https://www.tmz.com/2022/12/14/stephen-twitch-boss-dead-dies-dj-ellen-degeneres-so-you-think-you-can-dance/

ELLEN'S DJ DEAD AT 40 BY SUICIDE

Stephen "tWitch" Boss, the famed DJ on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show, is dead .... and TMZ has learned it appears to be a suicide.

Law enforcement sources tell us Stephen's wife Allison Holker ran into an LAPD station Tuesday, and she was frantic because she said Stephen had left home without his car -- something that was not like him at all.

We're told, a short time later -- around 11:15 AM -- paramedics got a call for a medical emergency at an L.A. hotel ... and they found Stephen there, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Holker tells TMZ, "Stephen lit up every room he stepped into. He valued family, friends and community above all else and leading with love and light was everything to him."

She continues, "He was the backbone of our family, the best husband and father, and an inspiration to his fans. To say he left a legacy would be an understatement, and his positive impact will continue to be felt. I am certain there won’t be a day that goes by that we won’t honor his memory."

Concluding, "Stephen, we love you, we miss you, and I will always save the last dance for you."

Stephen started DJing on Ellen's show in 2014, and was with her until the show ended in May 2022. He had become an executive producer on the show in 2020.

He really got his big break in showbiz in 2008, when he was runner-up on "So You Think Can Dance."

He went on to do some acting, landing several roles where he could show off his dance skills. Stephen played Jason in the 'Step Up' movie franchise, and he was also in "Magic Mike XXL."

The last time our photogs got him out around L.A. was back in September, and he talked to us about life after 'Ellen' ... sounding pretty happy to have more time with his family.

Stephen hosted several reality shows ... most notably, he and Allison hosted "Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings" together on Disney+.

The couple met on the all-star season of 'SYTYCD" -- they were both competing -- and they got married in 2013. Allison and Stephen had just celebrated their 9-year anniversary this past Saturday.

They had 3 kids. Stephen was 40 years old.

RIP

I don't dance on ANYONE'S grave, including the plots of any of those many people who DESERVE to die. So this is NOT any celebration of this fellow's erasure from existence.

But I think something needs to be said amid all the heartfelt tributes over the next few days we'll read about this guy--and as one has probably already guessed, I was not an especial fan of the show the late Boss rose to fame on.

Yeah, yeah, I realize none of us other than those close to Boss can have any idea of whatever demons drove him toward this.* And surely we'll hear that most inane palliative bromide, the preposterous "He's in a better place now"--those mindlessly uttering it never realizing that THAT downright logic-shredding assertion is an argument not merely FOR suicide, but indeed downright humanity-wide suicide EN MASSE, Marshall Applewhite-style.

For my own thoroughly-insignificant part, I would LOVE to be in ANY "better place"**; it's easy to rhapsodize about the modest sector of real estate I've carved out, but if I can improve on it, I'm in. But until someone can establish that there IS some such locale, ceasing the only life ANY of us knows for SURE even EXISTS is flatly out of the question. So barring fatal disease diagnosis, I ain't killing myself. (Though of course, someone ELSE may very well do that, perhaps tonight--IF a coronory or train or hungry alligator doesn't get me first.)

So in counterpoint to all the incoming what-a-great-guy-that-Boss! tributes, here's a curmudgeonly take:

Having viewed every photo of this guy and his shattered family which The Daily Mail/USA could find, it's easy to assert he was flat-out an ABSOLUTE JERK. Talented maybe yes, maybe no; never paid him a whit of attention. Good pal, maybe yes, maybe no; never met him or read about him.

BUT ALL THAT IS IRRELEVANT to how GARGANTUAN a jerk he was. To impose this continuing real-life nightmare on a wife and others, much less leaving two (or more somewhere, I bet) children growing up fatherless. Nobody should care that he had pressures--EVERYBODY has all kinds, including Bill Gates and Elon Musk--and nobody should think fondly in retrospect about someone of his proven character. Perhaps liking him solely because he had some supposed rare gift for inspiring guests and audiences to boogie (on a tightly-produced show).

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
==================* Well, at least Boss didn't pull a Hunter Thompson; THAT "gonzo" jerk reportedly phoned up his wife/ex-wife/common-law wife and made her an earwitness to his gunshot suicide.
** As long as it's somewhere in The Lower 48; I do not step even a single stride outside the jurisdiction of The Constitution in general and The Bill of Rights in particular...and NO un-bridged island is "a better place" for ANYTHING except physical isolation. While 1959 may have been a GREAT year for Castro and his cadre--as of New Year's Day, as it happened--a tremendously FOOLISH year was '59 for USA statehood, as NEITHER Hawaii in August NOR Alaska earlier (just three days into January) should have been granted admission. (Nor should ANY discontinuous U.S. Territory ever be even considered much less admitted, on the simple principle of inherent difficulty of defense.***)
*** Many people have heard of (or even personally recall) Pearl Harbor 1941..

