doctor or historian could (probably has) forecast it. But then whoever listens to doctors and/or historians?

[Andy_N19]

Well said Mr F. I'm sorry for your loss. Most deaths mean a lot to a few people. I too have had times when I've lost people close to me and those deaths have - as you'd expect - gone largely unnoticed. Then you have people going all Princess Di over someone they've never met. I've heard a number of people claiming these deaths make 2016 the Worst Year Ever. Personal circumstances and happenings will have made it just that for some people. For others (like me) 2016 has been one of the absolute best. It's all about balance.

The Mash has a sensible perspective on it. http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/cele ... 0205105947

Well said Don, it all depends on how you view "celebrities". The ho-ha over Bowie was frankly ridiculous,
nobody I know listened to any Bowie music and I'm middle aged also.
Like you, 2016 was a fairly good year.