Interesting, overlooked, and significant obituaries from around the world, as they happen, emphasizing the positive achievements of those who have died. Member, Society of Professional Obituary Writers.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
John Doar
Lawyer with the Justice Department who stood up to racism and the imperial presidency -- via the New York Times. He prosecuted the men who killed Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner, and Viola Liuzzo. He was on the Freedom Ride. He lived with James Meredith while the latter was integrating the University of Mississippi. Later, he helped make the case for Nixon's impeachment.
Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz
Surfer -- via the Times of Israel. Perhaps the greatest Jewish surfer to date, he is believed to have introduced the sport in Israel.
Big Bank Hank
Rapper -- via the New York Daily News. AKA Henry Jackson, Imp the Dimp. One of the founders of the Sugarhill Gang; a pioneering rap group whose "Rapper's Delight" is a classic! He had a degree in oceanography, but found it hard to enter that vocation. Grandmaster Caz insists that Hank plagiarized his unpublished lyrics for this song, but the controversy has never been settled.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Jerry Tallmer
Journalist, theater critic, editor, and writer -- via the New York Times. He pretty much put the Village Voice together at its beginning; he started Jules Feiffer's career, among many others; and he invented the Obie Awards (Off-Broadwy theater).
Gary Lane
Gary is far right in this picture. |
DEATHCETERA: A weekly roundup of death-related news from around the world
(Editor's note: After some feedback, trying a new title for this weekly feature. "Deathcetera"? It's corny, but a bit better than Weekly Reader.)
TOP
STORIES
Jenny Gold from Kaiser Health News talks
about the Institute of
Medicine’s recent report, “Dying in America”. You can download a free
copy of the report here. Gold interviews the report’s author, Nancy Metcalf,
here.
A very good list
of tips and links for consumers faced with purchasing funerals and burials – via WPRI.
DEATH
Isn’t that nice?
Here’s an app that tells you when you are going to die – from Eliza
Berman at TIME magazine
That Victorian
terror of being buried alive – by Ella Morton at Atlas Obscura, via
Slate
Why a couple is
buried underneath the runway at Savannah’s airport – from Greg
Gullberg at WSAV
MOURNING
In Iran, Ashura memorial
mourners have the status of rock stars – via the Guardian
Stained-glass
windows memorialize war dead – from Anne Fletcher at the Vancouver
Courier
FUNERALS
Funeral home
launches mobile showroom – via Craig Hlavty at the Houston Chronicle
Zoroastrian sky
burials
– from Ella Morton at Atlas Obscura, via Slate
‘Amusement and
Contradiction in the Contemporary Funeral Industry’ – a paper by
George Saunders in Critical Sociology
END-OF-LIFE
ISSUES
Pro-Death with
Dignity op-ed
from Dr. Peg Sandeen, Executive Director of Death with Dignity National Center
Tolbert N. Lester Jr.
Automobile restorer -- via legacy.com. He restored the 1949 Hudson Commodore used in the film "Driving Miss Daisy."
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Friday, November 7, 2014
FRIDAY REVIEW: 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes' -- Working toward the Good Death
By BRAD WEISMANN
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: and Other
Lessons from the Crematory
Caitlin Doughty
W.W. Norton & Company
2014
New York, London
OK, you really need to read this
one.
At first I thought it was
postmodernist standup comedy. A gag, a gimmick. A very vibrant, droll, and
personable young lady was posting videos online titled “Ask a Mortician,” and
representing something called The Order of the Good Death. Was she for real?
She is. Caitlin Doughty is a
visionary, licensed mortician with a great story to tell and an inimitable
style in which to tell it. Her new book “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” does many
things – lays out a rollicking bio of its author and details her adventures in
the death trade, all in a clear, polished and hilarious style.
If that were it, it would be
enough. However, Doughty is serious about her profession and wants to transform
it. She doesn’t want to be some kind of celebrity mortician (there are a few, actually).
Starting as a crematory operator, her experiences led her to formulate contempt
for what she sees as “our society’s structural denial of death,” aided and
abetted by the funeral industry.
Her impeccably researched
observations on our culture, which she sees as largely lacking the traditional
religious frameworks for dealing with death and mourning, ring true. “Smoke” is
a manifesto. Doughty asks for, first, thinking about death; and rethinking
attitudes about and approaches to the end of life, its observances, and
repercussions.
That Doughty overcame her
resistance to the standard way of doing things, entering the belly of the beast
and attending mortuary school, becoming licensed, is a testament to her
seriousness. As Mark Mothersbaugh said, “If you hate elevator music, you should
write your own.” Doughty, simply on the strength of her excellent rhetoric and
self-presentation, charms the reader ad presents a compelling case for solving
this problem at the same time.
Even if you do not agree with her
alternative ideas for disposing of the dead, her warm wit and clear-eyed
sincerity makes “Smoke” a pleasurable and thought-provoking read. And who
knows? With the approaching demise of 64 million Baby Boomers, maybe the time
has come for a revolution at the far end of life. Caitlin Doughty makes
excellent company there.
Jeanne Black
Singer best known for "He'll Have to Stay" in 1960 -- via the Williamson Herald. AKA Gloria Jeanne Black Shipley Strange. "He'll Have to Stay" is what is known as an "answer song"; this was written as a follow-up to Jim Reeves' "He'll Have to Go," a hit released earlier that year.
S. Donald Stookey
Inventor of superstrong glass ceramics (CorningWare) -- via the New York Times. BTW, he invented photosensitive glass as well. Not bad!
Manitas de Plata
Flamenco guitarist -- via the New York Times. AKA Ricardo Baliardo. His stage name means "Little Hands of Silver".
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Richard Schaal
Improvisational performer and actor -- via the L.A. Times. One of the first generation of Second City performers, Schaal ws in films such as "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" and many MTM TV productions, including the Bob Newhart and Mary Tyler Moore shows.
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