The Very Rev. Professor Henry Chadwick Tiimes of London Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Cyd Charisse Times of London Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Tim Russert The Times of London Take a look at an interesting article we found.
A minority of American pupils ever learn a foreign language, putting America at a distinct cultural and economic disadvantage in an increasingly global marketplace. What languages should kids be focusing on for the future, and how can the instruction process be improved?
 by J. Peterman |
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 by Capt Neptune |
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 by J. Peterman |
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June 19, 2008
When my time comes, I want the Times of London to write my obituary.
If you haven't read them, you should. They almost make you wish you were dead.
Good obituary writing is almost a lost art. The good ones not only list the mundane datum of a person's life - born on this date, died on this, married to so-and-so - but highlight the most-interesting episodes and encounters, be they good or bad. The net result is that you finish reading one of these 500-word pieces and not only have a real sense of who the person was and how they'd spent their time on earth, but where they rank among their peers and the world at large.
Take the recent obituary of jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton.
"Like the late George Melly, Humphrey Lyttelton was a committed jazzman whose convivial personality and dry sense of humour won over listeners who might not have been able to begin to tell the difference between Dixieland or bebop."
That first paragraph is so well-written, so interesting and engaging that even if you've never heard of him or don't even like jazz, you're compelled to read more.
Here are some other recent examples of obituary brilliance from the Times staff:
Bo Diddley: "I don't sound like nobody!" was Bo Diddley's maxim in the 1950s, but over the decades dozens have tried to sound like him.
Yves Saint Laurent: "Leading figures are rare in any field. In fashion, there were only five in the 20th century: Poiret, Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga - and Saint Laurent."
British golf writer Dai Davies: "It was 10-9 to Wales. It was not a very good game." Davies could not reply quickly enough. "There are no bad victories over England," he said firmly.
Director Sydney Pollock: [He] won a New York Film Critics Circle award for best director for Tootsie, but said: "I'd give it up, if I could have back the nine months of my life I spent with Dustin making it."
Good obituaries not only encapsulate the lives of the famous, but the important.
"Ernst Stuhlinger, physicist and space scientist, was one of the most talented of the 118 German rocket scientists who surrendered to the Americans in 1945."
But mostly, they chronicle the lives of the interesting.
Howard Dill: "Canadian farmer who became known for competitive pumpkin growing and ice hockey history."
Alan Brien: Prolific journalist, critic and distinguished commentator with a taste for whimsy, women and liquor."
Martin Kelly: "Facial plastic surgeon who operated on Afghans mutilated by the Taleban."
Where the Times staff really shines is when they remember the heroes - and heroines - of World War II. As only the British can, they unabashedly and admiringly write of the war-time daring-do of the common foot soldier and the Victoria Cross winner.
"After a stretch at Stalag VIIB in Bavaria, from where he also made an escape attempt, Major Anthony Rolt was sent to Colditz Castle in the early 1940s, the Sonderlager for persistent escapers. It was in Colditz that he teamed up with two RAF officers, Flying Officer Bill Goldfinch and Flight Lieutenant Jack Best, and Lieutenant Geoffrey "Stooge" Wardle of the Royal Navy to build the glider that they planned to launch from the castle roof."
My latest favorite line - I'm constantly finding new ones - was in the writeup for Richard Chopping, jacket designer of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels,
"I don't mind a bit of sex," he rsaid, "but there is enough violence in the world without needing to make it more glamorous."
Like I said, words to die for.
Share the Eye:
Kazuo Shiraga Times of London Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Commander Derek Wright Times of London Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Vic Wilson Times of London Take a look at an interesting article we found.
still thinking about today...
How do you want to be remembered?
10% 30% 0% 60%
I want the Times of London to write my obituary, but only after I go out like Slim Pickens in "Dr. Strangelove".
One of my sons is in the marble and granite business (he's also an excellent artist/craftsman in marble, worked on a Trump project, too). He has plans, after I die, to turn the house into a marble palace. I've decided that with my ashes in a nice Chinese vase on the fireplace mantel, the marble-clad house will make a perfect mausoleum.
No funeral required.
My favorite way to commemorate the dead is to remember how they enjoyed living.
When my mother's godmother died, we all got on a little boat and sailed into the Gulf of Mexico. I played the recorder as my mom poured the ashes into the bay. It was a rocky ride on a small boat and everyone got wet. My mom said to everyone, "If Bea were here with us, she'd be laughing and getting wet too." That's the closest thing to a funeral she had and it's precisely the kind she would have wanted.
By a similar token, when my father died, many of those who attended his (far more conventional) funeral had children in the 1 - 2 year range. They were getting noisy and antsy so one parent each would take them into the front foyer of the church while the other parent stayed in the service. Afterward, as we left the church, I found myself surrounded by all these kids laughing and playing. I said "This is where Dad would have wanted to be. Not in a stuffy church service but out here, playing with the kids."
