Lynn Redgrave, Lena Horne, and Phil Pagano

An old friend, and contributor to this blog, Peter Knierim has always been a big follower of the whole "celebrities die in batches of three" concept. While sometimes this is eerily accurate, it really depends on how you look at it.

Now that I am a worldwide authority on such matters, I can say that if I wanted to, there are at least three interesting people I could write about each day. So, really it's just the lens that you assign to it. Such was the case with this new "triple" which only could be manufactured by someone like me.

I had been meaning to "do" Lynn Redgrave for, well over a week now. But I just kept putting it off. There's a risk associated with that, as sooner or later the death becomes irrelevant, which is a real pity.

But then Lena Horne really forced my hand. I couldn't NOT do Lena, but I still had the backlog of Lynn Redgrave. Oh, and I am as busy as ever. In fact, I am seriously pushing a deadline by taking the time to write this. What are you supposed to say to your customer?

"I'm sorry I don't have that copy deck as promised, but, in case you missed it, Lena Horne died."

It just doesn't hold water. So, I will get all "meta" with these folks and fold three separate lives and stories together into one tight, photo-filled entry and get back to bread winning.

Being into death, celebrity death, and irony how could I possibly ignore Phil Pagano's passing? And interweaving his demise with two female icons of stage and music, well that was just even weirder.

For those who don't know Phil, he was the allegedly corrupt Chicago Metra director who went and threw himself in front of one of his trains on Friday.

I used to work in East Norwalk, CT right by the train station there and we had a similar thing happen a couple years back.

A recently fired Fairfield guy did the same thing. Huge commotion. Big mess. The whole event was unforgettable and quite disturbing. No, I didn't see it happen. In fact, I was out-to-lunch and came back to the office only to see the whole aftermath. I really felt bad for the gentleman and his family. What a spectacular way to go! You have to like attention, at least a little bit, to put yourself in that situation. Or, maybe it's just efficacy. A speeding train will most certainly do the trick. Or convenience. In many urban / suburban markets, trains are very available.

Thinking too much about it, just makes you want to sing the blues, or perhaps watch a light-hearted romantic comedy on Hallmark Channel. See, I didn't forget about Lynn and Lena. But, in the relevance game, big Phil hit home just a tad more than these accomplished divas.

OK, back to work.