*Shrugs*

I'm not heartless. Really. And I'm not oblivious to pop culture -- honestly, quite the opposite. I would wholeheartedly challenge anyone to a pop-culture pop quiz, any time, anywhere. I know more useless information about movies, TV, music, and news-of-the-weird than is wise to admit.

But I'm amazingly indifferent to yesterday's news shockers: Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett are dead.

No one can deny that MJ was a musical and entertainment genius. I was one of those 50gazillion people who bought the best-selling album of all time. But if we're being honest, we also cannot deny that he was one freaky dude. Uh, maybe "dude" is even a stretch. The plastic surgery, the exotic pets, the carnival mansion, the hair on fire, the creepy adolescent sleepovers, the wardrobe malfu...wait, wrong Jackson. His death sort of seems anticlimatic after all that. And I kept hearing everyone say, "Oh wow, I can't believe he's gone." Seriously? You can't believe it? I'm actually surprised he lived as long as he did. He looked rather corpse-like the last few times I saw video of him. It sort of appeared as if his nose had already rotted off.

I think he should be the poster boy for the evils of what happens when child stardom goes bad. Bad. Bad. You know it.

A college friend of mine, who also works for a network news organization, described MJ as being "possibly the most famous person in the world." So I suppose that makes all this attention and fussing reasonable. I'm simply not feeling fussy.

And then there's Farrah, who had the unfortunate luck to pass away on the same day as the King of Pop, therefore ensuring that her death would forever be an "oh, by the way" in the '70s and '80s icon history books. In the scheme of things, she probably doesn't deserve anywhere near the to-do. She wasn't as world-famous. She only starred on "Charlie's Angels" for ONE season. Her death -- due to cancer -- had been expected for some time. She shacked up with another actor in a tumultuous relationship that spawned a son who always seems to find himself on the other side of prison bars. Still, she had been nominated for several Emmys. And HOW MANY of you women out there sported feathery Farrah hair? Admit it...someone out there has the pictures to prove it...fess up...

Someone in the media called it a "very sad day for Generation X." What is sadder? That these two individuals died? Or that the whole world seems to be obsessed with it?