Big Mongo <bigmongo1963@gmail.com> wrote:
> https://www.tmz.com/2022/12/14/stephen-twitch-boss-dead-dies-dj-ellen-degeneres-so-you-think-you-can-dance/
>
> ELLEN'S DJ DEAD AT 40 BY SUICIDE
>
> Stephen "tWitch" Boss, the famed DJ on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show, is dead ... and TMZ has learned it appears to be a suicide.
>
> Law enforcement sources tell us Stephen's wife Allison Holker ran into an LAPD station Tuesday, and she was frantic because she said Stephen had left home without his car -- something that was not like him at all.
>
>
> He really got his big break in showbiz in 2008, when he was runner-up on "So You Think Can Dance."
>
> He went on to do some acting, landing several roles where he could show off his dance skills. Stephen played Jason in the 'Step Up' movie franchise, and he was also in "Magic Mike XXL."
>
> The last time our photogs got him out around L.A. was back in September, and he talked to us about life after 'Ellen' ... sounding pretty happy to have more time with his family.
>
> Stephen hosted several reality shows ... most notably, he and Allison hosted "Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings" together on Disney+.
>
> The couple met on the all-star season of 'SYTYCD" -- they were both competing -- and they got married in 2013. Allison and Stephen had just celebrated their 9-year anniversary this past Saturday.

So they thought they could dance...together...until he changed his mind.
> They had 3 kids. Stephen was 40 years old.
>
> RIP

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

Curious.....does anyone know if Mr. B S actually has a life outside of his pompous postings?

On Wed, 14 Dec 2022 14:22:13 -0800 (PST), "radioacti...@gmail.com"
<radioactiveseattle@gmail.com> wrote:

[snip intro]
>Having viewed every photo of this guy and his shattered family which The Daily Mail/USA could find, it's easy to assert he was flat-out an ABSOLUTE JERK. Talented maybe yes, maybe no; never paid him a whit of attention. Good pal, maybe yes, maybe no; never met him or read about him.
>
>BUT ALL THAT IS IRRELEVANT to how GARGANTUAN a jerk he was. To impose this continuing real-life nightmare on a wife and others, much less leaving two (or more somewhere, I bet) children growing up fatherless. [snip]

Clarify, please, Is he a gargantuan jerk *because* he commited suicide and
had a family, or was he already one before he did that? I infer it one way
from your first reference, and the other way from your second.

David Carson

--
Dead or Alive Data Base
http://www.doadb.com

Thank you for your inquiry, David, and my apologies for being so tardy in responding; I shan't use "the holidays" as an excuse, even should it apply.

To answer your question, I was arguing in my longwinded fashion that the late tWitch Boss had during at least his adult years secretly been this off-the-charts consider-solely-me sort of fellow, but disguising that ugly reality from all those close to him. As opposed to just, as they say, "snapping" from his normal, good-guy existence one tragic day or week or month. That is, the reported evidence to me suggests he was long living a lie in regard to his true character.

Whether or not my analysis is on the mark, David, what is beyond question is that due to his self-centeredness, numerous lives are now not merely shattered at least for the time being, but also surely at minimum haunted for their entireties.*

Appreciate your interest, and I hope the New Year is good for us all; too soon it's Next stop, 2024!

STYBLE/Florida
============* Note I didn't type ETERNITIES...as I see zero evidence for this quite popular life-after-death idea, and I've been looking nonstop since childhood.

On Sun, 18 Dec 2022 18:54:29 -0800 (PST), "radioacti...@gmail.com"
<radioactiveseattle@gmail.com> wrote:

>Thank you for your inquiry, David, and my apologies for being so tardy in responding; I shan't use "the holidays" as an excuse, even should it apply.
>
>To answer your question, I was arguing in my longwinded fashion that the late tWitch Boss had during at least his adult years secretly been this off-the-charts consider-solely-me sort of fellow, but disguising that ugly reality from all those close to him. As opposed to just, as they say, "snapping" from his normal, good-guy existence one tragic day or week or month. That is, the reported evidence to me suggests he was long living a lie in regard to his true character.
>
>Whether or not my analysis is on the mark, David, what is beyond question is that due to his self-centeredness, numerous lives are now not merely shattered at least for the time being, but also surely at minimum haunted for their entireties.*
>
>Appreciate your interest, and I hope the New Year is good for us all; too soon it's Next stop, 2024!

I did see him on "So You Think You Can Dance" a few times, as a judge
- enough to know who he was by the name "Twitch," but not enough to
have an opinion of him. I didn't know who he was by the description,
"Ellen's DJ." I waited for your reply before looking at the Daily Mail
article on him. Now I have. Here are my impressions, probably many of
them shallow and unworthy of consideration by anyone, but such as they
are:

1. I don't care for the fad of celebrities going by a
name-that-isn't-a-name. The stupidest one I've heard to date is "The
Situation." Anyone who does this automatically starts off with a low
estimation from me. (I know they don't care, and they probably
shouldn't.)

