I used to look in our papers’ obits for folks who died at 99, to see how close they made it to 100. One time a man died two days before turning 100. The obit was fairly standard, but the last line made it immortal. “The party planned for his 100th birthday will go on as scheduled”
Mike Mageek is dead aged 74:
Donahue is gone-a-hu.
Sigh. I replaced Phil Donahue on my 2024 list about 2 hours before midnight last December 31st. I feel responsible somehow.
Venezuelan cyclist Daniela Larreal was found dead. She apparently died on approximately August 11 by choking on a meal she was eating. Larreal lived alone and her body wasn’t discovered until August 18.
Larreal competed in the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2012 Olympics. She protested against the presidency of President Maduro and left Venezuela for the United States in 2018 after she received death threats. She was 50 years old at the time of her death.
As a person who lives alone, that’s always been one of my biggest fears. I even came close once.
Also, it seems she died on my birthday, so I’m not taking any chances. I’m not eating any more.
30 Rock has a whole episode about it. I’ve thought about it, too. I should really learn the self-heimlich or whatever they use these days.
I’ve had to self-Heimlich. It wasn’t fun. I don’t recommend it, unless it’s necessary. Don’t do it for fun.
That happened to Guy Williams(Zorro, Dr. John Robinson) I think he was living in Argentina when he passed, and apartment neighbors noticed a smell.
It’s not how Layne Staley(Alice in Chains) died, but he did die alone and no one noticed until his business manager or drug dealer realized he hadn’t spent any money recently. Sad.
I heard some bad stories about them finally finding him…
He weighed something ridiculous like 80 pounds.
Missing, presumed dead: tech exec Mike Lynch, whose yacht went down after being hit by a waterspout in the Mediterranean:
Lynch was recently acquitted after HP accused him of fraud in the sale of his company Autonomy to them. In a weird twist of fate, Lynch’s codefendant Stephen Chamberlain has also just died after being hit by a car while jogging.
“twist of fate” you say!?
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action”
― Ian Fleming, Goldfinger
All things are possible, but if you’d asked me to guess which corporation was capable of arranging assassinations and literally controlling the weather, at no point would I have guessed “Hewlett Packard”.
Are you familiar with the Hewlett Packard spying scandal?
Now there is a woman who deserved the nation’s highest honor.