Sad news tonight: Following the deaths of « Arthur Miller », « Sandra Dee » and « John Raitt » comes the biggest blow: « Hunter S. Thompson » apparently shot himself:

‘Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, fatally shot himself Sunday night at his home, his son said. He was 67. “Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family,” Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News. Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, a personal friend of Thompson, confirmed the death to the News. Sheriff’s officials did not return calls to The Associated Press late Sunday. Juan Thompson found his father’s body.’

— SF Chronicle

The loss of Raitt and even Dee is sad, but the losses of Miller and Thompson are simply huge.

But that’s life in the Empire these days: Towering figures of great value like these two, not to mention Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, etc., are all dead and we’re left with the likes of Judith Miller, that Guckert/Gannon fellow and Nicole Kidman and Johnny Depp.

In other words, as they said in August 1914: ‘The lights are going out all over [America]; I’m afraid they won’t be lit again in our lifetime.’

R.I.P.