I don’t give much credence to the old husband’s tale about celebrity deaths and natural disasters that supposedly happen in threes. So it was particularly odd to read about three “celebrity” deaths in as many days.

Comedian Bernie Mac was supposed to pull through his bout with pneumonia.

He suffered with a condition called sarcoidoisis, but the pneumonia was apparently unrelated to his disease, which was reported to be in remission.

I read that he was a true success story (albeit later in life than most), who watched his money carefully and was good to his family. He went from the projects of south Chicago to superstardom in films like Ocean’s Eleven and Charlie’s Angels.

He died on 9 August. He was only 50.

Isaac Hayes paved the way for a slew of soul musicians beginning in the 1960s.

I remember him best for his recording of the theme song to the movie Shaft back in ’71. We all thought the song was terribly naughty, and I made sure I always turned my radio down if it came on while my mother was around. I mean, Hayes said horrifying things like “damn right” and “he was a bad mutha” (at which time his background singers quietly scolded, “Shut yo mouth!”). That was jaw-dropping stuff back then.

Anyway, Hayes was 65. He died on the 10th.

Then there’s Anthony Russo (photo credit, Associated Press), who also died yesterday, at 71 years old. He was responsible in part for the dissemination of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed some nasty stuff about the US government and the war in Vietnam. He helped his pal Daniel Ellsberg copy the 14,000 pages of top-secret US military/political dynamite and submit them to the New York Times for publication. Gutsy.

So that’s three famous people. What’s that tell you? Probably that there are only seven days in a week and 260 million people in the country…the odds are in favor of multiple instances of death, birth, going to the grocery, and walking the dog.

But it makes for good copy.

Fink out.

Wahoo, shopping day with Kay. We both need school clothes.

Going to the Lodi Outlet Mall. Their website is “under renovation,” as is their location, apparently. Bob told me a couple of days ago that they’re changing everything over to a “train station” theme to generate business. I read on the Tremont Realty Capital site (photo credit) that Lodi took out a cool $56 million loan for the project. Yikes.

It also appears, by the look of their splash page, that they’re trying to snag us crusties at the grand opening on 30 August by having “live tribute performances by the Beatles, Beach Boys and Monkeys (sic).”

Heh. Ad copy definitely written by someone born after 1970.

Happy Finkday — it’s almost the weekend.

It’s become somewhat of a cliché in this country: “You don’t know how good you have it until you go somewhere else.”

It’s also been said that you don’t see how bad it is in America until you go somewhere else and notice how good things are. Well I guess that’s what makes a world. All different opinions, yippy. It’s become standard fare in the tragically hip circles to basically berate everything US-related, from policies to politics to excess to the health of it citizens to the debauchery of its national image. It’s easy to jump on the Whiny Wagon, really. I’m not knocking it. There are lots of things regarding the future of this country that I worry about, too.

And then there’s this, which puts us on the Perspective Bus bound for Clarity:

This picture (by Jeff Widener, AP), taken in 1989 at Tiananmen Square in Beijing is now legendary. It’s known everywhere as the “Tank Man” photo — everywhere, that is, except in China.

I did some research this morning on what happened to the big (albeit brief) push for democracy in China, and what the consequences have been. I came across an article by Geoff Calkins of Memphis Commercial Appeal.com. He’s apparently in Beijing to cover the Olympic games, and filed this report.

In case you’re not up to reading it, Calkins recounts his experience of going to Tiananmen Square (a tourist hotspot in Beijing) and asking a young Chinese woman where the place was that the “Tank Man” stood back in ’89 — and she had no idea what he was talking about. He says she was genuinely puzzled. She really didn’t know. He then got curious and did some web searching:

This goes on and on. Mao has become China’s shopping-mall Santa. Tank Man did not exist.

“What do you think of our country?”

I think it is not the United States.

Which is not to say the United States is perfect. But if you type “Kent State” in Google, you’ll get a full report.

I type “Tank Man” in Google.

“Internet Explorer cannot display this Web page.”

I try “Free Tibet.”

“Internet Explorer cannot display this Web page.”

How about “Darfur?”

“Internet Explorer cannot display this Web page.”

Maybe it’s the Internet connection at the media center. I try “Mao is great.”

Suddenly, the connection is working. Gee, what are the odds?

Interesting. We joke bitterly about “Big Brother” watching us over here in the States, and big government invading our privacy. But we’re still free to watch, listen to, download and say just about anything we want.

Let’s face it: every action has consequences (or an equal and opposite reaction, whatever). We are walking, breathing results of our choices. So are countries and governments. I guess we’re all reaping what was sown years ago. But I’m still grateful for the band of hooligans, religious wackjobs, criminals and ne’er-do-wells who came over on that boat in 1620.

Fink out.