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PTG Episode 30 brings you the return of the Summer Movie Review, focused on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, as well as the DC Comics Spotlight, focused on Green Lantern #42, the finale of the ‘Agent Orange’ arc. Good stuff, certainly, and ordinarily either one of those might be the highlights of an episode of PTG. But this was no ordinary week by any means.
I know quite a few people who believe that bad news, particularly news about prominent deaths, comes in “threes.” Last week seemed to provide more evidence to support this superstition, right up until Sunday, June 28th, when news broke of the death of TV pitchman Billy Mays.
Rest in Peace, Billy Mays
Obviously, that news broke the morning after this episode was recorded, so you won’t find any mention of it during this hour as we remembered those that the celebrity world lost this week, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. I heard a lot of people say last week that they would remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard this week’s news, particularly the news about Michael, but somehow I doubt as time passes that many will remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard about Billy Mays’ passing. Hopefully, he’ll be remembered the way that print and online publications were choosing to portray him, as one of the hardest working men in television, a family man who genuinely enjoyed what he was doing and was grateful for the opportunities that came his way. I can’t say in all honesty that I enjoyed his on-air “sell and yell” persona all that much, but I can certainly respect and remember him for the sheer volume of work the man put together, his consistency, his enthusiasm, and his example as someone who spent his life doing what he loved. It’s quite likely that in the days ahead, as the aftermath of Jackson’s death takes hold of the media’s reins, the story of Mays’ death will quickly drop off the radar, as our world’s morbid fascination with the eccentric Jackson has, with his death, now found new “life”. For that reason alone, I offer this humble hope for someone else entirely. Rest in peace, Billy Mays.
Stumble It!
