My high school probably had a decent English curriculum, but I don’t recall, because I didn’t read most of the books assigned. I’d buy the Cliff’s Notes at Sparr’s and then read Stephen King novels instead. One day I decided there might be more to literature, so I picked up Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire …
Tag Archives: R.I.P.
That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore
A few years back I lived across the street from a Ghanaian man. One day I expressed to him my condolences on the death of Ghana’s president, whose obituary I’d just read. Kind of weird, yes, but it seemed the neighborly thing to do. In that neighborly spirit, I offer condolences to all …
Initials B.B.
The other week my friend Ben sent me the obituary of Y.A. Tittle, remarking he was surprised to learn the man was not long dead. This naturally made me think of Algeria’s first president, Ben Bella. You see, just that morning I’d read the following passage about the coup that deposed him: …
Pettifoggery
If we do not speak ill of the dead, who will? -Harold Bloom Embed from Getty Images Of all the horrors of late, not least is Tom Petty songs everywhere. It had been bad enough to hear them only occasionally. Into the bargain words like “genius” are being used to describe him. Gentle …
#ObitEd
Your forbearance please, Gentle Reader: you come here for irreverent irrelevance, but this week it’s hard astern. My students and I read several worthy obituaries in 2016, including those of: “A swinging cat” (per James Brown) Arnold Schwarzenegger’s inspiration A young photographer who went down fighting Meet them all at Passed Made Present. More …
The Pugilist at Rest
“For me it was easy: Produce text that was so good, an editor could not reject it,” he said. Every couple years I search the internet to see if there’s any news from A Girl Called Eddy or Thom Jones. Tuesday’s obituary unhappily halves this task. I owe much to Thom Jones. Although …
Vivian Nicholson
“Sharing cigarettes, just holding one another and loving one another. That was when I had everything.” I got to the Sunday paper only yesterday – such is the vida loca I live – and, upon arriving at the obituary pages, thought “Wait, I’ve seen that face.” Sure enough, it was the cover star of …