Why don't people say "died" anymore?

[swede]

Dear Abby,

Sorry to hear that you died. I mean..."passed".

It seems to me that people of my generation simply used the word "died" when speaking of mortal demise.

Now everybody seems to stubbornly say "passed" as the the new active verb for ceasing to be alive. I'm so edgy and filled with distrust these days that the word seems less a euphemism to me than a liberal dodge of some sort.

Of all the things that are bad about death I never thought the verb itself was part of the problem.

Every time I hear that new spongy non-committal word a little part of me passes.

Sign me,

Shorter of breath and one day closer to death in Wisconsin

[Joemailman]

Last week I walked into the men's room of a local establishment and said "Damn! Did something die in here?"

[MJZiggy]

Dear Abby,

Sorry to hear that you died. I mean..."passed".

It seems to me that people of my generation simply used the word "died" when speaking of mortal demise.

Now everybody seems to stubbornly say "passed" as the the new active verb for ceasing to be alive. I'm so edgy and filled with distrust these days that the word seems less a euphemism to me than a liberal dodge of some sort.

Of all the things that are bad about death I never thought the verb itself was part of the problem.

Every time I hear that new spongy non-committal word a little part of me passes.

Sign me,

Shorter of breath and one day closer to death in Wisconsin

I still say died. People don't like it because they think it makes people sad. As if passing out of life is different than dying. It does help to give the word a little more oomph. Like after a few years of gently telling the NPR telemarketers that my ex's grandmother had passed away and would no longer be giving them money. One day, I got tired of them calling all the time and very straightforwardly said, "she's DEAD!" They stopped calling.

[Joemailman]

Some day this thread will just pass on to that great archive file in the sky.

[MJZiggy]

Or it could die because threads are still allowed to do that. Thread killer!!

[swede]

A little sensitivity, please.

[mraynrand]

Swede, you are passed to me.

[hoosier]

Time to face the music, it has become a passing league.

[swede]

Upon reflection, the effort to soften the language merely returns me, involuntarily, to the reflexive humor of my youth; every times someone passes I hear dead people farting.

[Brando19]

Last week I walked into the men's room of a local establishment and said "Damn! Did something pass away in here?"

Fixed

[Iron Mike]

I prefer the technical term we use at the MEs office: Someone "assumed ambient temperature."

[swede]

I prefer the technical term we use at the MEs office: Someone "assumed ambient temperature."

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z236/dsteenswede44/SympathyCard-Outside_zpsd3c0bae2.jpg

[Iron Mike]

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z236/dsteenswede44/SympathyCard-Outside_zpsd3c0bae2.jpg

If I only had mod powers, I would give you so much reputation points, there would never be cause for you to be red.

[Iron Mike]

If I only had mod powers, I would give you so much reputation points, there would never be cause for you to be red.

And it's YOUR fault I never learned the proper use of the semicolon.

I still have you pegged as David Clayton-Thomas' doppelganger, though:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPoXu4BUmM8

[swede]

After a few minutes I recognized the voice and checked to make sure he was the old Blood, Sweat and Tears frontman.

Thank you. I protest, but thank you.

My son-in-law just converted tape->digital of an outdoor concert my daughters and I gave in a gazebo at the city park in my old home town a few summers ago. I'll post a few of those tracks if I can get him to e-mail them to me. The selections were slanted to the aging Lutherans and Methodists attending in their lawn chairs and patiently waiting for their ice cream. (It being the Sundaes in the Park Music Series.)

And semicolons separate two related independent clauses; the second is generally an explanation of the first.

There are other uses for the semi colon: lists following a colon if the listed items contain commas; a winking eye in typed emoticons, text messages, and other new-age scribblings; and as a synonym for colostomy, although this use is incorrect.

[swede]

If you don't like Christian music you might not like this. It is my daughters and I singing "el shaddai"

swede and daughters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMchcJeL9mg)

The robins at the end lend some nice bird work. The live recording was done by my uncle Merv on a cassette player he got in Sherburn a couple Christmases ago.

[Freak Out]

Awesome.

[swede]

:oops:

It is my daughters and me.

[Zool]

Not bad Swede, you've got kind of a Cat Stevens vibe to your voice.

[HowardRoark]

Holy shit.....are you Garrison Keillor?

[Patler]

If you don't like Christian music you might not like this. It is my daughters and I singing "el shaddai"

swede and daughters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMchcJeL9mg)

The robins at the end lend some nice bird work. The live recording was done by my uncle Merv on a cassette player he got in Sherburn a couple Christmases ago.

The videography on youtube was impressive!

[Patler]

I prefer the technical term we use at the MEs office: Someone "assumed ambient temperature."

