xtcian

WHOA. . .Vonnegut is (a) God---what in the world made you put him on your list???

Give More Time To: Gregory Hines, Jerry Orbach, Susan Sontag.
And Sir Elton is ok in my book, too!!

Give me back Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Thunders, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Joey and Dee Dee Ramone and Marvin Gaye, and FUCKING BURY all the members of Kiss, Poison, and the Crue, and we'll call it square.

Live: Michael Landon and Bill Bixby, my fantasy fathers as a child. The Little House role is obvious, but I realize the Hulk role warrants deeper analysis.

ah, man, I don't think I can wish ultimate ill will on anyone, including those on your list of demise. Plus, Ann B. Davis was the glue of that family, I tell ya...and Elton is a transplant Atlantan.

However, I vote for resurrecting River Phoenix and Patsy Cline.

So, depending on who you ask, would Elvis fall on both lists, or what?

More time: Gilda Radner, George Harrison, Carrie Snodgress, Jeff Buckley, River Phoenix.

Hmmmm...interesting thought process you have there, Ian. What in the hey brought this on??

Keith Richards?????Are you out of your fkn mind?

what caveman said, but I was saving my MOST outrage for Kurt. . .

First of all, thanks for remembering Jerry Orbach - he was a friend of the family's and is so missed.

Who should have stayed longer:

James Dean (cliche, yes, but who knows what kind of actor he would have grown up to be).
Marylin Monroe (again, cliche, but she'd be 79 now, and I often wonder where her career would have gone...think about other personalities who are now 79: Leslie Nielsen, Charlotte Rae, Cloris Leachman, Ann B. Davis!!, Tony Bennett...Sure she was a big star, but how much longer would have gone on?)
Margo Skinner (http://www.playbill.com/news/article/92288.html) - a very good friend who left us this year.
Madeline Kahn
Ella Fitzgerald, well she was really old, though...

And not that I wish death on anyone, but maybe we're a little tired of:

Regis Philbin
Pat Robertson
Nancy Grace
Ann Coulter

That's all I can think of right now...need more coffee.

just wondering if by "should have" you mean that they are lucky to still be alive, or that the world has had enough of them and they should now die.

but if it's the latter, then I have to agree with Caveman on Keith Richards. that's a level of genius that the world won't see very often.

For those questioning Ian's motives in today's entry, recognize that the list of those who should be dead is not necessarily made out of ill will, but rather is based upon who probably should have died somewhere along the line based on the manner in which they lived their lives, i.e. Keith Richards. And those who should have stayed longer were taken too soon through no true fault of their own. I doubt Ian is saying that Elton John is a bad guy, just that Sir Elton has probably done enough drugs in his life that he is lucky to still be around.

Wow, that's pretty harsh, dude. I might wish some of these people off my TV and out of the public eye (influence), but I don't wish 'em dead.

I had open-heart surgery just this year at 37 years; I'd hate to think that someone might be sitting around saying "it' probably be good if she bought it."

I agree - big time - on Jim Henson, Kirsty MacColl, John Lennon, Jimi, Kurt Cobain, Gilda Radner and George Harrison. Add Louis Armstrong, and let him be perpetually 35 years old.

If I knew the others people mentioned better, I'd probably feel the same about them

I wish no one ill, but I wouldn't mind at all if we never heard another word from Robertson, Grace or Coulter. Add Dennis Miller.

I know: instead of the next world, why don't we just send these people to "Ignoreland"?

Can I trade Patsy Cline for GWB?

And Steph - I just checked out your 'blog, and bookmarked it. I, for one, am very glad you're here.

Be well and happy.
:-)

Keith Richards' continuing existence shows that God really does work in mysterious ways...

...or at least that He has a twisted sense of humor.

Should have lived:

Paul Wellstone.

Thurgood Marshall (just two years more).

Dick Cheney (wasn't so bad while he lived).

Kirsty MacColl is dead? You just ruined my whole morning.

I'm about 98% certain that Keith Richards died in 1979 due to a massive heroin-bourbon overdose that, coincidentally enough, simulatneously embalmed him. The shock of his death made him lurch off the couch, and just as he died he landed on his plugged in guitar amp, sending high voltage coursing through his body, reanimating him.

