Dead pooling

Here's an interesting set of three celebrity deaths:
-- Merv Griffin. I still remember his talk show from long ago, not to mention Kramer turning his apartment into the old Merv Griffin Show set in one episode of Seinfeld. But his lasting legacy in the game show world is creating Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! Of course, only by adding those two factors together do you get the current outpouring of coverage of his death. (For instance, Mike Douglas didn't get nearly the coverage when he passed on recently, although everyone did trot out the Tiger Woods clip from his show when he was just a little kid.)

-- Brooke Astor. That she made it to 105 is amazing enough. It was just weird, though, that she made the news a couple of years ago not because she died but because of in-family squabbling over her care. But as a New York legend, she'll be missed.

-- Brian Adams. No, not this guy, but rather the latest pro wrestler to die somewhat prematurely. He had a rather interesting career with Demolition, although his Kona Crush days are the ones I remember most, even if they seemed to be the dorkiest of his gimmicks. But once again, it hardly registers now when a pro wrestler passes in his 30s and 40s -- unless it's a really extreme case like Chris Benoit. It almost makes you feel good for some of the old-time guys to suit up from time to time just to bring back the old days because many of their peers and many of the people who grew up watching them are no longer around.