I am definitely bummed out today because John Ritter died. That just blows. You know, he just seemed like one of the decent guys. Not all Hollywood-y, or an ACTOR-in-all-capital-letters; just a guy. I liked that about him, and was only recently really getting to appreciate his work in Three's Company. (Seriously, I always disliked that show when I was growing up, and it was mostly because I really hate that theme song for some reason... the woman's voice echoing, "Take a step that is neeeeewwww!" Uggh!) I even admit to a bit of a "Problem Child" admiration, too. Plus, the man was married to Amy Yasbeck, who happened to guest star on one of the all-time best episodes of "Get a Life" as "Elaine from the store," Chris' stalker. She's awesome.

But of course, my first thought was not of Three's Company or even Problem Child. I immediately thought: "Oh, my God! Ted died!" Because he played the evil homocidal robot Ted in an episode of Buffy. He got to say, "I'll smack that smart mouth!" to Buffy. It was good, good stuff.

And, of course, Johnny Cash also died today. I didn't really know all that much about him, but yesterday they were playing patriotic songs on the radio and they played this spoken-word-like song about being proud of "that ragged old flag," and I definitely have listened to my share of "Ring of Fire" in my time. (It preceded Tori Amos' cover of "London Girls" on a mix tape I keep in my car.) But the best thing he could have done was do that cover of "Hurt." Man, that simply was amazing. And the video is by far, one of the greatest videos I have ever seen. I only saw it once, too, back in February when I was home recovering from my surgery. I was already feeling blah and yucky, and then this video came on and I swear, I actually forgot about how I was feeling for a few minutes and soaked in the images of young and wild Johnny Cash juxtaposed with old and tired Johnny Cash, over the strains of one of the most well-written songs Trent Reznor ever wrote. It was brilliant.

Now I feel bad I wrote that post about wanting more celebrity deaths a few weeks back. I was expecting Mickey Rooney. Not two cool guys. Sorry, everyone, if I had any cosmic connection to their deaths. If that's the case, my bad.