All the discussion of late around the Confederate flag brought the band Lynyrd Skynyrd to mind, since that flag is part of the band’s logo.
(I didn’t use that version here on The Sticky Egg because, um…no.)
That led us to talking about where we were when we learned about the plane crash that killed half of the band members.
[If you’re too young to a) know who Lynyrd Skynyrd is, or b) remember the plane crash, move along.]
I was in bed asleep. The phone rang — a corded phone, no less — and I walked down to my mother’s bedroom to answer it. A good friend of my oldest brother was on the line, and he was crying. I may have been young, but I knew a call that late at night could only mean one thing…
Someone had died.
We woke up my brother, who came to the phone in a fog of sleep. We heard him say, “Oh no. Oh God. Oh no.” Then he hung up the phone and turned to go back to bed. We stopped him, saying, “Wait — what happened?”
He said simply, “Lynyrd Skynyrd died.”
I’m not sure either my mother or I knew exactly what that meant, so we went on to bed. When we questioned my brother the next morning, he barely remembered the phone call.
But it stuck in my memory, all these years — the day Lynyrd Skynyrd died.
Twitter etiquette
When Teddy Kennedy died back in August 2009, I was surprised to learn the news via Twitter instead of more traditional news sources.
Today, Twitter breaks most big stories.
Then celebrities from all walks of life began making their statements of sympathy.
On Twitter.
Yet another development many a publicist and PR maven probably didn’t see coming down the information superhighway.
All those carefully worded press releases and statements of sympathy and support that once earned them an extra billable hour or six? Gone. Because now their clients can take to Twitter and, in 140 typo- and emoji-filled characters, sum up their feelings about the dearly departed.
And start a Twitter sh#t storm at the same time.
Leave a comment
Posted in Celebrities, Commentary, Death, Entertainment, Humor, Internet, News
Tagged 60 Minutes, automobile accident, big stories, billable hour, Bob Simon, CBS News, celebrities, client, commentary, dearly departed, death, emoji, entertainment, etiquette, Humor, information superhighway, Internet, New York City, news, news sources, PR maven, press release, publicist, statement, sympathy, Teddy Kennedy, Twitter, Twitter shit storm, typo, Upper West Side, Westside Highway