U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, An Incalculable Loss

Front page of The New York Times on May 24, 2020

‘New York Times’ Obit Writer Margalit Fox Retires

In the summer of 1994, I joined The Times as a copy editor on the Sunday Book Review. It was a marvelous section, awash in smart, lively colleagues and enticing, tottering stacks of books. But I pined for a writing job, and as my years on the copy desk wore on, I feared my own epitaph would say little more than “She changed 50,000 commas into semicolons.” (H/T Peter Elikann)

From 'The New York Times': 'Lights, Camera, Obits!'

Obituaries, by definition, stare fixedly in the rearview mirror. Worse, they begin, as they must, with the bleakest of all possible announcements: Someone has died. Not a juicy premise for a film, one would suppose. Add to that the nature of the enterprise: gathering facts, arranging them, pressing the keyboard with one’s fingertips, cutting a few words and adding a few others. Except for the phone calls, it’s an inward-looking process, at least for the reporters. How do you make drama out of that? [Vanessa] Gould had a few ideas up her sleeve.

Via the 'New York Times': From an Obit Writer, the Last Word on ‘The Last Word’

In her next life, Shirley MacLaine may come back as a movie critic — you never know. If she does (or even if she doesn’t), she won’t likely look back on “The Last Word,” released this month, as a current-life highlight.

TED Talk: What Really Matters at the End of Life

Lux Narayan starts his day with scrambled eggs and the question: "Who died today?" Why? By analyzing 2,000 New York Times obituaries over a 20-month period, Narayan gleaned, in just a few words, what achievement looks like over a lifetime. Here he shares what those immortalized in print can teach us about a life well lived. (H/T Ellen Schiller)

NYT obit writer on how the game is played

Bruce Weber — not that Bruce Weber — has spent more than eight years writing obituaries for The New York Times. Last week, he wrote his own farewell, penning a story on his resignation from the paper. The journalist, who joined The Times as a staff editor for the Sunday magazine section in 1986, caught up with WWD to talk about his most memorable stories, how he approaches writing about the dead, and whether his departure is indicative of a larger obit for print media. (H/T Stuart Elliot)

NYT obit writer takes his leave

No sense in burying the lede. This week, after more than eight years of lively habitation in one of journalism’s more obscure corners, I’m making a final egress, passing on. Starting after Friday’s deadline (ha!) I am an ex-obit writer.

Philip Kives, 87, Perfected ‘As Seen on TV’ Infomercials

Act now! Be the first on your block to read this obituary of the marketing guru who — as seen on TV — sliced, diced and polkaed his way to fortune! Reared in penury, he bewitched and beguiled the public to become an international tycoon, only to lose everything and then, undaunted, make it back again! Just two dollars and five thin dimes at any New York City newsstand gets you the print edition of this obituary — along with dozens more articles at no extra charge — commemorated with the date and suitable for framing! Quantities are limited, so don’t delay!

"The Lonely Death of George Bell"

Yet death even in such forlorn form can cause a surprising amount of activity, setting off an elaborate, lurching process that involves a hodgepodge of interlocking characters whose livelihoods flow in part or in whole from death.

Bernice Gordon, 101, The New York Times' oldest cruciverbalist

Mrs. Gordon began making puzzles in the early 1950s, but might have done so even sooner had it not been for the televised presence of M⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ B⬜⬜⬜⬜.

And now for something entirely new: The Afterneath — 10 songs from obituaries

“The Afterneath" is a name that came to me, with a strange sense of rightness, when my grandfather was dying. I hope these songs encourage you to take a long view of this strange pattern we call human life, to see how quickly we sweep from birth to death, and how much wonder and bullshit can fit in between. (H/T Terri Lucacko)

The NYT's Margalit Fox on writing obituaries

That, in essence, is the deep, sometimes bittersweet pleasure of the job – the chance to see, through the lens of personal history, how the world, for better or worse, got to be the way it is.

Leonard Mason Smith, 86, died of 'none of your business'

Leonard Smith hated pointless bureaucracy, thoughtless inefficiency and bad ideas born of good intentions. He loved his wife, admired and respected his children and liked just about every dog he ever met. He will be greatly missed by those he loved and those who loved him. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you cancel your subscription to The New York Times.

Martin Masters joins the passing parade

Following graduation, Masters worked for a series of newspapers, including the Hartford Courant, the Hartford Times, and the New York World-Telegram & Sun. He was also a contributor to the New York Times. He said he felt most at home in the city room of a newspaper, with the teletype machines and typewriters clickety-clacking away in the background.

McCandlish Phillips, 85, extraordinary Times newspaperman

He stood out as a writer, for in his hands, even a routine news article, like this account of New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade — an annual millstone for the city’s general-assignment reporters — seldom failed to delight: “The sun was high to their backs and the wind was fast in their faces and 100,000 sons and daughters of Ireland, and those who would hold with them, matched strides with their shadows for 52 blocks,” Mr. Phillips wrote in 1961. “It seemed they marched from Midtown to exhaustion.” ... Mr. Phillips joined The Times as a copy boy in November 1952, later working as a clerk on the city desk and in the Washington bureau. In 1955, he was made a cub reporter and consigned to the paper’s Brooklyn office, a dank, decrepit outfit in the borough’s nether regions. Mr. Phillips’s account of life there, written for Times Talk, the newspaper’s house organ (“It is impossible to tell a plainclothes detective from a mugger here. You just have to wait to see what they do”) was so magnificent that his sentence was commuted to service in the main newsroom.

A simple question

ROSS — Alan Gordon. You are still with us ……. everyday. What is shinola anyway? Love, Mom, Dad and Chris From the New York Times' In Memoriam, March 21, 2013. (H/T Thom Forbes)

He loved everything about NYC, except ...

SHUCHMAN--Amos, of New York, on February 1, 2013. Beloved and caring husband of Alice Shuchman for 51 years, father of Daniel (Lori Lesser) and Nina (Brian Roth), grandfather of Jacob, Sarah, Aaron and Ariela. Born in Tel Aviv in 1928, fought bravely in the Haganah. Loved his family, his birth and adopted countries, finance, skiing, opera, ballet and biking in Central Park. Loved everything about NYC, except the New York Times. Services at Beth El Cemetery (Or Zarua section), Paramus, NJ, Sunday at 11am. Memorial contributions to a charity of your choice. His fearless heart still beats within all of us. Shalom, Saba. Paid notice in ... the New York Times. (H/T) Jim Romenesko