Okies ... Let me get this straight (Celebrity Deaths)

[iradney]

Hell, I'm in deepest darkest Africa, I don't own a TV and even I knew about Billy Mays.

[edible_hat]

Hell, I'm in deepest darkest Africa, I don't own a TV and even I knew about Billy Mays.

I watch a couple of hours of TV a day and I didn't know who Billy Mays was until I googled him.

Now, if you told any Australian my age or older that Tim Shaw died, they'd look at you funny. Until you offered them free steak knives.

(Tim Shaw is still alive, and currently trying to sell himself online. http://www.timshaw.com.au/ )

[One-Fang]

I have no idea who Billy Mays was, and if it's to do with commercials, little to no interest in Googling to find out. It certainly is relative.

At least half of the people listed on this thread I have no idea who they are. Michael, Farrah, Ed, they're known world wide to almost everybody, regardless of what TV shows you watch, what sports you're into, etc.

[Greenday]

Steve McNair makes it how many now?

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/Steve.M...2.1071568.html

[daleduke17]

I ask because I am a fan of pro-wrestling, and on June 13th of this year, one of the biggest wrestlers in Japan, Mitsuharu Misawa, died in the ring during a match.

Now, I don't think that many of the regular posters here would have heard of him, but in Japan he was big... nearly as big as Hulk Hogan. He was also highly respected within the North American wrestling community... whenever people would talk about the greatest in the world, Misawa's name would be near the top of the list, even though he only appeared in the US a handful of times. Bootleg copies of his matches have become required viewing for fans of wrestling who are tired of the stupidity of the WWE (and TNA).

Misawa was awesome. I've only seen a couple of matches, but those matches were great. Nice to see the WWE allow CM Punk to memorialize him on Raw with "Misawa" written on his wristbands.

Dom DiMaggio died earlier this year as well (Joe's brother and former Red Sox player).

[Ree]

I have no idea who Billy Mays was, and if it's to do with commercials, little to no interest in Googling to find out. It certainly is relative.

Does it really matter?

I can't believe it's still an issue.

Enough other people knew who he was, and I saw the news story on CNN.

I doubt when your or I die, it will make CNN unless we die in some very notable and newsworthy way.

I think that was the point.
Now, can we drop the whole "are they or are they not celebrity" angle of the thread.

The people who are posting about deaths that have made the news chose to use "celebrity" simply to mean "notable", I think.

Maybe his death wasn't notable to you, but I am sure there are people in your neck of the woods whose death makes the news, and we would all wonder who the heck they are.

The fact is, while this board is owned by Raps, who is from the UK, and we have members from all over the world, I would say the majority of them are from the US, and there are going to many more "current events" type posts that relate to them than to any of us others from other countries or continents.

Life's too short to get all caught up in hair splitting, really.

[daleduke17]

Does it really matter?

I can't believe it's still an issue.

Wow. Isn't that going a little overboard?

[blas]

I don't think so at all. I think Ree made a very good point, there.

[Broomjockey]

Wow. Isn't that going a little overboard?

No. It isn't.

[daleduke17]

No. It isn't.

I'm talking about using the goofy icons and the number of times they were used. It came across as rude, IMO. Plus, One-Fang's comment was from less than nine hours later than the last post on the same subject. A little post of "Hey, let's move away from the sidetrack and back to the original thought" would have come across a whole lot better, IMO. There was no need to put the icons into the post along with the tone used.

It could have come across better.

[Ree]

...And we have a report button for a reason.

[JuniorMintz]

I have a better idea, let's just ban icons all together due to all the and that they bring out of some people. Because icons are *that* important and upsetting, right?

It's not that serious, people.

[Peppergirl]

Because icons are *that* important and upsetting, right?

About as important as the need to dissect the status and definition of the word 'celebrity' and what constitutes it.

Kidding aside, we all have a different idea of what a celeb is and I liked that the OP started a thread about all the deaths lately, regardless of the perceived 'status' of the deceased.


And back to being lighthearted - is my favorite icon. I'm glad Ree reminded me of it.

[mandaliz8704]

That poor dead horse. He's just getting his butt whooped.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Wow. Isn't that going a little overboard?

Eh, not really.

A five-page argument on who's a celebrity and who isn't, on the other hand....