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Celebrity Chef/cooking author/TV host Anthony Bourdain >>> SUICIDE at 61

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I enjoyed watching this guys shows. Didn't necessarily agree with his take on some things but he was entertaining, acerbic, to the point, and was the best at mixing travel, cooking, indulgent food, and an indulgent life and putting it all on film for the rest of us to see.

Apparently at the age of 61 he decided to cash in his chips and committed suicide.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/08/us/a...content=2018-06-08T11:22:30&utm_medium=social

New York (CNN) — Anthony Bourdain, a gifted storyteller and writer who took CNN viewers around the world, has died. He was 61.

CNN confirmed Bourdain's death on Friday and said the cause of death was suicide.

"It is with extraordinary sadness we can confirm the death of our friend and colleague, Anthony Bourdain," the network said in a statement Friday morning. "His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller. His talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter and family at this incredibly difficult time."

Bourdain was in France working on an upcoming episode of his award-winning CNN series. His close friend Eric Ripert, the French chef, found Bourdain unresponsive in his hotel room Friday morning.

Bourdain was a master of his crafts -- first in the kitchen and then in the media. Through his TV shows and books, he explored the human condition and helped audiences think differently about food, travel and themselves. He advocated for marginalized populations and campaigned for safer working conditions for restaurant staffs.

Along the way, he received practically every award the industry has to offer.

In 2013, Peabody Award judges honored Bourdain and "Parts Unknown" for "expanding our palates and horizons in equal measure."

"He's irreverent, honest, curious, never condescending, never obsequious," the judges said. "People open up to him and, in doing so, often reveal more about their hometowns or homelands than a traditional reporter could hope to document."

The Smithsonian once called him "the original rock star" of the culinary world, "the Elvis of bad boy chefs."

In 1999 he wrote a New Yorker article, "Don't Eat Before Reading This," that became a best-selling book in 2000, "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly."

The book set him on a path to international stardom.

First he hosted "A Cook's Tour" on the Food Network, then moved to "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" on the Travel Channel. "No Reservations" was a breakout hit, earning two Emmy Awards and more than a dozen nominations.

In 2013 both Bourdain and CNN took a risk by bringing him to the news network still best known for breaking news and headlines. Bourdain quickly became one of the principal faces of the network and one of the linchpins of the prime time schedule.

Season eleven of "Parts Unknown" premiered on CNN last month.

While accepting the Peabody award in 2013, Bourdain described how he approached his work.

"We ask very simple questions: What makes you happy? What do you eat? What do you like to cook? And everywhere in the world we go and ask these very simple questions," he said, "we tend to get some really astonishing answers."​

Bourdain's death happened after fashion designer Kate Spade hanged herself in an apparent suicide at her Manhattan apartment on Tuesday. Spade was found hanged by a scarf she allegedly tied to a doorknob, an NYPD source said.
Suicide is a growing problem in the United States. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a survey Thursday showing suicide rates increased by 25% across the United States over nearly two decades ending in 2016. Twenty-five states experienced a rise in suicides by more than 30%, the government report finds.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Being reported by other outlets that he hanged himself.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
Yup.
What a physically gorgeous man he was.

download (2).jpeg
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Can’t say I found him attractive but I loved his wit and his jibes.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
Being reported by other outlets that he hanged himself.

I guess his close friend found him.
Just goes to show, you can have it all, but once alone some people feel very alone inside.

Rest well.
You've left lots of admirers behind.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I think this author is onto something with his suicide analysis.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/3162...m_content=062316-news&utm_campaign=benshapiro

Anthony Bourdain killed himself today. Fashion designer Kate Spade committed suicide earlier in the week. That's two prominent suicides in the span of just a few days. And they are far from alone, sadly. Suicide is a veritable epidemic across the nation. Suicide rates are on the rise in almost every state. In some areas, they have risen by 30% or more. This is not normal. Something is happening. But what? And why?

People will say that suicide is on the rise because we are not doing enough to fight the "mental health crisis," but this can't be the cause. We have never been more aware of, or more proactive against, mental health issues, yet the suicide rate only continues to climb. The rate was a fraction of what it is today back when nobody had ever even heard of "mental health." The purely psychological explanations just don't hold up. Clearly there is a deeper problem here.


I think that problem is emptiness. There is an emptiness at the core of our culture, and from this root the suicide epidemic grows. We have fled from God, from meaning, from purpose, and embraced a soft kind of nihilism; a nihilism that will not call itself nihilism. It uses other words and slogans to describe itself. "You only live once," it says. "Live your truth." People are told that there is only one life, one reality, and it has no meaning aside from what you assign to it. But what happens when you no longer see meaning? Well, our culture says, if you do not see it then it is not there.

Those who seek happiness by following the well-worn paths will inevitably fall into this pit. If you do what everyone else is doing, and live how they live, and walk in their footsteps, you will end up in the same darkness. You will begin to feel that there is no hope and no point and no real beauty or joy to be found in life. And this is the state in which so many of us are living. A great, great many people in America are wallowing in this nihilistic despair and living hollow lives devoid of substance. They struggle and flail and reach out for help, but so often the hand that grabs hold of them will only drag them deeper into the pit.


