Wow, a lot of big news from the celebrity death newsdesk in the past couple of weeks:
- Michael Jackson
- Ed McMahon
- Farah Fawcett
- and now, Billy Mays.
Nothing really to add to this, but it's interesting that beyond being typical celebrity deaths, these are all people who became cultural icons of one sort or another. Maybe they are the four horsemen of a pop-culture apocalypse? Maybe not. I just can't remember the last time so many icons passed in the same month.
Also, Axel Rose has moved to the top of my imaginary celebrity death pool.
![howtowin](<p><a href="http://kevinrothermel.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/figure0517a.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=576,height=430,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false"><img alt="Figure0517a" border="0" class="at-xid-6a00d83452514869e20147e0d4aac2970b" height="261" src="http://kevinrothermel.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83452514869e20147e0d4aac2970b-pi" title="Figure0517a" width="350" /></a></p>
<p>Ghost tours are a great way to get out into a city a learn a little about its history that you wouldn't hear on a normal historical tour. They tell some great stories about often unremarkable buildings and locations that make them into more than what they appear to be. "So and so was depressed and killed her family with a hatchet and then was mauled by her Doberman … you can still feel a cold spot where the blood pooled"…you know…that sort of thing. Growing up, everyone had that run down house out in the woods that was supposedly haunted or the weird stories about the murderer who killed a bunch of people under a local bridge in a bunny suit, and even those that completely don't believe in it can convince themselves to be creeped out when visiting these places. Tell a remarkable story about an unremarkable place and all of the sudden you have kids going out of their way to go there at night to scare themselves. It's similar to the idea behind Seth Godin's "All Marketers are Liars," tell a remarkable story about your product and it will become an attribute of the product. </p>
"howtowin")