Implies a rather drawn out process, doesn't it? :grin:

I heard a term used on TV a week ago or so. Can't remember now for the life of me what it was. But my wife and I just looked at each other and broke out laughing when we heard it. I thought it would stick with me, so I could steal it and use it myself. Here was a great spot, and its gone. Age-related???????

[K-town]

This is what always comes to mind when I hear someone has died. I may need psychiatric help.

People Who Died
Jim Carrol, Basketball Diaries

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Herbie pushed Tony from the Boys' Club roof
Tony thought that his rage was just some goof
But Herbie sure gave Tony some bitchen proof
"Hey," Herbie said, "Tony, can you fly?"
But Tony couldn't fly, Tony died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Brian got busted on a narco rap
He beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers
He said, "Hey, I know it's dangerous, but it sure beats Riker's"
But the next day he got offed by the very same bikers

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

[swede]

I like that poem. Talk about it man. Mortality is real. The poem had a Langston Hughes meets Emily Dickinson vibe.

I like wakes. Wakes are honest.

A Hmong man, father of a girl from my classroom, died in January. The funeral took three days and it begins with the body laid out on the floor. Then the family and friends move the body to the casket together. Drums and funky bamboo horns are played for the entire time. Traditional food is provided for hundreds of mourners. The Hmong culture is very connected and collaborative that way. Many mourners are always there until the internment on the fourth day.

In India the process is much faster, but just as real. The hospices are right next to the river. Within minutes of death the family washes the body and the body is moved to a stone pyre covered with wood. The body is cremated and the bones and ashes are washed off of the stone and into the river. If dad dies at nine in the morning you'll be home by noon.

Start writing down the post-assuming-of-ambient-temperature procedures in American culture and it also starts looking odd upon close inspection. As was done to the pharaohs, we fill the bodies with preservatives to endure the long ages, encapsulating them in cushion, box, and tomb. I wonder if these actions are taken out of respect or out of deep-seated fears of the inevitable.

[swede]

The videography on youtube was impressive!

You're pretty demanding for a guy who grew up watching the radio in the front parlor.

[Patler]

You're pretty demanding for a guy who grew up watching the radio

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Truth be told, I did listen to radio as a child, television was barely available anywhere, let alone out at our farm. Oh, ... and I haven't the slightest clue how to put anything up on Youtube, so I applaud you for doing so!.

[Iron Mike]

This is what always comes to mind when I hear someone has died. I may need psychiatric help.

People Who Died
Jim Carrol, Basketball Diaries

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Herbie pushed Tony from the Boys' Club roof
Tony thought that his rage was just some goof
But Herbie sure gave Tony some bitchen proof
"Hey," Herbie said, "Tony, can you fly?"
But Tony couldn't fly, Tony died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Brian got busted on a narco rap
He beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers
He said, "Hey, I know it's dangerous, but it sure beats Riker's"
But the next day he got offed by the very same bikers

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkur2epZhyc

[mraynrand]

you don't bring me flowers anymore

[MadtownPacker]

Swede sounds like a cop in the beginning. :lol:

[swede]

Swede sounds like a cop in the beginning. :lol:

You should hear me in the classroom. I run first grade like Tommy Lee Jones.

To obtain order out of chaos they have been trained to respond in this way:

(Background noise, rustling, little voices talking)

Mr. swede: "WHO'S the man?"
(Instant quiet)
Children: "YOU'RE the man."
Mr. swede: Stow the math games and take out writing folders. Quiet writing in 45 seconds. Write, read what you've written, or write some more. Blue team at the kidney table for writing conferences. Jack, get a tissue or eat that thing and I don't much care which."

[woodbuck27]

If you don't like Christian music you might not like this. It is my daughters and I singing "el shaddai"

swede and daughters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMchcJeL9mg)

The robins at the end lend some nice bird work. The live recording was done by my uncle Merv on a cassette player he got in Sherburn a couple Christmases ago.

Then Packerrats does have a talented member. Very nice Swede.

[woodbuck27]

http://media.salon.com/2012/12/spain_rodriguez_rect-460x307.jpg

[Iron Mike]

Not bad Swede, you've got kind of a Cat Stevens vibe to your voice.

I'm thinking there's also a little Bob McBride from Lighthouse in there, also:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh-IR5d5ywM

[SkinBasket]

http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/nickdavid3.jpg
Swede was on The Voice this last season.

[Iron Mike]

http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/nickdavid3.jpg
Swede was on The Voice this last season.

That dude was killing it. I could never figure out why they never had him sing Leon Russell, even minus the physical similarities:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvazuyF6eXw