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obits
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Obits
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obits
morbid
Dead Bury Dead in Madison Newspaper Massacre
The Capital Times, the 90-year-old daily afternoon newspaper of Madison, Wisconsin, is eliminating its print edition and becoming an online-only publication. While the Times was once a legendary voice of enlightened progressivism, battling Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy and serving as a voice to Madison's notoriously liberal citizenry, the new electronic edition of the paper will mostly be based around a local web portal and entertainment listings, as that's where the ad money is. More than 20 newsroom staffers lost their jobs, with each now-former journalist receiving a profile written, apparently, by one of their laid-off colleagues, in some sort of sick newspaper-shuttering Bataan Death March. [NYT, Shilv.org]
Noted
"William F. Buckley Jr. and didgeridoo master Alan Dargin died." –Paul Ford, summarizing the news in Harper's "Weekly Review" [Harper's]
"William F. Buckley Jr. and didgeridoo master Alan Dargin died." –Paul Ford, summarizing the news in Harper's "Weekly Review" [Harper's]
Rich Lowry Wins Office Pool
"Buckley was a master debater who took on (and usually beat) all comers...." -National Review EIC Rich Lowry, on magazine founder William F. Buckley, master debater. [National Review]
"Buckley was a master debater who took on (and usually beat) all comers...." -National Review EIC Rich Lowry, on magazine founder William F. Buckley, master debater. [National Review]
How Your Tragic Sausage Is Summed Up
The New York Times' Heath Ledger obit, under Times lifer James Barron's byline, features additional reporting by no less than 14 other contributors, including "Culture Reporter" David Carr, byline champ Sewell Chan, and the Arts Desk's Campbell Robertson. (Sheila McClear, Maggie Shnayerson, and Hamilton Nolan contributed reporting to ours.) [NYT]
The New York Times' Heath Ledger obit, under Times lifer James Barron's byline, features additional reporting by no less than 14 other contributors, including "Culture Reporter" David Carr, byline champ Sewell Chan, and the Arts Desk's Campbell Robertson. (Sheila McClear, Maggie Shnayerson, and Hamilton Nolan contributed reporting to ours.) [NYT]
britney spears
Associated Press Writes Britney Spears' Obituary
Tempters of fate! Sensible tempters, but still! US magazine is reporting the Associated Press has already written Brit's obit, which is standard news practice with celebrities, presidents and the like, but usually they're not, you know, 26. "We are not wishing it," the wire's entertainment editor said, "But if Britney passed away, it’s easily one of the biggest stories in a long time." Good luck explaining that public quote at the pearly gates, pal! [US]
And Now He's Dead (At A Surprisingly Old Age)
Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno, media hound eldest son of late mob boss Joe "Bananas" Bonanno, died early this morning of a heart attack. Bonanno joined his father's business early, spent years as Joe's adviser, ended up as a subject of a Gay Talese book, then wrote his own cash-in mob memoir, and even "co-produced a 1999 miniseries based on the autobiography of his father." He was 75 and spent a good decade longer in prison than his murderous father, so let's not begrudge him the crappy books too much. [AP]
Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno, media hound eldest son of late mob boss Joe "Bananas" Bonanno, died early this morning of a heart attack. Bonanno joined his father's business early, spent years as Joe's adviser, ended up as a subject of a Gay Talese book, then wrote his own cash-in mob memoir, and even "co-produced a 1999 miniseries based on the autobiography of his father." He was 75 and spent a good decade longer in prison than his murderous father, so let's not begrudge him the crappy books too much. [AP]
not at christmas!
BORAT, ALI G BOTH DEAD
Borat Sagdiyev, the mild-mannered Kazakhstani journalist known for his investigations of America and a documentary film of the same name, as well as for the great offense that he gave the Jews, has died. Similarly, so has talk show host Ali G, an English journalist best known for his willingness to ask questions that probably should have been asked but everyone felt too stupid to do so.
