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Karen Carpenter's tragic story
guardian ^ | October 23, 2010 | Randy Schmidt

Posted on 05/25/2018 9:42:50 AM PDT by Morgana

The Carpenters were one of the biggest-selling American musical acts of all time. Between 1970 and 1984 brother and sister Richard and Karen Carpenter had 17 top 20 hits, including "Goodbye to Love", "Yesterday Once More", "Close to You" and "Rainy Days and Mondays". They notched up 10 gold singles, nine gold albums, one multi-platinum album and three Grammy awards. Karen's velvety voice and Richard's airy melodies and meticulously crafted arrangements stood in direct contrast to the louder, wilder rock dominating the rest of the charts at the time, yet they became immensely popular, selling more than 100m records.

Richard was the musical driving force but it was Karen's effortless voice that lay behind the Carpenters' hits. Promoted from behind the drums to star vocalist, she became one of the decade's most instantly recognisable female singers.

But there was a tragic discrepancy between her public and private selves. Offstage, away from the spotlight, she felt desperately unloved by her mother, Agnes, who favoured Richard, and struggled with low self-esteem, eventually developing anorexia nervosa from which she never recovered. She died at the age of 32.

In 1996 journalist Rob Hoerburger powerfully summed up Karen Carpenter's tribulations in a New York Times Magazine feature: "If anorexia has classically been defined as a young woman's struggle for control, then Karen was a prime candidate, for the two things she valued most in the world – her voice and her mother's love – were exclusively the property of her brother Richard. At least she would control the size of her own body." And control it she did. By September 1975 her weight fell to 6st 7lb (41kg).

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; History; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: anorexianervosa; karencarpenter; prolife
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1 posted on 05/25/2018 9:42:51 AM PDT by Morgana
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To: Morgana

I still think her and her brother were lovers and thats why she was so messed up


2 posted on 05/25/2018 9:50:06 AM PDT by al baby (Hi Mom Hi Dad)
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To: al baby

No honey, that was Donny and Marie I think SNL or one of those comedy shows did a skit about that!


3 posted on 05/25/2018 9:54:07 AM PDT by Morgana ( Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: Morgana

My daughter had it prior to Carpenter’s death——most doctors didn’t know how to treat it.

.


4 posted on 05/25/2018 9:54:57 AM PDT by Mears
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To: Morgana

This is off-topic (and thank you for this interesting article) but why do the British persist in using stones as a unit of weight? It’s even more archaic than our use of pounds.


5 posted on 05/25/2018 9:57:13 AM PDT by jalisco555 ("In a Time of Universal Deceit Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act" - George Orwell)
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To: al baby

I found it !! I found it!!!

Don’t watch while eating you’ll mess up your computer!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg1bJCg-uQo

Donny and Marie


6 posted on 05/25/2018 9:57:54 AM PDT by Morgana ( Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: Morgana

Some light reading!


7 posted on 05/25/2018 9:58:15 AM PDT by gr8eman (Since God has been banished from our classrooms, Satan has filled the void.)
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To: Morgana

From what I remember she started to recover and regain weight, but with many who have this condition, the body is so weakened one can die from the weight gain.


8 posted on 05/25/2018 9:58:50 AM PDT by Chauncey Gardiner
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To: Morgana

A friend’s daughter had an eating disorder and ruined her front teeth. The enamel wore off. Her sickness was different, bulimia. She threw up what she ate.


9 posted on 05/25/2018 9:59:42 AM PDT by gattaca ("Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan)
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To: jalisco555

“This is off-topic (and thank you for this interesting article) but why do the British persist in using stones as a unit of weight? It’s even more archaic than our use of pounds.”

Every watch Benny Hill?

Man 1. “Don’t you know the Queen’s English?”

Man 2. “I’m sure she is!”

Translation: the English do everything different and since we’ve been freed of them, we have forgotten their ways and made our own.


10 posted on 05/25/2018 9:59:59 AM PDT by Morgana ( Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: Morgana

“No honey, that was Donny and Marie I think SNL or one of those comedy shows did a skit about that!”


These are the morons who would take umbrage if you suggested that Bill and Chelsea had committed incest or that Hillary and Chelsea were incestuous lesbian lovers.


11 posted on 05/25/2018 10:00:31 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (Journalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving.)
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To: gattaca

“A friend’s daughter had an eating disorder and ruined her front teeth. The enamel wore off. Her sickness was different, bulimia. She threw up what she ate.”

I’ve heard of this! Bulimia Nervosa is closely related and sometimes girls (and boys but mostly girls) can have both. The constant barfing wears off the enamel on the teeth.


12 posted on 05/25/2018 10:01:45 AM PDT by Morgana ( Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: gr8eman

book mark it for later!


13 posted on 05/25/2018 10:02:31 AM PDT by Morgana ( Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: Morgana

The first husband said she had hang ups about sex.


14 posted on 05/25/2018 10:02:40 AM PDT by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: al baby

WHOA!


15 posted on 05/25/2018 10:03:10 AM PDT by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: Morgana

One of the most beautiful voices of all time...


16 posted on 05/25/2018 10:03:22 AM PDT by Magnatron
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To: Zhang Fei

This story about Donnie and Marie been going around a long time. Seen lots of comedy shows do stunts like this.


17 posted on 05/25/2018 10:03:40 AM PDT by Morgana ( Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: jalisco555
Why do the British persist in using stones as a unit of weight? It’s even more archaic than our use of pounds.

Our use of pounds isn't archaic. Pounds, pints, gallons, feet, inches, etc. are convenient measurements for which there is no metric equivalent. Perhaps the British feel the same way about measuring weight in stone.

18 posted on 05/25/2018 10:04:34 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: Morgana

Thanks for hat tip. Sounds like her mom and brother were real pieces of work. That’s the reality of showbiz, though. Many of the stars were seriously damaged long before they became famous.


19 posted on 05/25/2018 10:05:45 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (Journalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving.)
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To: al baby
I still think her and her brother were lovers and thats why she was so messed up

I've never heard that in my life. I hope it's not true, but it was the '70s, so who knows.

20 posted on 05/25/2018 10:06:36 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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