First, there was the inimitable (though much imitated) Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson’s longtime sidekick who could do amazing things with the word “here.” He died on Tuesday.  NBC News has a tribute:

Then came the news about Farrah Fawcett, who died yesterday after a long and heroic battle with cancer (we got the alert in the middle of our editorial meeting). I’m told by our intern Abbie Ruzicka that “Farrah Fawcett hair” is literally a term of art in the hair world:

And then, of course, there was Michael Jackson, who died late in the day on Thursday. The first album I ever bought was “Thriller.” On Facebook and Twitter last night, about a million other Gen Xers said the same thing. Here’s a classic moment in an interview with producer Quincy Jones, not long after they’d finished “Thriller.” Check out the live snake Michael has in his hands:

And here’s his 1988 Grammy performance of “Man in the Mirror,” the song we went out on in today’s hour: