The CDC in Atlanta has issued a health warning: If you are famous, chances are you will die at some point in 2009.

Seriously, folks at the water cooler, blogosphere, Seder table and local prison are all having the same conversation: What up with these celebrity deaths?

Come on — it’s like two a day. First Farrah and Michael – then Dominick and Ted, and now it’s Patrick Swayze and My Youth dying all at once. Between Swayze, John Hughes, Jacko, Walter Cronkite and Ed McMahon, our generation is losing its pop culture touchstones.

Lots of people are eulogizing the man who dirty danced as Johnny Castle and stuck around post-mortem with Demi Moore in Ghost,who sadly died from pancreatic cancer… but I am mourning the man who guest-starred late-series on M*A*S*H, coincidentally as a soldier with a different kind of cancer, Leukemia. A few days ago, M*A*S*H guru Larry Gelbart succumbed to cancer. It makes me wonder what kind of studio and TV network must be going on in heaven.

But enough mourning. Let’s celebrate the TV life of Patrick Swayze, shall we? In addition to his M*A*S*H appearance, there are three other memorable TV milestones to note:

1. North & South. He’s young and hot. Kirstie Alley’s young and hot. Hell, even Hal Holbrook’s young and hot as Abe Lincoln. OK, I lie, but the point is Mr. Swayze delivered a star-making performance. Also, fellow 2009-deadperson David Carrradine appeared in this mid-'80s miniseries.

2. SNL. Whether it was watching him grimace at Victoria Jackson's pulling out belly lint in a Ghost parody or the Chippendales competition with Chris Farley, the Swayze episode was a highlight of that somewhat less-than-optimal period of Saturday Night Live.

3. The Beast. I  admit I never saw Swayze’s swansong A&E show – I am sure Netflix will be overrun for requests now, but I find it strangely comforting that the man who played Johnny Castle shared the screen on The Beast with the actor Johnny Kastl (you may know him as Doug the coroner on Scrubs).

Patrick Swayze, you will always be SodaPop and PonyBoy’s older brother, and may you forever live in the afterlife that way, caring for your bros and battling with Leif Garrett in The Outsiders.

Wait – Leif Garrett is still alive. Whew. At least SOMEONE is.

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