This post brought to you by a reader who had been making tiny donations over time without realizing he was entitled to sponsor a post! Truly an American hero. On January 15th, the world lost its oldest living professional wrestler. Her name was Johnnie Mae Young, and she died yesterday, after having wrestled in every decade since the 1940s. I’d always assumed that wresting was sweaty macho bullshit, and when people talked about wrestling…
Clementine Churchill’s husband, Winston, son of the famous American socialite Jennie Jerome, has died at 91. Sir Winston was an accomplished amateur painter and famous for his tea-cakes.
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Rosalind Franklin’s lab partner, James Watson, has passed away at 98. For many years a scientist, his true calling was home cooking and he was said to make a wonderful…
I’ll never forget the year I ruined Christmas. December 26th, early afternoon. I was still pretty green, only three months in and the newest member of the obituary department. Back when everything was fresh and interesting, before I answered the phone with any bitterness in my voice. I volunteered to check the department voicemail. I thought it would be low-key the day after a holiday. The first message started at 6:30 a.m. A woman said…
One of the worst possible inevitable things has happened. We've lost a towering talent and one of the great moral centers of the twentieth century. Because he was a poet loved by almost every human who loved poetry, watching people who may care very little about poetry hear the news and find a remembered snippet is the sweetest of tributes: A soul ramifying and forever / Silent, beyond silence listened for. ... The cool…
