a (somewhat) personal note to a (more than somewhat) pretty latina in florida

the only reason i say “somewhat” is if i did this truly personal i would have just sent an email…

…but to make this more than a “somewhat” public apology, i figured i’d do it here.

so, patrick swayze died this week. he was the star of roadhouse (which i only recently sat through for the first time and, in it’s defense, it WAS on cable so perhaps all the “good parts” were edited to oblivion but i wasn’t impressed, and can’t figure out why my friend actually named her kid after his character in the movie – true story!), dirty dancing (i only saw fifteen minutes of this one, and immediately had to go drink enough to wipe those fifteen minutes out of my short term memory) and ghost (i didn’t even last fifteen seconds with that one). i hit imdb and outside of the outsiders and red dawn i couldn’t find a single movie he’s been in i was able to sit through start to finish. he was just too cheesy for me – but he knew it, as well illustrated with his s.n.l. skit with chris farley where they compete as male strippers. so he knew his queso ratio, and rode the river of cheese all the way to the bank. in that light, way to go.

he died of cancer, which prompted a couple of people to ask me if it hit me a bit harder than other celebrity deaths due to the “c word” being involved (my mom, grandfather, and even eighteen year old boa constrictor all died of cancer) but if you’ve ever seen anyone you love getting eaten alive from the inside out by this disease you know that them finally finding peace in death, regardless of whether or not you believe in an afterlife, is a good thing. whether they’re in heaven, came back as a gazelle on the plains of new guinea, or are just rotting in the ground, at least you know they’re not in pain in the crumbling shell that used to be their body.

so, now that we’ve covered my personal background on a headline news event, let’s move on to the apologetic part…

it’s not uncommon for comedians to crack a joke about a celebrity death – if they get a laugh, they treat it like any other joke in their routine and flow to the next one…if they get a gasp or “boo”, they typically say, “what? too soon?”. a friend on one of those social sites (and in real life) put a comment on their profile that was something to the effect of…

“nobody puts swayze in a corner…R.I.P.”

i think this is a dirty dancing reference – remember i wiped the fifteen minutes of that movie i saw pretty cleanly from the old memory banks. but my response (which she didn’t really need, but after two thirty-four ounce “psychedelic frogs” it seemed like a good idea) was…

“yeah, but they’ll put him with a coroner…”

which was actually closely followed with…

“wow…even i found that slightly offensive”

several points i want to make about both lines. well only one on the second one – i want to apologize for anybody who read it (the “wow…even i…” one) because i kinda lied. i actually didn’t find it offensive. it is, in fact, a fact of life (pardon the irony in the term). when you die, your body has to go SOMEWHERE (and we’re talking the “earthly remains”, not the spirit or soul or whatever your creed adheres to in this situation) and post-mortem, pre-embalming, that place is typically the coroner. double that if you’re a celebrity.

the l.a. county coroner’s office has confirmed… – how many times have you heard THAT on celebrity death news?

just a fact. so tacky, i’ll grant you – but offensive? far from. hate to break it to anyone reading, but when YOU die, guess where your body heads before they put you in your sunday best and in a box.

actually, i guess there wasn’t several points. that pretty much summed up my opinion AND the reasoning behind the comment. holy shit – i can write a short version on occasion…

(and yes, i realize this entry as a whole isn’t short, but at least i summed that part of it up nicely)

so, to the pretty girl in florida i offended to the point of multiple comments coming back in multiple places and even threats of dropping me off her friends list (just for that? after all these years? seriously? and did you catch i actually deleted my comment? might wanna do the same with your responses…) i would like to apologize. apparently this one WAS said too soon…

…but, medical procedure fact or not, it was still a LITTLE bit funny. i’m just sayin’.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • transamdan Sep 18, 2009 @ 22:51

    wait did you forget to mention, To Wong Foo: Thanks For Everything, only his best movie ever!!!!!!! you obviously have no taste!!!

  • sean Sep 21, 2009 @ 12:18

    you’re right, dan – i think that might be the only other one i’ve seen all the way through, and (given the premise) it surprisingly wasn’t bad…

  • Leia Sep 23, 2009 @ 23:05

    I don’t recall threatening to drop you as a friend… if I did, I’m sure I was joking! I really wasn’t offended persay… I guess just with the influx of celebrity deaths lately, it seems people’s attitudes become more cavalier (not you specifically, just in general). Case in point: Michael Jackson. Yes, a very controversial figure with a controversial life, who caused an onslaught of really hateful things said about him even before he died. But love him or hate him, he was a man. A man who was just as loved as he was hated. And he was a man who deserved dignity in his time of death, regardless of what people’s opinions were of him. It’s easy to make jokes or casual remarks about dead celebrities because they’re technically not “real” to most of us. But if those same exact words were said about my dead relative, there would be an imminent murder.
    Patrick Swayze always reminded me of my dad a bit… that killer smile and the same crinkly, mischevious eyes. Plus, Ghost and Dirty Dancing are two of my all-time favorite movies. His death wasn’t so hard for me because of the fact that it was cancer that killed him, but because I really truly loved the dude. And, as is going to start happening more and more now, as we get older, he’s yet another Face of My
    Generation who has passed.
    Patrick Swayze’s death truly touched me. I really loved him, and I truly hope he’s resting in peace. 🙂

  • sean Sep 24, 2009 @ 14:11

    leia, and here i was very careful to NOT mention this was you, even though i knew you’d end up commenting…glad we’re cool, and at least i openly apologized in case you were offended and sincerely meant both the apology AND the “(more than somewhat) pretty…” part of the title…;)

  • Leia Sep 24, 2009 @ 15:19

    Of COURSE we’re cool!!!! It takes a lot more than that to offend me… you should know that! 🙂