Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

vivatifosi

Ah, thanks silver. I will check.

michaels

silvercar wrote: »

My friend has a theory that the number of celebrities exploded in the 60s, so now that the pool is so large and has been increasing over the last 50 years, it is not surprising that there are so many dying in middle age.

A pool of 20 people and one dying in middle age is newsworthy in itself. Increase that pool to 20,000 and you would statistically expect some to go in middle age.

It is also possible that the 'celebrity lifestyle' makes one more prone to early death.

vivatifosi

Hmmm. Wedding was on a Sunday, don't know where they are buried. Will keep digging (for facts that is, not digging graves!). ETA... have checked other family wedddings. Still no Saturdays. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday so far.

vivatifosi

silvercar wrote: »

My friend has a theory that the number of celebrities exploded in the 60s, so now that the pool is so large and has been increasing over the last 50 years, it is not surprising that there are so many dying in middle age.

A pool of 20 people and one dying in middle age is newsworthy in itself. Increase that pool to 20,000 and you would statistically expect some to go in middle age.

I think you are right. I just wonder what impact it will have on people starting their gym regime. It was lovely this week. People taking time off, half empty classes, easy to get parked. Next week though will be completely different. And it will stay that way until about mid February when normality will resume.

zagubov

silvercar wrote: »

My friend has a theory that the number of celebrities exploded in the 60s, so now that the pool is so large and has been increasing over the last 50 years, it is not surprising that there are so many dying in middle age.

A pool of 20 people and one dying in middle age is newsworthy in itself. Increase that pool to 20,000 and you would statistically expect some to go in middle age.

There was a bbc article about it a short while back pointing out that in the 60s so many tv and music celebrities became household names and we'll need to get used to the current rate of celebrity deaths.

michaels wrote: »

It is also possible that the 'celebrity lifestyle' makes one more prone to early death.

Quite so. "Everything in moderation" seems to be the lesson nobody famous ever learns.
It's quite galling that when they ask young people what they want to be for a career, it's sport or showbusiness that are the popular choices. We don't want to be burying our children young like Debbie Reynolds. ;(

Pyxis

silvercar wrote: »

There is often a tendency to be buried as Jews even if they lived completely irreligious lives (or adopted superficially a christian lifestyle). Where they were buried may be more of a clue.

One clue in wedding dates would be the day of the week, Jewish weddings are never on a Saturday.

That's interesting!

michaels wrote: »

It is also possible that the 'celebrity lifestyle' makes one more prone to early death.

That got me thinking as to why numbers exploded.
I guess it had to do with the rise of the teenager, the latter having more of their own money to spend, so the demand grew for records, record players, pop concerts, fan clubs, etc.
Hence more pop stars.

Couple that with the demands record companies made on their stable occupants, feeding them stuff to keep them going through punishing gig schedules, and there you have the start of the habits that would ultimately kill them, often prematurely.

Pyxis

That got me remembering the first pair of jeans I ever bought.
(Due to having met some Rockers!)

They didn't make jeans cut for girls' shapes; you had to buy boys' jeans. :eek:
That meant the waists were always gappy. You had to buy a size big enough for the more rounded female posterior, which meant the waist was larger than it should be! Oh happy days! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

PasturesNew

Also, what is a celebrity. Nowadays you can be a celebrity if you got photographed standing next to somebody who is related to a former member of a boy band that split up 10 years ago....

Many celebrities/well known people have died in the past and, as there was no Internet and no social media and no 24/7 news slots to fill ... we'd have never noticed their 1" death notice at the back of a newspaper we didn't buy that day.

Back then a big celebrity might've got a mention in the news, towards the end of the news items.... and a tiny bit in an industry-related publication or the Times if they were posh ... but that was it.

XYZ is dead. The end.

silvercar

vivatifosi wrote: »

Hmmm. Wedding was on a Sunday, don't know where they are buried. Will keep digging (for facts that is, not digging graves!). ETA... have checked other family wedddings. Still no Saturdays. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday so far.

Sunday weddings point to it being a Jewish (or Muslim) wedding. Until as recently as 15 years ago it was up to council's discretion whether non religious weddings could take place on a Sunday. 30 years ago there were very few councils that would allow it.

Pyxis

silvercar wrote: »

Sunday weddings point to it being a Jewish (or Muslim) wedding. Until as recently as 15 years ago it was up to council's discretion whether non religious weddings could take place on a Sunday. 30 years ago there were very few councils that would allow it.

Ah, that explains it. A few months ago, someone mentioned that they'd gone to a wedding on a Sunday, which surprised me a lot as I had thought weddings weren't allowed on a Sunday, except for Jewish ones etc.