joan garry

I often go to ‘Google Hot Trends’ to see what people are talking about.  It reminds me that either I am an alien being or that I am the only sane one.   And it seems that the death roll continues.   First Farrah Fawcet, then Michael Jackson.  Then (in an oddly crushing blow to our fourteen year old son Ben), Billy Mays, the OxyClean man.

Things seem to be going to hell in a handbasket.  Now googlers are over the edge, googling the death of everyone it seems.

This morning my heart stopped when I realized one of the top searches was “Miley Cyrus Death.”  I frantically googled myself and it appears that Miley is alive and well, complete with nose pierce.  Further down the list, I saw “Bruce Willis dead.”  Bruce Willis is NOT dead.  He is way older than he was when I first saw him on Moonlighting, but big difference between old and dead.

Even Eileen got into the act last night.  We received a terrific dvd of Ben and Kit’s 8th grade graduation ceremony and I was oohing and aahing about it.  Did we get two of them,  Eileen asked me.  No, just this one.   But Ben and Kit each need one, she said.   I don’t think so, I said.  This dvd is for us.  She stopped.  But Ben and Kit will each need one when we are dead.

While in this current climate, I guess Eileen’s train of thought makes some sense, the fact is I wasn’t thinking quite that far ahead.

I’d like to report that this death frenzy has escaped me but no such luck.   When Ben came down on Saturday morning to tell me that he had learned of the sudden demise of the OxyClean guy, I went into an momentary emotional tailspin thinking that Willy Mays had died.

I caught myself.  Willie Mays has been dead for some time I thought.  And this joke, that I confused these two deceased men, one of modest notoriety and one of fame,  that was to have been the point of this post.

And then I googled THE Willie Mays.  He is alive and well at 78.

Now I think I know how these things get started…..