Death by Injury, Death by Illness, Death by Faking It, Death by Governor, Death by Government and Death by Quitting

The Schloss-Blog is examining ways to die today. To some extent, it's a little bit of death by "I'm gonna' kill you," as they say on the street, or "You're dead," as they trash talk on the basketball court or the football field.

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Not dead, although he could've been, is Damar Hamlin. A week or so after collapsing on the field after a hit and being revived via CPR, he is home after suffering cardiac arrest. A testament to faith and will. May he come back and contribute to the game in some way, shape or form. God bless him.

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However, death is still out there for the unvaccinated, or at least hospitalization. The COVID variant XBB 1.5 is rampant now, running through America like the conspiracy theory that Trump won the 2020 election or that Kari Lake won the Arizona gubernatorial vote.

XBB 1.5 is as or more contagious than omicron might have been. The best way to avoid it is getting your booster. Yet, many Americans have not done that. Yet.

What are they waiting for, especially with the flu and RSV running through America now as well.

Y'know, like election conspiracy theories.

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You want death? How about faking it? Novelist Susan Meachen apparently did. The prolific romance novelist, apparently depressed over low sales and supposed mistreatment from other authors, committed suicide two years ago.

Or did she?

Two years later, she announced on social media that she was back. What better way to sell books than to die? Hey, music artists generally explode in CD sales and downloads after death.

For Susan though, there's been backlash, including from fans who mourned her passing.

So, what about you? Got something to sell that is moving slowly? Hey, announce your death. Maybe it'll work as well for you as it did for her.

Or did it?

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Of course, there's always being dead politically.

Just ask Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican and former Speaker of the House, who was generally driven out of D.C. by Trump.

Now, after being dormant for about five years, he's back, lamenting the GOP failures in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections and firmly blaming Trump.

OK, he didn't say Trump's dead, but he might as well have. He called Trump a "loser" and he applied it to the GOP losing the House and the White House, failing to carry the Senate and coming up dismally short in recapturing the House in any convincing style whatsoever.

"Proven loser," Ryan called him, in a TV interview.

This is the same man who backed the Foxconn development debacle in his home state and turned and ran when the GOP failed to heed him and he was reduced to ineffectiveness in the wake of Trump. 

Now, Ryan, no doubt, likely wants to run for president in 2024, but Trump is in the way.

Proven loser indeed.

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Finally, as usual, here's the Fast Company tip of the week: there are six reasons you shouldn't just up and quit your job.

I'm thinking that No. 1 is having an income. What are the other five?

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

R,I.P. Jeff Beck and Lisa Marie.