2. Capitalizing it as "tWitch" instead of "Twitch" makes it worse.

3. It said he shot himself in the bathroom of a motel 15 minutes from
his home. I know why people who decide to commit suicide frequently
choose to use a gun. It's quick and pretty close to certain, if the
bullet goes into the brain. On the other hand, it's messy and leaves a
horrific scene. I give points to him for not doing it in his own
house, but I take points away for doing it on someone else's property,
leaving them with the aftermath of his problem. At least he did it in
the bathroom, which can probably restored with a good cleaning, as
opposed to the main room, which would have to have been refloored, at
a minimum.

4. He was with his wife for nine years. That's good.

5. A maid discovered the body. I've always wondered how often hotel
maids think, "Is today going to be the day I discover a body in a
room?" when they go to work. If I were a maid, I would wonder that
every time I put my key in the lock. I know I would, because every
time I go jogging in an area where there's a ditch or tall grass,, I
think, "I wonder whether I'm going to discover a body this time." (I
never have...yet.) Points off for traumatizing this poor maid. If I
were going to do what he did, I would put up a highly-visible sign
just inside the door reading, "WARNING: Suicide in Bathroom. AVISO:
Suicidio en el bano."

6. Points off for choosing _that_ motel. You're writing the end of the
story of your life, and you choose *there* as the setting?

7. The whole story is disturbing from the standpoint that, from what
has been reported, there were no signs or signals that he was
troubled. I wonder whether anything else will be reported that will
bring this into better focus.

8. I couldn't find anything to corroborate your impression that he was
a gargantuan jerk before he committed suicide, unless his stupid
nickname bothers you more than it bothers me.

David Carson

ADDENDUM to response to David Carson:

This is a LONG-overdue acknowledgment, Sir Carson, as I've been seeing your alt.obit contributions for many years.

Your elaborate Dead Or Alive Data Base--titled Data Base rather than employing the compound word database for good reason, I'm guessing?--is a remarkable resource. I've not been a regular there simply because I'm not adept with tagging or whatever the appropriate frequently-accessing techniques are..

But that's of course MY bad, as the kids like to say. Whereas YOUR particular GOOD is the tremendous time and toil the site surely represents in your life (and all for gratis I assume?). Lots of interesting features and arcana therein; I'll try to get better at accessing them. On to on-to-2024.

STYBLE/Florida

On Mon, 19 Dec 2022 12:02:51 -0800 (PST), "radioacti...@gmail.com"
<radioactiveseattle@gmail.com> wrote:

>Your elaborate Dead Or Alive Data Base--titled Data Base rather than employing the compound word database for good reason, I'm guessing?--is a remarkable resource. I've not been a regular there simply because I'm not adept with tagging or whatever the appropriate frequently-accessing techniques are.

It's more commonly seen as one word, but it's valid either way. To start
with, I have a general tendency to keep words separate that others make
compounds of. "Data base" is an instance where I prefer keeping them
separate. Also, my web site's URL, DOADB.com, invites keeping them as
separate words.

>Lots of interesting features and arcana therein; I'll try to get better at accessing them. On to on-to-2024.

Thank you.

--
Dead or Alive Data Base
http://www.doadb.com

In article <tnqsof$gsp$1@gioia.aioe.org>,
David Carson <davo@neosoft.com> wrote:
....
>It's more commonly seen as one word, but it's valid either way. To start
>with, I have a general tendency to keep words separate that others make
>compounds of.

I'm curious what are some other examples of this you have.

>"Data base" is an instance where I prefer keeping them
>separate. Also, my web site's URL, DOADB.com, invites keeping them as
>separate words.

I'm assuming you are referring to the "B" in your web site address.

FWIW, it *is* interestiing that while the word "database" is usually
spelled/written thus, it is often/commonly referred to as a "db" - and, in
fact, ".db" is a commonly user filename suffix for database files.

I wonder if there are any other commonly-referred-to-items that fit this
pattern. I'm sure there are, but I cannot think of any off-hand.

--
"You can safely assume that you have created God in your own image when
it turns out that God hates all the same people you do." -- Anne Lamott

David Carson <davo@neosoft.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Dec 2022 12:02:51 -0800 (PST), "radioacti...@gmail.com"
> <radioactiveseattle@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Your elaborate Dead Or Alive Data Base--titled Data Base rather than employing the compound word database for good reason, I'm guessing?--is a remarkable resource. I've not been a regular there simply because I'm not adept with tagging or whatever the appropriate frequently-accessing techniques are.
>
> It's more commonly seen as one word, but it's valid either way. To start
> with, I have a general tendency to keep words separate that others make
> compounds of. "Data base" is an instance where I prefer keeping them
> separate. Also, my web site's URL, DOADB.com, invites keeping them as
> separate words.

