It is an annual year end ritual to remember those in the
popular culture that we lost during the year.
“Lost” isn’t the correct word of course, unless we really lost the
person like Amelia Earhart or something.
We look back at those whose lives touched ours through music, sports,
religion or politics. Reviewing this
year’s list had me wondering about the 2013 list. Surely it’s not too soon to speculate. (And I will stop calling you ‘Shirley’).
Here are those we didn’t lose in 2012 – surprisingly.
Fidel Castro
Apparently smoking, drinking and dictatorship can be good
for your health. He has been in power in
Cuba
since 1959. Eisenhower was
President. He has survived through
Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama and
soon Clinton II. Either his longevity is
an outlier or clean living is overrated.
Betty White
She starred on a show called Golden Girls about a bunch of elderly women that premiered over 27
years ago. I am happy for her new-found
popularity, but c’mon. You have to be
surprised that she’s still with us and hoping like me for a few more years, too.
Kirk Douglas
At 96, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb saying that his
number should have already been called.
I did see him on a talk program this year and while he was tough to
understand (he suffered a stroke a few years ago), he seemed chipper and lucid,
which puts him ahead of me on many a morning over the holidays.
Nancy Reagan
For someone who was such an oversized personality during the
1980s, she has certainly shrunk in physical stature since those days. If she weighs 80 pounds I’d be shocked. Not that Fox News needs a reason for a Reagan
tribute/retrospective, but her passing will fill a month of programming on
that network.
Gary Busey/Nick Nolte
I’m not sure that they are two different people, so I
include them together on my list. Both
made careers personifying the hard driving, ‘you-only-live-once’ lifestyle and
I would have thought that this would have been the year for a sad People magazine cover story about their
reckless lives and how they spent their final days.
John Madden
Speaking of oversized personalities, Madden is oversized
everything. He is no health nut, that’s
for sure. I think 2013 does not bode
well for him, especially since his current game release is Madden 13. Not exactly a lucky number.
Muhammad Ali
It’s been 16 years since his shaky appearance at the Atlanta
Olympics and his condition hasn’t improved.
That he has not attempted a comeback to the heavyweight ring in a few
years (like all of his peers it seems) should be a clue that his days are
numbered even though he is not that old.
If you haven’t watched the fight footage of the Rumble in the Jungle
against George Foreman, you should.
Fastest hands I’ve ever seen.
Lindsay Lohan
Every day she survives is a gift to her from God. Drinking, drugs, elective surgeries, sexual
indiscretions, car accidents – and that’s just last week. If the wild lifestyle doesn’t get her, the
paparazzi will.
Someone who starred
in The Breakfast Club or St. Elmo’s Fire
Just playing the percentages with that one.
Keith Richards
He has been on this list since 1966 and will probably still
be on the list in December 2013. Rock
on.
Honorable Mention
Birthers
They are still hanging on by a thread but on life support. Let’s pray they go quietly in my sleep.
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