The Big Countdown

My life expectancy has bounced back up from 82 to 88 this year. I was expecting it to stay low, but the extra six years will be welcome. I think the fact that I’m losing weight probably helps a bit. 

The last year has not been the best of years although I guess I’m doing better than some at least.

As of tomorrow, I will have outlived (in no particular order):

• Richard Ramirez (the Night Stalker)
• Jackie Robinson (first African-American in MLB)
• Babe Ruth (another baseball great)
• Vladimir Lenin (co-founder of the Beatles)
• Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets)
• Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein)
• René Déscartes (he thought, therefore he was)
• Jerry Garcia (namesake of the best flavor of ice cream, Cherry Garcia)
• Marc Antony (he came not to praise Caesar but to bury him)
• John Denver (you came on his pillow)
• John von Neumann (depressingly brilliant mathematician)
• Maria Callas (amazing opera singer)
• Ivan the Terrible (Russian tsar)
• Linda Lovelace (porn actor)
• Carolyn Jones (the original and best Morticia Addams)
• Johann Pachelbel (composer of a canon which is not a canon and who, looking at last year’s entry, apparently died twice)
• Gene Siskel (film critic)
• Jack Nance (Eraserhead!)
• Spike Jones (the musician my dad wanted to name me after)
• Anne Heche (actor)
• Louis Adamic (the only Slovenian author I’ve ever read)
• Frederick Rolfe (author also known as Baron Corvo)