Sacha Baron Cohen: Killing off Borat [Telegraph]
Critic, biographer and novelist Elizabeth Hardwick, co-founder of the New York Review of Books, has died. In a response to a letter from screenwriter and New Yorker columnist Penelope Gilliatt that complained about Hardwick's trashing of Lillian Hellman in 1968, Hardwick wrote: "Perhaps Miss Gilliatt doesn't yet understand all there is to know about New York and the literary and intellectual world here. When we remember the number of unjustified slams and unwarranted raves, the way convictions sometimes cross uncomfortably, it is astonishing that relations remain as humorous, slap-dash, unparanoiac, and, above all, as pleasantly disorganized as they really are." [NYO]
and now he's dead
Bobby Van, 64, Dies In A Cab
Bobby Van, the Juilliard School dropout and owner of Bobby Van's Steakhouse in Bridgehampton, died on Tuesday. He was 64 and working as a cab driver in Huntington, Long Island. For a while, in the 70s and 80s, Bobby Van was the Hamptons' Elaine Kaufman. According to Steven Gaines' great book on the Hamptons, Philistines at the Hedgerow, his restaurant-saloon was "an oasis of warmth and country bonhomie in the bleakness of the gray Hamptons winter." It was also where Truman Capote, James Jones, Kurt Vonnegut and Willie Morris used to get shitfaced. And where shady and deposed real estate kingAllan Schneider did most of his business. According to Page Six, "Van's ex-wife, Marina, had him cremated with no service and no announcement."
and now he's dead
Norman Mailer Is Dead
Norman Mailer—Jewish pugilist, a writer equally at home with fiction and fact, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, a lover and a hater of women and one of three founders of the Village Voice—died today. He was married repeatedly, and although he did stab his second wife, four more yet followed. More »
murders
Medical Examiner Rules On Linda Stein Killing
Yesterday, real estate agent to the stars, former Ramones manager and ex-wife of Belle and Sebastian muse Seymour Stein was found lying in a pool of blood in her multimillion dollar apartment. The medical examiner has since ruled that she died from "blows to the head and neck." She lived, as the Times writes in a "building, at the corner of 78th Street, [that[ has the security of doormen, elevator operators, and surveillance cameras mounted on the sidewalk canopy and in the lobby." However: "a reporter found an unlocked service door on the side street."
Robert Goulet Dead At 73
Robert Goulet, who shot to fame as Lancelot in "Camelot" at the end of 1960, has died at the age of 73. Diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis a month ago, no one would give him new lungs.
Robert Goulet, who shot to fame as Lancelot in "Camelot" at the end of 1960, has died at the age of 73. Diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis a month ago, no one would give him new lungs.
and now she's dead
'Meerkat Manor' Fans Devastated By Loss of Flowers
"meerkat manor" "funerals"
The New York Times' Ginia Bellafante reminds us today of how the untimely death-by-snake of matriarchal "Meerkat Manor" star, Flower Whiskers, has touched so many, so deeply. YouTube memorial videos like the one above abound, and Animal Planet has this to say: "We at Animal Planet our devastated by her loss and recognize that her death will have a deep impact on our viewers. Life in the Kalahari will never be the same." Perhaps our favorite line comes from narrator and 'Rudy' star Sean Astin: "Flower was a formidable leader and a noble mother. The desert has lost its favorite rose."
Related: US detains nearly 25,000 in Iraq [AFP]
Herbert Muschamp Dead At 59
Longtime New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp has passed away at the age of 59. A memo to the paper's staff from Bill Keller and Sam Sifton was just released.
Longtime New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp has passed away at the age of 59. A memo to the paper's staff from Bill Keller and Sam Sifton was just released.
and now he's dead
Dean Johnson Dead At 45
Dean Johnson, the alabaster-skinned, frighteningly tall and extremely thin performer, club promoter, and nightlife hero died the week before last. Rumors started spreading about his death in the middle of last week; cause is still unknown, but he was found in Washington, D.C. [Daily Intel, Motherboards]
America will observe a Very Gay National Day of Mourning; Brett Somers, queen of Match Game, has passed away at the age of 83. So long, comic genius. [Westport Now]
