Billy Mays - Gawker

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Stop, Jennifer Aniston, We Can't Keep Up!
Mays Lives On — In Sticker Form
Cocaine Implicated in Billy Mays' Death
Dead Man Sells Adhesives
A View From The Sludge
Today in Autopsies
Billy Mays: Mr. As-Seen-On-TV, Dead At 50
Billy Mays Hates Kids
The King Of Television

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PaisleyPajamas
10/16/09

In reply to Stop, Jennifer Aniston, We Can't Keep Up!
There's one thing you can count on with Donald Trump: Projecting his attention whore tendencies onto his foes in sound bytes. #jenniferaniston
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kissmyapp
10/16/09

In reply to Stop, Jennifer Aniston, We Can't Keep Up!
I have a sneaking suspicion that Tony Parker will make sure Jesse Metcalfe never gets another erection again. #jenniferaniston
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Motoko Kusanagi
10/16/09

In reply to Stop, Jennifer Aniston, We Can't Keep Up!
The lesson from the Kanye/Swift debacle was that they are both despicable. #jenniferaniston
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bytememehard
10/16/09

@Motoko Kusanagi: Why is that poor 19yo girl despicable? Because she beat out Sasha Fierce for a lame-ass video award? #jenniferaniston
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Motoko Kusanagi
10/16/09

@bytememehard: I just thought she was lame when she was finally given a chance to accept her award. And now, don't mean to be rude, I'm excusing myself from caring about this. #jenniferaniston
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bytememehard
10/16/09

@Motoko Kusanagi: Lame isn't the same as despicable. And she's only 19! #jenniferaniston
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Motoko Kusanagi
10/19/09

@bytememehard: 19 is old enough to be held accountable for annoying me on my television.

Also, hyperbole -- it's the greatest thing since autotune! #jenniferaniston
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scroll_lock
10/16/09

In reply to Stop, Jennifer Aniston, We Can't Keep Up!
The Billy Mays second autopsy was a sham. Wow. #jenniferaniston
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FormerEnglishMajor
10/16/09

@scroll_lock: $10 says the insurance policy doesn't pay out unless there is no evidence of drugs in his system. #jenniferaniston
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scroll_lock
10/16/09

@FormerEnglishMajor: The upside is, if the insurance won't pay they do receive a lifetime supply of Mighty Putty. #jenniferaniston
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BadUncle
10/16/09

@FormerEnglishMajor: Was his bloodstream Oxycleaned? #jenniferaniston
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thatgirlinnewyork
10/16/09

@FormerEnglishMajor: but they did find cocaine in his system, but the mays family-funded autopsy found that the cocaine had an "isolated" (or some such ridiculous, non-medical term) presence in his body in the days leading up to his death. but it didn't cause anything, as far as they want us/insurers to know. #jenniferaniston
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scroll_lock
10/16/09

In reply to Stop, Jennifer Aniston, We Can't Keep Up!
I'll never understand the appeal of ginormous-headed, lazy-eyed scuzzy John Mayer. Is it his irritating warbling that makes them want to kiss him so he'll shut up? #jenniferaniston
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skahammer
10/16/09

@scroll_lock: Clearly, I have spent my entire life expecting kisses at the wrong times.
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Edited by skahammer at 10/16/09 2:23 PM skahammer was starred skahammer was unstarred

scroll_lock
10/16/09

@skahammer: Evidently your caterwauling skills aren't what they should be. #jenniferaniston
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skahammer
10/16/09

@scroll_lock: But people always want to shut me up -- they just never do it with a kiss.

I should just learn to pick the git-tar, I guess. #jenniferaniston
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scroll_lock
10/16/09

@skahammer: Oh, it's usually the ball gag, right? #jenniferaniston
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skahammer
10/16/09

@scroll_lock: Well, I prefer a lacy underthing...but, yes, it's usually the ball-gag. That's been quite a trend you started, there.

And might I point out that the cherry flavoring on that thing petered out a looooong time ago.
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Edited by skahammer at 10/16/09 4:09 PM skahammer was starred skahammer was unstarred

raincoaster
08/08/09

In reply to Cocaine Implicated in Billy Mays' Death
Play him off, Keyboard Cat.
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JimJoeJack
08/07/09

In reply to Cocaine Implicated in Billy Mays' Death
NEVER READ so much anti coke ranting at the Gawk before. Most of y'all star-havin folks like to claim casual sex and yayo like this is Brazil, but you're puttin your head in the sand this time aren't you?
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phlox✔ promoted this comment JimJoeJack was starred JimJoeJack was unstarred

phlox✔
08/08/09

@JimJoeJack: That's not sand.
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Accidental Billionaire
08/07/09

In reply to Cocaine Implicated in Billy Mays' Death
[twitter.com] / [tinyurl.com]

The son looks like he's still in denial. The truth looks quite painful.