I sure wish Coltrane could've stuck around. And Buddy Holly.

paris hilton for glenn gould, please.

MLK,jr. and Chuck Pierce should still be alive.

The day John Lennon died.. i will never forget it.
Sad..
All of those tabloid stars can go away anytime. I see those magazines at the check out line. You look at the folks and wonder what in their lives has made them headline fodder. Who are Jen and Jessica and Nick; why do people care? If it weere not for magazine covers i would not know they existed.
I guess you can say i am not the target audience.

My Mother-In-Law tells a joke about setting up a hotline to see if famous people are still alive...1-800-DEAD-YET. Anyway, Badbob, wasn't Paul Wellstone a Carolina grad? And Dick Cheney, LOL!!

Who should have lived: Princess Diana. I know I'm pathetic, but I was 11 when she got married to Charles and she will always be the perfect princess in my mind. Phil Hartman, Peter Jennings, FDR, and my Grandmother.

Who should have died: I believe in redemption for the most part, but how about Saddam and Osama.

amen to Lennon. The only other person I would add to the second list would be James Dean.

Both:

John Belushi
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Jerry Garcia

Props to Joe for history's first and last juxtaposition of MLK and Chuck Pierce. I agree that they both left us way too soon. Add Jon Baker and Chris Myers (the Chi Psi one, not the still-alive, self-important boob on Fox Sports) to the wish they were here list.

I'll trade you Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, Jessica Simpson (I'll even throw in her sister for free) for any one of the following:

1) Johnny Carson (back when the Tonight Show was actually worth watching)

2) Frank Sinatra (because nobody can do it like 'ol Blue Eyes)

3) Stevie Ray Vaughn (seconding Tregen's vote)

4) Gregory Hines (because really, how many people can make tap dancing cool?)

5) John Wayne (because we desperately need a hero we can all get behind)

So weird to read this entry today, Ian. It is my sister's birthday and she passed away in 1991, my senior year at Chapel Hill. One week ago was the 14 year anniverary of her death. She would have been 42 today. I definitely think she should have stayed a bit longer!

- Left Eye

- Charles Kuralt

- Charles Kuralt's Carolina commercial

- Stefan Edberg (okay, he died for me the day he married that woman...my heart crumbled into a million tiny pieces)

- My paternal grandmother

-Margaret Mitchell

- Pre

- Pedro Zamora

- Grace Kelly

- the Titanic

- Jesus

- Romeo and Juliet

- Len Bias

- Keiko

I figured this one would cause some consternation, but I wanted to make it very sparsely-worded. "Probably should have died" list are those people whose legend would have been infinitely greater if they'd passed on during their creative height. Billy Joel and Elton John were heroes of mine, and I don't "wish them dead" (I don't wish ANYBODY dead, god forbid) but their cult status would have been immortal had they gone out swinging. The "heroic paradox" in medieval literature states that "by dying young, one lives forever in stories."

frank zappa
biggie and tupac
jam master jay

hank gathers

raul julia
john seitz
stanley desantis
lane smith
lynne thigpen
ossie davis
j.t. walsh

jonathan larson

sarah fox

august wilson

People I wish lived a little longer?

Every Jewish child killed by the Nazis.

Over 1 million of them.

Consider the literary, scientific, philosophical, economic, and artistic contributions made by the survivors of the Holocaust
and the mind boggles at what never was.

People you'd expect to depart a bit earlier?

Liza Minelli & Billy Idol

GANDALF:
Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's
hand. Many that live deserve death, and
some that die deserve life. Can you give
it to them?
Do not be too eager to deal out death in
judgment...even the very wise cannot see
all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum
has some part to play yet, for good or
ill, before this is over. The pity of
Bilbo may rule the fate of many.

Comedic genius Mitch Hedberg needed some more time. read some of his stuff here if you feel like laughing: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Hedberg

Bill Hicks
http://www.billhicks.com/

Eva Cassidy

(http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/archives/asc14/index.html#cassidy)

Christopher Lasch