No apologies necessary - the term "icon" gets overused but it fits here. I live in a little town in rural Idaho and I don't know anyone here who doesn't know who Irwin was. I don't think I really want to see him dying and I'm not sure why anyone would.
Every time you read the morning news, you expect to read about somebody dying and you get used to it.
This morning, however, I got that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read about Steve Irwin's death.
The fact of the matter is that millions of people genuinely liked the Irwin family better than we liked some of our own relatives.