Apparently, Billy Mays, the blue collar hero, like many who become successful nouveau rich, ended up doing white snow. Damn.
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Edited by Accidental Billionaire at 08/07/09 10:22 PM

sweetpickles
08/07/09

In reply to Cocaine Implicated in Billy Mays' Death
Billy Mays here for cocaine. Want your dishes to shine? Take a line and watch how you scrub the gunk right off.
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snugbug
08/07/09

In reply to Cocaine Implicated in Billy Mays' Death
Hey, smart people who went to med school: Is it really possible to kick the bucket from OD-ing on cokesville alone? I thought it's the mixing of uppers and prescription downers padded with mammoth doses of Tylenol that kills (=by way of overstressing the liver and causing it to shut down.)
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Edited by snugbug at 08/07/09 6:28 PM snugbug was starred snugbug was unstarred

atlasfugged
08/07/09

@snugbug: I never went to med school, but people have on occasion called me smart. Anyway, too much cocaine, as with many CNS stimulants, can cause cardiac arrest.
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Trulymadlyme
08/07/09

@snugbug: Coke stresses your heart. If you have a high likelihood of having heart disease due being obese, for instance, cocaine is going to speed things up. Beth Ditto taught me that.
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snugbug
08/07/09

@atlasfugged: Duly noted. But you'd have to be an absolute beast of a hog of a Hoover to inhale enough cocaine for a cardiac arrest, no? Also, strangely, coke is one of these drugs that have been forever qualified as "psychologically," not "physiologically," addictive. Unlike he-rrron.
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DahlELama
08/07/09

@snugbug: Not if you have a pre-existing heart condition. Thanks, Sweet Valley High #40: On The Edge!
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Baroness
08/07/09

@snugbug: No. I have never heard of cocaine being merely "psychologically" addictive. It IS physically addictive, and I really wonder where you get your information from. No, it's not like pot.
It's a drug that can be pretty harmful, and yes, addictive. Don't know why this should be news.
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atlasfugged
08/07/09

@snugbug: See Trulymadlyme above. If you have a heart disease, high blood pressure, or some other condition of the heart, the stress that cocaine puts on the heart may be too much to handle.
Full disclosure: When I was in college, I did a few lines of coke and ended up in the hospital with a resting heart rate of like 180bpm. I had done it before without any particularly adverse effects. I thought I was going to die. Had I not been in tip-top physical condition I might have. Needless to say, that was the last time I used coke. An obese, older man like Billy Mays was, with what I imagine to be an unhealthy heart, may not have been able to tolerate my experience.
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mexiback
08/07/09

@Trulymadlyme: Uhm, what about poppers? Not that I use them or anything...
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snugbug
08/07/09

@atlasfugged: Sorry to hear about that incident, but glad that it ended felicitously and that you smartly extracted the life lesson from it.
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Lorem Ipsum
08/07/09

@snugbug:
[en.wikipedia.org]
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clipper
08/07/09

@snugbug: I'm in med school now. Whenever a question comes up of an otherwise healthy 20something dying of/having sudden cardiac issues (like a heart attack), invariably we've been ingrained to suspect cocaine. Naturally this can happen to older people, but other issues (like atherosclerosis) go higher on the differential diagnosis list.

Basically cocaine prevents the naturally released norepinephrine from being reabsorbed. Norepinephrine causes your heart to beat faster and blood vessels to constrict (including the ones that feed your heart). Imagine pumping a gallon of water through a straw. -Not gonna happen, and your pump will break before your straw pops. You DIE. So don't be dumb and don't OD. Everything in moderation.
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CaptainFantastic promoted this comment Edited by clipper at 08/07/09 7:31 PM clipper was starred clipper was unstarred

Trulymadlyme
08/07/09

@mexiback: Poppers are vasodilators, so yes, doing them, if you have a risk for heart disease is kind of a death wish--and this includes anything from obesity to athletes who drop dead in the middle of summer--I'd avoid it.

Also, ladies? If you're on birth control that raises the risk of blood clots DO NOT DO COCAINE. That's all.
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Edited by Trulymadlyme at 08/07/09 8:14 PM Trulymadlyme was starred Trulymadlyme was unstarred

yojeezy
08/07/09

@snugbug: Yeah it's possible, especially if you have some underlying coronary artery disease. Cocaine makes the heart work harder and then it constricts the coronary arteries and makes the nasty plaques in them more likely to rupture. It pretty much creates a perfect storm for a heart attack. Next week's lesson, heroin.
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ChillbearLatrigue
08/07/09

