I wrote a post last week about the sudden and shocking death by heart attack of Ken Lay, Enron's founder. That single post has not only been one of Blogging Stocks' mostly widely read entries, but it also has produced an incredible outpouring of emotion from readers -- one that keeps on coming.

You know the five stages of grief? Well, at least three are clearly represented in the comments.

Denial is by far the most prominent (that's both denial that he died of natural causes and denial that he is dead at all). Just today a reader commented that he could have been injected with something that gave the appearance of a major heart attack. Many have invoked his relationship with President Bush to imply all sorts of alternative scenarios -- quite often involving the witness protection program.

Most convincing was a doctor who wrote that he found it implausible that a man of Lay's age and wealth could have an undiagnosed heart condition that would trigger a massive coronary without warning. That one got me thinking...

Anger would be next, as far as representation in blog comments. I would say the bulk of the 139 commenters to date are very angry at Lay -- for losing their money; for losing the money of his employees, for possibly preserving great wealth for his wife by dying before his sentencing (video news report). Many of them even are mad at him for dying since they liked to imagine him suffering during his prison term. Just let it go, I say.

Acceptance was another stage clearly in evidence. Surprised? Lots of of these folks clearly found comfort from the Bible and urged others not to cast the first stone and the like. 

Depression is one stage that didn't show up in great numbers in the comments. I'm sure there were plenty of people depressed by reading all those angry comments hurled at a man we just learned had died. But do truly depressed people comment on blogs? I doubt it.

What about Bargaining? I didn't see much sign of that. It's not really applicable here -- that's the stage where you basically bargain with God (or your deity of choice) not to let something bad happen and you'll donate all your money to charity or something. But we're talking about Ken Lay, one of the most disgraced corporate executives in history. And who would bargain over him, even posthumously?

Ken Lay's death and the five stages of grief originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 11 Jul 2006 15:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.