We have seen this process play out this week. It's the same thing that happens every time a famous person commits suicide. We set out immediately to almost defend the act, and to ensure that nobody says anything negative about it. We insist that suicide is nothing but the result of a "mental illness." A depressed person dies of suicide in the same way that a person may die of breast cancer. We deliver tearful, admiring eulogies to the deceased celebrity and express our hope that they have "found peace."


And what good does any of this do? How are we helping a suicidal person by explicitly suggesting that suicide is a means to peace? How are we helping him by telling him that he has no choice, that his depression may just up and kill him one day, totally against his will? What service do we provide by telling him that he has no power, no alternative, no free will? And then we are shocked when the next person does it. And the next. And the next. And each time we react the same way, saying the same things, and we think that we are helping as long as we also pass out the suicide prevention hotline.

It is good to give out the suicide prevention hotline (1-800-273-8255). It is good to encourage people to get help, talk to someone, reach out. We get that part right. But we go dangerously off course with everything else. And the crisis only worsens because we refuse to trace it all the way down to its roots. We stop at the brain, at chemical reactions and psychological disorders, but we never pause to ask why all of our brains have apparently gone haywire in modern times. If this is all just a matter of mental disorders, why in the hell are these "mental disorders" so common now?

I think it is because the disorder is not purely psychological. It goes beyond our brains and into our souls, into the emptiness. What everyone really craves deep in their bones is truth and meaning. Not meaning they arbitrarily assign, but meaning that is objective and inherent and beyond our ability to remove or change. But our culture tells us that nothing of the sort exists — there is only this physical world, and our egos, and whatever we decide to make of it all. And if we make nothing of it, and find nothing in it, then life is nothing and there is no reason to carry on living anymore.

If someone is feeling this way, yes, it is good to give them the numbers to call, and to tell them that they are not alone and people care for them, and to encourage them to talk to someone. I echo all of those exhortations. But it's not enough, in itself. People need more than that. They need more than therapy and phone numbers. They even need more than the knowledge that other people love them. They need meaning. They need hope. They need there to be a point to all of this, a reason.

Well, praise God because there is a reason, there is a point, there is a meaning. God is our foundation, our truth, our purpose, and the substance of our lives. We are not mere accidents. We are not clumps of dust that grew randomly from the Earth and somehow developed consciousness and a moral code and the capacity for love. That doesn't make sense, and we all know it doesn't make sense, and we will literally kill ourselves trying to make sense of it.

There is a transcendent, spiritual character to humanity, and we all innately recognize it. We find despair when we reject it and try to separate ourselves from it and from ourselves. Hope is found the other way, in the opposite direction. Hope is found when we embrace who we are, as children of God, and we keep our eyes and hearts focused on eternity, on home. God wants us there with Him. But not yet. There is still more to be done, more life to be lived, and we can live it in joy, knowing that there is a meaning and a point to all of this.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
Fame, Fortune and great looks. (Yes, i can admit he was a handsome bastard, I am secure in that area) sometimes is not enough.

I never heard of him either, but my heart goes out to the family.
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
They say that you can never truly get into someone else's head and that may be a good thing.

I just don't understand this. I am more than a little bit confused as to why? I doubt that there will ever be a satisfactory explanation.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
They say that you can never truly get into someone else's head and that may be a good thing.

I just don't understand this. I am more than a little bit confused as to why? I doubt that there will ever be a satisfactory explanation.

Same with Robbin Williams.

And Kate Spade.

And my personal broker who, a couple months ago, checked into a hotel room and ate a fatal dose of pills, leaving behind a family and friends.

We never understand this.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
Robin Williams had been diagnosed with Parkinson's/Lewy dementia.
That took everything away from him.
It literally robbed him from being himself.
Not saying suicide was the appropriate action for him, but can certainly understand how he would have reached that level of hopelessness and despair.

As for Bourdain, I'm wondering if he too had been given any sort of life altering diagnosis?
It could be anything.
But to be in France working, then for this to suddenly happen certainly does not make sense.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
He battled depression for many years. It is life altering. He was open about it.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
He battled depression for many years. It is life altering. He was open about it.

Bourdain?
Yes. A one time heroin addict, loved his drink and was also a heavy smoker.


Aside from that, my son Jeff told me this morning that the most watched/shared video of him was of he and Obama.. sitting on cheap plastic stools, drinking beer and eating noodles.
I recall the episode very well.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Yes, he openly battled depression. Even featured a bit about his battle with depression on at least one episode where he talked to a therapist during the broadcast. I believe the episode was from Argentina?
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
He battled depression for many years. It is life altering. He was open about it.

I knew about that.

Like you my broker, friend and fishing buddy did the same as yours quite a few years ago. He checked in to a motel, ate pills and that was that. All the years that I knew him I never once realized that he had a problem with depression.

Depression is just another thing that I can't relate to as it has never affected me personally so it's difficult for me to understand. I can't imagine the deep, dark abyss that some people fall in to that causes them to do the unthinkable. It must be a horrible place to be.
 
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