By The Way...

I'm getting mail and comments asking how I could remember Johnny Cash and forget John Ritter. Well, two things -- I didn't forget him, I just try to limit myself to one dead celebrity a day, otherwise it just gets too depressing. Also, Johnny Cash means more to me. Writing a Journal is all about personal choices, and that was mine. So there are my excuses.

Which is not to say that John Ritter's passing is not depressing as heck. Eric Zorn even suggests that it should have been the bigger news story:

John Ritter's death is clearly bigger news. It's a far greater shock -- he was 54 but looked younger and seemed to be in good health. Cash was 71 and had not been doing well for many years.

There's also the point that Ritter's stock in trade was portraying funny versions of ordinary guys, so he always seemed like the guy next door. Johnny Cash on the other hand was an icon and unless you knew him personally, that mythic quality held him at some remove. Johnny Cash was someone you could aspire to be like, while John Ritter was a guy you would aspire to live next to. And the fact is that while the death of an icon has significance, you always feel the death of the guy next door a little bit more. It's someone you know (or think you know, which amounts to the same thing).

John Ritter will probably never be remembered as a "great" man. But I pretty much guarantee you that when people do remember John Ritter, they will nearly always smile at his memory. There are many, many worse ways to be remembered.

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• #3 Comment from johnmscalziEntry Author 
  9/13/03 7:12 PM | Permalink

  Actually, that's not true at all. On AOL Journals one can delete comments one doesn't like as well as block particular users one finds troublesome. I personally choose to let people say negative things as well as positive things simply because that's my choice.
• #2 Comment from jjfgiuffre 
  9/13/03 5:53 PM | Permalink

  To bad it took e-mails to do the right thing. but you are right, its your Journal and you can do what you wish with it.
  
  But remember, when you put yourself out to the public you also must accept the bad comments along with the good ones also.
  
  John G.
• #1 Comment from ca1986 
  9/13/03 12:55 PM | Permalink

  Thank you for this, but no picture? you did put up a photo of Johnny Cash LOL kidding. It is impossible to please everyone, I understand. I appreciate the you do try.