Actor -- via the Telegraph.
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.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Friday, December 12, 2014
FRIDAY REVIEW: 'Working Stiff' -- Diagnosing the Dead
Working Stiff: Two Years, 262
Bodies, and the making of a Medical Examiner
Judy Melinek, M.D. and T.J.
Mitchell
2014
Scribner
New York
What happens to the dead? I don’t mean their souls, I mean
their bodies. Our squeamishness about death, decay, and corpses is a perfectly
reasonable aversion, but in every society, somebody has to deal with it.
This most taboo subject is the pith of Judy Melinek’s
memoir. She takes us along with her from her student days as an aspiring
surgeon to her introduction to forensic pathology, moving on to cover her
fellowship at the New York Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Throughout her
training, she encounters deaths accidental and natural; homicides and suicides;
and the horrors of 9/11 and the crash of Flight 587 in Queens two months later.
Throughout the work, and her co-author Mitchell leaven the
gruesome details with a broader portrait of Melinek and her growing family,
giving us insights into the workaday world of people who make a career out of
examining the dead. There is a strong through-line here, too, as Melinek
relates her father’s suicide when she was young -- and surmises that part of her
calling is an attempt to heal that wound. There is plenty of (grim) humor, too,
and deflation of the myths that TV has instilled in us – no, not all medical
examiners are hot, full of witty repartee, instant and accurate judgments, and
sporting deep décolletage.
The faint-hearted need not pick this book up. “Working
Stiff” is a clinically precise, no-holds-barred description of the profession
and case histories that will make you gasp. However, this is far more than a
catalog designed to satisfy morbid curiosities. Medical examiners provide
closure for families, provide answers for criminal investigations, and add to
our knowledge base about mortality and disease.
For those who would like to know facts about the stories our
bodies tell after our deaths, this text is absolutely invaluable.
The best movie obit reel is TCM's
Per the excellent writer and historian Eve Golden, a reminder that Turner Classic Movies' end-of-year Remembers reel is the best summation of the film industry's departed for the year. Exquisite and evocative. It takes tremendous amount of time and discernment to winnow someone's essence to a few seconds on screen. Watch the video -- the edits and production are top-notch.
Kathleen O'Keefe
Journalist and publisher -- via the New York Times. Pioneered independent journalism in Cambodia in 1992.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Jane Freilicher
Artist -- via the New York Times. I like her. She did what she thought was right. A quote from her from the NYT obit: "To strain after innovation, to worry about being on the 'cutting edge' (a phrase I hate), reflects a concern for a place in history or one's career rather than the authenticity of one's painting."
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Surgeon-Commander Herbert Ellis
Doctor who invented vehicles' warning beeps, and helped invent the crash helmet -- via the Telegraph. He volunteered for many medical and physiological experiments. And, have to admit, love the title.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Mary Ann Mobley
Actress, TV personality, and beauty pageant winner -- via the Clarion-Ledger. Was crowned Miss america in 1959. She was wholesome -- hey, she was in TWO Elvis movies!
Monday, December 8, 2014
DEATHCETERA: Weekly roundup of stories on death, dying, and more
A photo from Cathrine Ertmann's photo essay "About Dying," as shown at beautifuldecay.com. |
TOP
STORIES
Protests,
some violent, break out after burial of police victim Eric Garner – by Jennie
Matthew at AFP via Yahoo News
An interesting thought and responses in
the Guardian, initiated by Kathrine Whitehorn – obituary
– tribute or truth?
Photographer
Cathrine Ertmann makes bold photo essay at morgue – from Leslie
Tane at Beautiful/Decay. CAUTION: GRAPHIC AND UNSETTLING.
DEATH
New York City’s
mass grave that no one can visit – from Alison Meier at Hyperallergic
MOURNING
Black poets
speak out about police homicide cases – via Matt Petronzio in Mashable
Rabbis recite
kaddish (memorial prayer) for police-murdered Eric Garner, go to jail – via Antonia
Blumberg at Huffington Post
Photographer
couple explored American funeral services and customs – from Ann
Strainchamps at Public Radio Interntional.
FUNERALS
Death without
Darkness – a crematory redesign from Caitlin Doughty via Medium/Re-form
Confessions of a
Funeral Director’s Caleb Wilde interviewed by Eric Puchner in Medium/Matter
END-OF-LIFE
Elizabeth Reis
tells us why an advance directive is so important, from personal experience – via the New
York Times
OBITS
Did Kirk Douglas
die? No. But People magazine published his obit – via Brittany
King, Hollywood Life
Dictator’s son
disputes his obituary 11 years after it’s published – via Craig
Silverman at Poynter.
Neil Steinberg
discusses being an advance obituarist – in the Chicago Sun-Times
Tugce Albayrak
Student who stood up for harassed women and died from a resulting assault -- via the New York Times.
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