Famous Deaths of 2005

It was a Bob the Angry Flower comic strip I read in college: Bob expected the death of the Pope and of Boris Yeltsin, but not both in the same seedy Louisiana hotel room one night. Gornar appears and brings them back to life as rabbits.

Now it's 2005. I've been predicting the death of Pope John Paul II every year since I was in high school. I'm still expecting it this year. And we all know that America's most famous vegetable Terry Schiavo is running down the clock. But if you'd asked me if flashy California attorney Johnnie Cochran was going to kick off before either of them, I'd have questioned your sanity.

Sure enough, Johnnie Cochran is dead. This itself isn't as surprising when you find out that he was born in 1937. Honestly: Johnnie looked good for his age. I would not have placed him as older than 55 as a maximum.

Let's see: Johnnie Cochran, Hunter S. Thompson, and the guy who invented the Apple Macintosh have all died this year. I predict that we will soon be able to add John Paul II, Terry Schiavo, Chief Justice Rehnquist, and if there's a God in Heaven: Hillary Duff, the cast of Desperate Housewives, and Lindsey Lohan's career.