Anna Nicole Smith

I don't think anyone will ever forget where they were when Anna Nicole Smith died. Me, I was in the Park foyer when I heard of ANS's demise. I was waiting for my 4 o'clock class to start, just standing in the foyer. There's a high def TV that usually has CNN on it in the foyer, but it was to the side of me when the story broke.

"Holy shit!" some Parkie exclaimed. As more and more students turned their attention to the TV, I could see from their shock that something major had just happened on CNN. I thought the worst, war in Iran, North Korea launching missiles, New York attacked, or possibly a second wave of Mooninite invaders in Boston. I took a step forward and turned to look at the TV. I saw the headline "Anna Nicole Smith has died."

I wasn't very much shocked. It was a surprise, but not a truly shocking one. I couldn't fathom saying something like "Oh, but she seemed so stable and healthy."

Frankly, I didn't see the newsworthiness of the story. I know CNN and the 24/7 news channels struggle to fill a day and maintain an audience, but honestly, there are thousands more important events occurring than the death of ANS. We're at war in two countries, are on the brink of war with two more, there's global warming, massive northeastern snowstorms (Parish, NY got 110 inches of snow the past 7 days), a Presidential election race starting, NPR and PBS having funding reduced, and all sorts of newsworthy stuff. Nevertheless, the death of a reality TV "star" and former softcore porn actress was the big story.

I'm not saying ANS was a bad person. As my 4 PM class began, people were joking about her death, essentially saying that her death was a good thing. You know, I never met her, she seemed to be a really sad person, and death is always unfortunate, particularly when someone is 39.

But I don't care that much about her death. My daily life doesn't change much. It doesn't change in any way whatsoever. She had no impact on my life whatsoever. But still, RIP ANS.