After a long hiatus, Jeff Kills Again

My fondness for a killer cat named Jeff is well known. Jeff WAS semi-retired and had apparently become a pacifist....until recently.

JEFF!!!

Billy Mays, RIP

Billy Mays was found dead this morning after a very rough USAirways landing yesterday where he described hitting his head (or some luggage landing on it). Although most of us would wonder "Why is that man yelling at me?" whenever he came on pitching his many products, like Kaboom, OrangeGlo, the Hercules Hook, Mighty Putty, or Oxi-Clean, most of us caved to the pitches & bought what he sold. (I personally can testify to "THE POWER OF OXI-CLEAN!" Sorry, I'll always hear his voice saying that every time I use it.)

He even recently had his own show on the Discovery Channel, and had just signed a contract to pitch for Taco Bell, where he undoubtedly would have erased all traces of the Yo Quiero Taco Bell Chihuahua from our collective unconscious. Vince the SlapChop/ShamWow guy couldn't hold a candle to Billy. Billy was wholesome, smiling, trustworthy...the kind of guy who you'd give a key to your house & not think anything about it.

But we'll never know how far Billy would have gone, or the next new product he'd bring us, knowing we'd trust his judgment and buy it whether we needed it or not. Because he's gone, all too soon, at the age of 50. To his family, he was a beloved son, father, and husband. To us he was someone we laughed about in public but behind closed doors, we had a cabinetful of his products. In both cases, in different ways, we will all miss him.