@Baroness: Up until the late eighties the prevailing thought among the medical community was that it was solely psychologically addictive. They have since learned otherwise. I heard of a study were scientists could train individual human synapses to fire by introducing a small cocaine granule stimulus - BORING. I had to censor myself, but yeah, it is physically addictive.
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snugbug
08/07/09

@Baroness: I think I first latched onto the cockainz = non-physiologically addictive nugget reading William Burroughs' "Junk" memoir. I should have taken that with a boulder of salt, but he's always seemed to really know his drugs to me.
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thecomicscomic
08/08/09

@snugbug: See: Bias, Len. (Died in 1996 at age 22, within two days of being drafted by the Boston Celtics, of a cocaine overdose that induced a fatal cardiac arrhythmia)
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Trai_Dep
08/08/09

@snugbug: I've heard tell that it is a risk factor, although the risk can be mitigated somewhat by the use of outsized adult toys on the at-risk person's rectal cavity. Preferably made of hypoallergenic materials and done by trained, professional Little People.
Of course, some people take this sage medical advice too far and insist the caregiver wear Wizard of Oz costumes or dress like Yoda. I think we call agree that this costumed perversion can not stand!
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power_stroke
08/08/09

@Baroness: Toxicologist here. Abrupt withdrawal of cocaine does not cause severe physical consequences, as abrupt withdrawal of alcohol, heroin, and sedatives do. Therefore, it it sometimes referred to as "not physically addictive." Does this help?
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power_stroke
08/08/09

@power_stroke: To further clarify, I'm not saying that cocaine is harmless. However, if you use cocaine daily for 3 years, stopping it suddenly won't kill you. In contrast, a daily user of a prescription like Valium may have a fatal seizure if s/he is suddenly denied access to the drug.
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SpyMagician
08/07/09

In reply to Cocaine Implicated in Billy Mays' Death
A bearded Ray Liotta should reprise his cokehead role in Goodfellas for the biopic based on this.
Either him or James Frey...
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NigelAstydameia
08/07/09

In reply to Cocaine Implicated in Billy Mays' Death
And like most cokeheads, he had no idea how truly annoying he was.
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Conchie Birdie
08/07/09

@NigelAstydameia: HA!
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Trixie from Toronto
08/07/09

@NigelAstydameia: Exactly. My idea of hell is to be trapped at a party between coke fiends.
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Atilla the Bun
08/07/09

@NigelAstydameia: SPOT ON.
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irishflyesq
08/07/09

In reply to Cocaine Implicated in Billy Mays' Death
And here I naively believed that he was actually taking the energy supplements he shilled for...
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nystar2000
08/07/09

In reply to Cocaine Implicated in Billy Mays' Death
Heath, MJ, now Billy Mays. Could people please STOP dropping dead from drug cocktails? Was I the only one whose mother obsessively recited the cautionary tale of Karen Ann Quinlan? It was her sly way of telling me never to mix substances with alcohol or other substances, and it worked.
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Atilla the Bun
08/07/09

@nystar2000: My mother freaks out over the possibility of me consuming a beer after a spaghetti dinner (it will make the pasta expand!!), so the thought of taking vicodin with pretty much anything else, much less another prescription pain killer, is utterly terrifying to me.
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Trulymadlyme
08/07/09

@nystar2000: He was on a buck of other drugs, too. I don't think cocaine did him in. There were so many drugs in his body.
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ChickyOnly
08/07/09

@Atilla the Bun: I'm not afraid of prescription painkillers, but this "expanding spaghetti" thing is making me think.
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Atilla the Bun
08/08/09

@ChickyOnly: Momma Bun would be proud--another life saved! Mark my words, the next celeb death will involve an Olive Garden and a six pack of beer...
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__
08/07/09

In reply to Cocaine Implicated in Billy Mays' Death
What is truly bizarre is that the coroner found hydrocodone, oxycodone and tramadol, as well as anti-anxiety drugs alprazolam and diazepam in his system just ONE day before he was getting hip replacement surgery. He could have died getting anesthesized for surgery with all of those other drugs in his system.
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Valerie Flame promoted this comment Edited by __ at 08/07/09 5:50 PM __ was starred __ was unstarred

Cynical Media Bitch
08/07/09

@Her Madgesty: Well, it sounds like this was a third go-around on the hip surgery. Still though, you're right about the risk of anesthesia; my uncle went in a couple of years ago for back surgery and between the sudden curtailment of his vodka intake and the meds, he damn near died on us.
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__
08/07/09

@Cynical Media Bitch:
Cocaine use can also cause the blood vessels in your brain to widen leading to sudden strokes and death later in life. What got Billy was the hardening of the artery walls from the cocaine. Its like applying battery acid to your brain.
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jasonelias
08/07/09

@Her Madgesty: That's a heavy, heavy load right there on it own. Adding cocaine to that mix with his general shape? Suicide.
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