I had an interesting privilege... writing my own grandmother's obituary. I was on obit duty that weekend at the local newspaper. They stuck to a very specific formula however, and I couldn't get all the good stuff in. Grandpa had died the year before, and she had prophesied that she would live exactly one year longer. That's what happened... so knowing she would die in a year, she had everything written up and ready to go.
DreadPirate and ExPat, an answer from yesterday:
I honestly do not have many problems living here... people take a while to get to know you sometimes, but that's all right by me. I haven't been ripped off by anyone either. French people in general have been kind and helpful. If there is sometimes a lack of follow-up, as DPR was describing, I'd attribute it to "living-in-the-moment" laziness of some kind, or boredom, and get after the person to fulfill the contract. That's the way to go. Be upfront, even blunt with them. French people appreciate it, I find, when one comes straight to the point.
drdgscott said...
I don't know what my obit will say, but I've chosen my epitaph -- "I told you the job description was unreasonable." Then, I've instructed my heirs to send my cremains to the IRS with a note that says, "Now you have it all."
Tony D said...
I think all polls should include a "none of the above" option.
I think in America we have very run of the mill & dry Obits for the everyday people who actually make America up. It's quite sad ~ I do beleive that part of the reason is because the newspapers charge a lot to list them. So people cut out the "Real" person it becomes just a profile & bunch of statistics.
My Grandmother right now is in the last stages of cancer ~ Her life to me was amazing no she didn't cure anything, or invent anything wordly. She was married for almost 63 years, she went to church, she was a great cook from scratch pies & rolls her speciality, she had like 8 siblings, she sewed. The part I admire most about her life is that she ALWAYS worked.
My Grandparents ran a little general/grocery store in a blink of a town in Northern WI. They lived in an apartment behind it for years. They urged my mom & her sister to go to college in the early sixties because they valued education whether you were male or female.
It really makes me sad that none of what I have just listed and everything else will be put in the local obit. It will just be her name the places of employment, the childrens names & spouses listed, I & my cousins listed as a mere number of 4 and that's about it.
I plan on writing out mine ~ I want it to be known what I enjoyed & in a way who I was & hopefully what I have passed down. I don't care what the end cost is ~ I think for the future of my families generations the Obit is one of the most important looks into your families life story & history. It's shame that in the U.S its becoming a lost art due to the almighty dollar.
What lovely summations of people's lives the ToL has given us. Mine will hardly be worthy of any notice...certainly no marble palace as ExPat's ashes may sit in. I do hear that cremains make a lovely glaze so I could actually be that beautiful vase.
While I was in my angst ridden adolescence, a wise person told me to live in such a way that my life would be one to which future generations looked for guidance. No Cliff notes for this assignment...
to rings90 - What a priveledge to be able to walk the last mile with your grandmother. It sounds as if her life has enriched yours immeasurably. The local obit matters not, it's that she has left this place better than she found it.
We are currently doing the same with my aunt, the last member of our parents generation. It is a great blessing to be able to watch her review her own life and slowly give up her ties to this world.
In the end, I don't think it's the obituary that matters, beautifully parsed though it may be, it's the imprint we leave on the lives of others.
To: rings90,
My father died of cancer 9 years ago. We may have had our differences in how to live life, but he gave me a meaningful lesson on how to die at peace and with dignity.
To: tajar'
I think I'll become my own funeral vase.....thanks for the idea.
And I do have one final wish. From time to time, I want my ashes "shaken not stirred".
I was asked on short notice, none really, to shuttle an elderly man from a drop-off lot near the interstate, up the valley to a medical appointment and then back.
I was out of the car to get the door (born to the livery you might say), when it became clear that he was probably in his nineties and blind.
He had a wonderful smile and handshake and upon taking his seat, sniffed with curiosity:
"Leather, pipe tobacco, coffee and..."
"Bay Rum?" I suggested.
"Exactly," he beamed, "For a moment there, I thought this just might be the gate of heaven."
We were going to get along nicely.
When he wondered what was in the morning's news, I mentioned the passing of Cyd Charrise:
"She was a famous dancer/actr...
He stopped me with arguably the best one line obituary possible:
"Cyd Charisse," he sighed, "She had a leg on her- didn't she?"
Dutchman said...
When Calvin Coolidge died ,the New York Times supposedly quoted Dorothy Parker's
famous line, "How can they tell?"
RIP: "We're all here, 'cause we're not all there".
Re: yesterdays post
What language do they speak in the after life?
Dutchman:
You remind me of Dorothy Parker's epitaph. Engraged on her tombstone is "This One's on Me."