First, Farrah.

Then, Michael.

We have two very different people who have touched our lives in such huge, impossible ways that we know them by their first names, even when we've never met them. But we live in a world where that is possible - a single individual can touch us and teach us from thousands of miles away, practically worlds apart.

I don't know what else to say. I can't say too much without inadequacy drifting in. But it feels like a huge swath of my past, my childhood, my teen and pre-teen years, are dying off in some way, running headlong into oblivion and nostalgia.

With my 40th birthday next month, I feel like one of those Baby Boomers who are annoyed when they have to explain who the Beatles were.