For whatever reason, these past few days have seen more than their fair share of high profile deaths. The latest was a man named Billy Mays, a famous product pitchman who you’ve heard yelling at you on TV to buy OxiClean, Orange Glo, and dozens of other products. He is also someone I love to impersonate. And even though McMahan, Farrah and MJ had more fame and a larger impact on popular culture, it was Mays’ death that startled me the strongest.

Last Friday night I tweeted:

First Ed McMahon. Then Farrah Fawcett. Now Michael Jackson. It’s been a rough week for the rich and famous. #rip

Minutes later, an old childhood friend of mine tweeted this in reply:

@jaledwith it always goes in threes

I remember my dad saying that when I was growing up. Apparently famous people tend to die in groups of three. The most infamous example I can think of occurred on November 22, 1963, they day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Both C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died that same day. (This actually became the premise for the novel Between Heaven and Hell.) There are plenty of other examples, I’m sure.

So, after being reminded of this “fact” by my friend, I was left somewhat assured. The loss of these three was still sad, but at least it was all over.

I found out about Billy Mays’ death on Sunday afternoon while it was a trending topic on Twitter. This news caused a 404 error in my head. First, this shouldn’t have been allowed to happen according to the previously established death in threes rule. But second, and even more significant, I had just seen him on The Tonight Show earlier in the week. He had been on Tuesday night promoting his new TV show. It’s an incredibly eerie feeling to have seen someone doing just fine on one day and to hear of their death the next.