Oh, son of a bitch

Tyler Lambert, son of Diff'rent Strokes star Dana Plato, committed suicide last week, reports PopEater. He was 25.

The Tulsa, Okla., office of the Chief Medical Examiner told PopEater that Lambert died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head on May 6, almost exactly 11 years after his mother ended her life.

To describe my feelings at this event, I need a word that means both sorrow and disgust. Also, I suppose, marvel, because that I do, at how a family could go so wrong.

I also think, and this is an odd thing to think but I do think it, one of the more tragic things about it all is that...well have you looked at a Diff'rent Strokes rerun recently?

Dana Plato couldn't act; she had no business being a star of a television series. And I don't see that it did much for her but help shorten her life.

I guess what we can learn from this...which is what we're supposed to do with tragedy, as humans...is that someone nearly always has it worse than us. I don't use the word tragedy lightly (in this instance); BTW, I actually do think this whole family was a Greek play unto themselves.

Or maybe some Scotch-Russian plays (which is my derivation, if you get the point).