Is Nothing Sacred?

Ever since I can remember I've been a huge fan of infomercials. I used to stay up really late just so I could watch them. They have saved me from some sleepless nights on many occasions. I am one of those early followers of Ron Popeil - anyone remember GLH, Great Looking Hair? Yeah, I remember that infomercial. I also remember the first edition of the stand-up steam iron as well as the ORIGINAL Orange Clean, pre-Billy Mays Orange Clean. Which brings me to my point: Billy Mays.

To be honest, the man irritated me at first. His voice grated on my ear drums and I thought he was a fraud (afterall, I grew up on the OG Ron Popeil.) As time went on, I'd watch an infomercial with him here and there and grew an affinity for Billy. That affinity only grew as I watched him on his Discovery Channel show, Pitchmen. What a fantastic man. Tears shed over the love he had for his family and his mom. He was dedicated to providing for his family and making something of his life. When he died I was definitely sad. Here was this amazing man who loved his family and portrayed this jovial, almost jolly, pitchman to the world. His energy was unmatched. You wanna know why his energy may have been unmatched? Cocaine.

Ugh, talk about stomach churning. Today I read that the autopsy report came back indicating cardiac arrest as a direct result of cocaine-induced heart disease. Are you kidding me?! He was a star but in such a humble way compared to today's pop-culture media-obsessed starlets. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that his work was stressful and that he needed to be "on" all the time...but guess what? I am a mom and my work is stressful and I need to be "ON" all the time for my kids. And my sister - yeah, try seven kids and having to balance your whole life all the while pleasing 7 (8, including a husband) different personalities. What a disappointment. I'm sad for not only the loss of a fantastic pitch-man, but for the loss of an image that he portrayed.

I'm not totally dissing on Billy, I know I might get a little guff for that. He was fantastic and there is no denying that. It's just completely disappointing how deeply our society is immersed in drug use. Sadly, this probably isn't as shocking as it should be - and maybe that's the worst part.