3 posts tagged “current affairs”

Link: Thought Theater: Anna Nicole Smith Dead at 39.

I'm not quite sure why the world is fascinated with Anna Nicole Smith. Just yesterday, I happened upon "Entertainment Tonight" and saw yet another segment of the ongoing saga of Anna Nicole's latest controversy. I even said to my husband, "How could a news show - albeit an entertainment news show - devote (waste) so much time to a woman who clearly is very troubled AND drugged out in every interview.

As a new mom, I was especially saddened to see Anna Nicole's little baby in the middle of a paternity controversy at such a young age. And having an addict for a mother - not newsworthy, just incredibly sad.

Then my husband - the guy who never watches TV unless I "force" him to watch one of my favorite shows, the guy who knows nothing about celebrity gossip - sends me an email titled "Mortality" and asking me if the woman we saw on TV last night who seemed so drugged out was actually dead or if it was a rumor.

I did a quick search on Google to find that yes, indeed, Anna Nicole Smith was dead.

Why are people so obsessed/fascinated with her? I think she perpetuated the "unwanted" attention from media, fed off of it, and in some convoluted way, her death is just part of her overall view of herself and her life (ala Marilyn Monroe).

I really don't want to devote any more time to this. I just thought it was ironic after the post I wrote yesterday. Here's a woman with celebrity, money, a new family, and she threw it all away. Deep down inside, she was a wounded person, hurting and alone.

A woman I know killed herself.

I don't know all the details, and I didn't even know she had died until someone told me last week by email and then I didn't find out about the visitation until the following week.

I didn't know her very well - I couldn't say we were friends. We were colleagues. She and I worked together on the Anchorage Film Festival in 2005.

She also worked for one of my clients so during the last months of my pregnancy, as I waddled through the halls of their offices, she'd stop me as I passed her desk, put her hand on my belly, and talk to me about her pregnancies years ago and ask me about mine.

She was a no-nonsense person who seemed ever more serious. Very matter of fact, pull no punches, you know the cliches and the type. I really liked her because I knew exactly where she was coming from, and I knew if she said she was going to do something, she would do it. She was the kind of person that could come into a mess and roll up her sleeves to get things cleaned up with the minimum of emotion.

But she was a tender and caring person beneath the tough, crusty exterior. Her eyes would well up when we'd talk about pregnancy and babies. I thought we connected on several levels. Then we lost touch when I stopped working before giving birth. I hadn't seen her in the months following as I struggled with new motherhood and post partum depression.

I've heard rumors that something bad happened that may have been the final catalyst for her suicide. But I've also heard that even a month earlier she was giving things away, tying up loose ends, doing the things that people do when they are contemplating killing themselves. Little signs, little gestures, that actually looking back seem huge and telling.

I can't help wondering if I would have noticed the signs if I had stayed in touch with her. If I had emailed her when I thought of her recently, could we have reconnected and would anything be different? We always take for granted the people in our lives and the impact we have or could have. We fail to do the small things, the contact and connection.

And then someone kills themself.

And you can't help wondering if you could have done something, anything, to change their mind.

I don't know why this news story about a company called AirTroductions caught my eye, but I felt compelled to blog about it.

An excerpt:

The idea is to connect like-minded fliers — either in the personal or professional realms — who are traveling on the same flights. Here's how it works: Travelers join AirTroductions (airtroductions.com) for free and post personal and/or business profiles. Then, before taking a flight, they enter their itineraries and are notified of other members booked on the same flight. They're given the option of sending anonymous e-mail through the site (at which point a $5 fee kicks in) to determine whether they want to meet at the airport, and, if mutually acceptable, get reassigned to adjoining seats.

Well, being able to be matched up with a compatible airplane seatmate is a good thing. Much better, I'm sure, than being seated next to a killer.

Still, I can't help thinking that we'd all be sitting next to great people if the airlines were like they were back when I was a child. Was it just the wide eyes of a little girl on a big plane or were those stewardesses (yes, that is what they called themselves back then) really, really pretty and nice?

I seem to also remember airplane food that didn't taste bad and was actually food and not a tiny bad of three peanuts. All the male stewardesses (I'm sure they were called stewards but back then, what did I know?) were gay and flamboyant (of course, back then, I didn't know what gay was. I just thought they were HAPPY.)

There was plenty of room on planes (okay, might have been the fact that I was four feet tall) and everyone watched the movie and it was always a good one, and they'd bring snacks out in addition to meals and glasses of orange juice - and this wasn't even first class.

Everyone was smiling and chatting to their neighbors and curling up with fluffy pillows and soft blankets. I really do believe that when I was a little girl, air travel was cushy and luxurious, even in coach.

Today, you are lucky if a flight attendant doesn't snarl at you and glare at you sideways as he/she rolls the beverage tray like a bat out of hell down the aisle because God Forbid you ask for a drink or a second bag of three peanuts.

Today, all the people who sit next to you are obese and sweating profusely, often with a body odor problem and a hacking cough.

Today, the headsets for inflight "entertainment" cost a lot of money - I'd rather save for an iPod.

I'm sure today they still give out those little wing pins but probably plastic instead of metal and only if you are a child traveling alone so grownups are shit out of luck.

Whatever happened to the days of sparkly, happy air travel? Maybe Air-Troductions will bring back just a little bit of that friendly sky romance. Or at least increase the number of couples having sex on planes.