The brutality of dementia and Alzheimer’s is something I didn’t grasp the magnitude of until recently. I’ve had some recent training and workshops about how to encounter and work with dementia patients as part of my volunteer work, and never had a grip on just how horrific the overall reach of the disease is. We’ll be hearing a lot more of these deaths, as cases f it are apparently expected to increase 40% over the next decade. Robin Williams, Glen Campbell, Malcolm Young, David Cassidy, President Reagan, all titans claimed by dementia that immediately come to mind. And with no hope on the horizon for cures, only better, more comfortable treatment of patients. It’s frightening.

His multiple DUI's in the recent past may have contributed to his early and rapid decline. It's sad that my childhood crush has deteriorated and will be taken too early...

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DFL > DNF > DNS

What it is with all this dementia shit with the 60 somethings. I'm there and have been paranoid ever since my mom died two years ago at age 90 with it. Every fucking time I can't remember where I left my keys I begin to wonder if I'm getting it. Of course I've been misplacing my keys for the past forty years, but as you get older you do fret a bit more.

Every fucking time I can't remember where I left my keys I begin to wonder if I'm getting it. //

Or how about an actor in an old movie you know and love, what was his/her name again? And then hours later when no one is around it just pops into your head? I'm with you man, too many 60 somethings getting this, cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, and a host of others that I seem to have many of the symptoms for. Of course they are the same ones that just getting old seem to mimic, but every time I have a muscle twitch that wont go away for an hour or two, I think well here comes the Parkinson's....)-;

Stress. For a variety of reasons my stress levels right now are as high as they have ever been (financial, being taken to court, house renovation, 2 kids under 4, an apartment that burnt down) I can not think straight and am forgetting really innocuous things but it's simply because I am completely fried mentally.

I can not wait till this is all over

Yeah, I go to CTE, too

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I'm guessing that the alcohol did him in more than anything else (Liver and kidney failure). When you get 3 DUIs over 4 years, just imagine how much he has really been drinking. In that last concert of his he was drunk as fuck. I think like any good alcoholic, the "dementia" proclamation was probably something he picked out of a doctor's consult as a perfect way to stay in denial about the booze. Alcoholics let NOTHING get in the way of their addiction and setup very elaborate rationalizations as to why they can continue to drink. He could have picked out a doctor's warning about "alcoholic dementia" and turned it into "I have dementia, so nothing I can do.. might as well get smashed" I know how this works, my mother did exactly this as justification to continue drinking herself to death.

Me too. I am not much of a drinker, so I can't blame that. My term instead is CRS (Can't Remember Shit)/.

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DFL > DNF > DNS

Yeah, good luck w/ that. Different problems (although we have the home reno in common right now*), but I've been saying that same shit for at least the past 15 years. Maybe after the kids have grown up and moved out... Except that's often about the same age & career bracket when you get to start taking on the parents' end-of-life burdens (possibly including dementia); it's like having another kid to be responsible for, except the power dynamic of respect vs responsibility gets to be bass ackwards). Just when you start thinking 'Hey, things are looking up!' some other chunk of shit hits the nearest fan.

* - I don't just mean different problems between yours vs mine, but you'll have your own different problems later than you face now or previously. Like the kids ~ I remember toddlers being a constant handful, and the crippling expense of daycare, but holy fuck are teenagers a whole new frontier of wanting to pull your hair out.

Sounds like a heavy load.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

David Cassidy has left the building:

David Cassidy Dead: Former Pop Idol Dies at 67

David Cassidy died in Florida on Tuesday, November 21, days after he was admitted to hospital suffering organ failure, Us Weekly can confirm.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Ugh-between my teen idol (Cassidy) and my early morning idol being metaphorically dead (Charlie Rose), this has not been a good week so far for me :-(

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DFL > DNF > DNS

I read an article some months ago about the aging (former) teen idol and superstar rock bands out there who are steadily fading away. Big names from the Boomer era (60s and 70s) of music. Most are superannuated to a greater or lesser degree nowadays, and some rock groups -- such as Foreigner -- may not feature even a single original member on occasion at this point, while others spend only short amounts of time on the road, on the lucrative so-called "nostalgia circuit," due to their age and infirmities.

Paul McCartney, for example, is nearly 76, and Ringo Starr will be 78. Cassidy, at age 67, was a relative spring chicken and too young, granted, except that he'd abused his body for years with a cavalier lifestyle. Tom Petty was a youthful 66 when a heart attack felled him.

More examples: Don Henley and Joe Walsh of the Eagles -- probably the most successful band, revenue-wise, on the nostalgia circuit -- are both 70. Glenn Frey, who's already gone (no pun intended), would have been 70 next year. Neil Young is 72. The list of the great and once-great rock stars and bands who are heading into their golden years is endless. Even some of the top bands of the early 90s rock, metal, grunge and alternative era have members who are moving into their 50s or are already well-ensconced there (Metallica, Pearl Jam, Nirvana/Foo Fighters and more).

Time waits for no one, to quote the old Rolling Stones song from 1974 (Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, both age 74), and it catches up with all of us eventually. But that still doesn't lessen the sting it delivers as it takes away from each of us in ways both large and small.

As to these foolish men who can't seem to keep it in their pants... well, that's a different story.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Saw them three weeks ago. Dave Grohl played for just shy of three hours straight (band took 5 minute break). He is still going strong -- only 48 y/o. Don't lump him with the geriatrics.

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________
It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

Heh. Just saying that they're getting up in the years. Definitely not geriatric, though. ;-)

Hey, whatever happened to Roger Daltrey's refrain: "Hope I die before I get old."

Oh, that's right... he got old (age 73).

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

"Only the good die young."

Although I like Billy Joel (age 68).

This could explain Bobby Sherman (age 74).

Although Ms. Tostig was more of a Bobby Sherman than David Cassidy (RIP) fan in the early '70's.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Looks like Joel hit on the right formula for a long life. Laugh with the sinners and avoid crying with the saints. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Danny's gonna be a fucking mess

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

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ΜΟΛΩΝ-ΛΑΒΕ
we're doomed

True dat. Hey; didn't Danny beat Donny Osmond's behind in a celebrity boxing match back in the day? ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Respect to the deceased, but holy shit Botox should be eradicated from cosmetic use!