In my lifetime, I can think of 4 celebrity deaths that have literally stopped the world. I mean if a country had dropped a nuke on its neighbor, it would have taken a back page to these events. The 4 are Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Princess Diana and now Michael Jackson.

Ok, I don't want to diminish the life of anyone. Every human being is special, but come on. The other day, Fox news (radio) began their broadcast with "Breaking News" about North Korea firing missles towards Hawaii. They only announced the headline before saying there would be more about that later. But first, they were taking us to Neverland ranch for more about Michael Jackson. Even this morning, the main headline on CNN.COM is about how the Michael Jackson "spectacle" is likely to be a world event. I'm not going to definitively say that riots in China or a Nuke deal between the U.S. and Russia is more important than Michael Jackson, but at least FOXSNEW.COM decided to report about something else.

So what I'm really getting at here is, who decided that these people were the end all of everything? If it were up to me, it would be a completely different list. In no special order, here are the people whose passing should have garnered this kind of world attention.

• Groucho Marx
• Mel Blanc (let's face it, the reality is that when he died so did Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam and a score of others)
• Lucille Ball
• Mickey Mantle
• Roy Rogers

Well, they're gone and there's nothing we can do about it now. But in the future, we can try and place celebrity passings in the proper perspective. If you really want to make it right, just make sure you stop the world when Bob Newhart goes.