Amy Winehouse dead at 27

I wouldn't know an Amy Winehouse song if it jumped up and bit me--I was only vaguely aware of her existence through entertainment feature headlines and Eminem mocking her in a song a year or two ago. But it's always a shame when someone young and apparently talented passes away... doubly so when it appears to be from something as avoidable as drug and alcohol abuse, something Winehouse did a lot of by all accounts.

It might also be that she was hounded to death by the cruelty of "fans"--her deterioration was chronicled on the Internet with posted videos and pictures.

A cause of death had not been announced at the time of this writing, but police stated she was pronounced dead at her home in Camden Square, having expired before the ambulance arrived on the scene.

The 27-year-old Winehouse was a five-time Grammy winner whose second album, "Back to Black", rocketed her and her mix of pop and jazz to global fame. The drugs, the drink, and a range of health and personal problems, cut that fame short.