Do you prefer to travel to base ball games by air line or rail road?
(Historically there were "air line" railroads before the flying
variety,FWIW).
>>Lots of interesting features and arcana therein; I'll try to get better at accessing them. On to on-to-2024.
>
> Thank you.
>

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

On Fri, 10 Feb 2023 18:02:40 -0000 (UTC), Louis Epstein
<le@main.lekno.ws> wrote:

>Do you prefer to travel to base ball games by air line or rail road?
>(Historically there were "air line" railroads before the flying
>variety,FWIW).

Are *you* seriously challenging someone else about his compliance with
written English conventions?

David Carson <davidc@wa-wd.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Feb 2023 18:02:40 -0000 (UTC), Louis Epstein
> <le@main.lekno.ws> wrote:
>
>>Do you prefer to travel to base ball games by air line or rail road?
>>(Historically there were "air line" railroads before the flying
>>variety,FWIW).
>
> Are *you* seriously challenging someone else about his compliance with
> written English conventions?
>

Just asking a question as to where you uncouple words.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

Louis Epstein defended himself re written English language convention:

"Just asking a question as to where you uncouple words."
________________________________________________________________________

A simple tutorial for those who slept through high school English class:

Two-word phrases generally start as just that, a two-word sequence that is used often in the English language.

Then, after a decade or more of frequent usage, a hyphen* is added, transforming it into a hyphenated word. (Note that it thusly becomes NOT hyphenated WORDS, but rather a grammatical configuration in the singular, i.e., a hyphenated word (even though it appears in print** to still be two separate, if no longer separated, words).

Then (and usually ONLY then), after ever-more increased usage, it is transmogrified by grammarians into ANOTHER singular, to wit, a compound word. (The late-20th Century to early-21st Century sequence of "web site" to "web-site" to "website" is a fine example that should be familiar to the digital crowd.)

Oh, the pronunciation also changes a smidgen, too: We said "web site" at first, but "web-site" shortened the between-words verbal pause which all considerate speakers insert for but a fraction of a second, though the compound word "website" is usually pronounced with the same rhythm as "web-site" was.

Not only do the younger generations display utterly inexcusable difficulty with this pretty darned simple concept, but one can also always count on Pat Sajak consoling any contestant who just struck out on a Wheel of Fortune bonus-round cryptic containing one by saying something on the order of, "You know, these puzzles with a compound word our contestants often find tough....".***

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
==================* I've long advocated the death penalty (and immediately administered for any violator) for everyone who erroneously calls a dash--which has HUGELY different functions than does the hyphen, one usage of which I'm employing right here--a hyphen, or vice versa.
** Or "in text", as the Internet generation so annoyingly terms it.
*** Oh, boo-hoo-hoo, Pat; you've for decades now been hands-down my all-time fave GAME**** show host, but still, but if they were an English class snooze, lose blues is what they DESERVE.
**** While for QUIZ shows, nowadays there just ain't no competition: every week Ken Jennings gets better and more polished, and lately he's even been making me forget the late, sainted Art Fleming (not to mention what's-his-name, that late cloying Canadian.)

On Sat, 11 Feb 2023 16:56:19 -0800 (PST), "radioacti...@gmail.com"
<radioactiveseattle@gmail.com> wrote:

>A simple tutorial for those who slept through high school English class:
>
>Two-word phrases generally start as just that, a two-word sequence that is used often in the English language.
>
>Then, after a decade or more of frequent usage, a hyphen* is added, transforming it into a hyphenated word. (Note that it thusly becomes NOT hyphenated WORDS, but rather a grammatical configuration in the singular, i.e., a hyphenated word (even though it appears in print** to still be two separate, if no longer separated, words).
>
>Then (and usually ONLY then), after ever-more increased usage, it is transmogrified by grammarians into ANOTHER singular, to wit, a compound word. (The late-20th Century to early-21st Century sequence of "web site" to "web-site" to "website" is a fine example that should be familiar to the digital crowd.)
>
>Oh, the pronunciation also changes a smidgen, too: We said "web site" at first, but "web-site" shortened the between-words verbal pause which all considerate speakers insert for but a fraction of a second, though the compound word "website" is usually pronounced with the same rhythm as "web-site" was.

Why does it happen with some and not others?
ice cream
golf ball or pool ball
dollar bill
cat litter or cat food (we have cattail, catcall, catfish, catnip,
catnap, catsuit, catfight, etc.)

There's no reason any of these, and tens of thousands of other two-word
combinations, couldn't be compound words.

I don't ever remember seeing "web-site." The hyphenation step seems to be
skipped a lot, especially in recent times.

David Carson