Thursday, July 2, 2009

Karl Malden 1912-2009

According to The Washington Post, "no cause of death was reported." Really? No cause of death? Hmmm, do you think he may have died because he was 97-years-old?!

When a person who is three years away from being 100 passes away, the only time the cause of death should be reported is if it's something unexpected like skydiving or stingray piercing or erotic asphyxiation. Otherwise, we'll just assume it's old age.

Karl Malden was married for 70 years. As Alan King would say, "He was survived by his wife!"

6 comments:

Al Romas said...

Hopefully it wasn't an autoerotic thing and if it was, hopefully they won't mention it.

Traci Skene said...

I always feel bad when an old person dies from something other than old age. If you live that long you deserve a peaceful ending.

But, if I live to be 97, you can bet I'm going out in a blaze of glory. Not sure what I'll do but you can bet my cause of death will be reported... everywhere.

DamnCat said...

Old age used to be an official cause of death and when I was a kid people still spoke about folks dying of old age. No more.

Since the 1950's the CDC has required a more specific COD be listed - makes their book keeping tidier I suppose. Now old people only die of heart failure or kidney failure or respiratory failure. As though great-grandpa would have gone on to live forever if only his heart hadn’t suddenly given out at age 107.

This has always struck me a sad circumstance - to view every death of an elderly person as a “failure” of some type. Surely, dying of old age is a triumph!

Traci Skene said...

You're exactly right. It is a triumph. Well said!

Vodka Mom said...

omg I love when they say that about ancient people.


"We were ALL shocked when he died." after my 94 year old neighbor passed away.


huh.

Traci Skene said...

A few weeks ago, I "yelled" at my husband because of his erratic blood pressure. I said, "You have to be careful because both of your parents had high blood pressure." He said, "Yeah, I might only live to be 81 like my father or 91 like my mother."

Of course, I cracked up.

At my mother-in-law's funeral, my husband said to one of her friends, "We should all live to be 91." She said, "I'm 92!" He said, "We should all live to be 92."