Singing Potatoes
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Tuesday, 28 August 2001
And Eight Others

"Singer Aaliyah and eight others died in a plane crash in the Bahamas..."

Newspapers and news programs have repeated that statement since the crash occurred on Saturday. Occasionally, there's a variation on the theme: "Aaliyah, one of nine victims in a plane crash..."

As a friend of mine observed when this phrase came over the radio for what seemed like the fifteenth time in a single hour, it really sucks to die in the vicinity of a famous person.

I just finished reading a newspaper article which quoted and named Alan Yurman, of the National Transportation Safety Board; John Frank, executive director of the Cessna Pilots Association; Lewis Key, a Bahamian pilot who has flown the same model of Cessna that crashed; and Claude Sawyer, a witness to the crash. And, of course, it named Aaliyah no fewer than four times.

But the "eight others" remain anonymous corpses, mere extras in the movie of life who don't deserve a screen credit. I've never heard their names, nor seen them printed. They are unpersons as far as the media is concerned, because A Celebrity Has Died.



Here lies
One of the
Eight Others
? - Aug. 25, 2001
In Pace Requiescat


Posted by godfrey (link)
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