Am I still alive? ↔ No update in 8 days. Yes, but Ed McMahon isn’t. Johnny Carson’s former Tonight Show sidekick passed away on Tuesday morning from what his publicist labeled ‘various health problems.’ I like to think of ‘various health problems’ as how we will all leave this life someday. You know, barring a tragic accident like a wheel popping off your Power to the Green Prius, standing in the blast radius of a Jihadist fresh from a Guantanamo vacation, or having a date get all creepy and Hostelish on you.  Oh yeah, Ed McMahon was 86-years-old.

Even after his gig on The Tonight Show ended, whether it was the Publisher Clearing House commercials or Star Search, Ed McMahon maintained that old school showbiz edge. One he documented in his book “When Television Was Young.” My grandmother would have appreciated that book. Personally, my last encounter with Ed McMahon was during the 2003 Northeast Blackout...

Just before the lights went out, I stumbled into a flea market and found a copy of his book “Superselling”. Read 3/4 of it during the unexpected 18 hours of forced primitive living. Ignore the guy skewing the rating. I’d give it a 3.5.

If heaven is a club where all the people you knew and heard about during your life are partying, it’s not hard to imagine how Ed McMahon will enter the room: “There’s Johnny!” .. R.I.P.