How long should a dead Timesman have to wait before getting an obituary in his own damn paper?

It used to be that a gig at the Times was a life-long, perk-filled sinecure. These days all it gets you is a guaranteed wedding announcement and a timely obit. Robert J. Cole, a former business reporter for the paper who was judged "one of the dozen most influential business journalists of the 1980s" by his peers, didn't even get that. He died of a heart attack on February 11, but his obituary didn't make it into the paper until today, a full month later. (And he probably hated it when his stories sat on some editor's desk for a month!)

Cole isn't the only poor soul who recently got stuck in a long layover at the Times' obit desk. B-movie auteur Ray Dennis Stickler also had to wait a month after his January 7 passing before the Times saw fit sum up his life in 1,000 words, which ticked off his fans. Come on obit desk! News about dead people is still news!

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