When a celebrity dies at your workplace

Earlier this week when Ed McMahon passed away, there was one news truck in front of the UCLA hospital early in the morning.

This afternoon a co-worker came into the lab and announced that Michael Jackson was at the UCLA hospital. Then a little while later somebody else said that traffic was getting crazy in front of the hospital because of the media and paparazzi. Then somebody else announced that he passed away. Around that time we started to hear helicopters overhead, and got multiple e-mails notifying us about street closures and heavy traffic. When I checked the online news, thousands of people were swarming in front of the hospital. It was amazing to see.

It also made traffic crazy today. Some of the streets around the hospital were closed, and I wouldn't be surprised if ER traffic was directed to another hospital. I left work at 7 p.m. hoping it had died down a bit-- and it had, but traffic was still heavier than a normal workweek evening.

Just watching the news crews and crowds at various places in L.A. on t.v. is crazy.

I feel horrible for his kids...

Update: The next day a co-worker described her ordeal trying to get home. She takes the bus and had to walk through that throng of people. She said that it took her about 15 minutes to walk through the crowd because there were people everywhere-- not just on the sidewalk, but on the street, on the steps and walls of the buildings next door and across the street, everywhere. This is a walk that normally should take 5 minutes or less. Considering the craziness of the subsequent media coverage, I don't think the Michael Jackson mania is going to calm down any time soon. I can't imagine what it is like to grow-up and live with this kind of paparazzi/media swarming every day of your life.