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On reading obituaries

austinkleon:

So, I’ve decided that my mid-year’s resolution is to read obituaries every morning. I first got the idea from Maira Kalman — she reads the obits every morning:

This week there was an obituary about the man [Curtis Allina] who developed the Pez dispenser. It was an incredible obituary because he was raised in Vienna, lost his entire family at Auschwitz, and came to America and worked for this company that made peppermints, which is what Pez is short for. He did something that was considered completely trivial, which was designing and marketing Pez dispensers. But I think the sum of every obituary is how heroic people are, and how noble. So it gives you a nice beginning to the day.

And then read this in Charles Wheelan’s book:

Read obituaries. They are just like biographies, only shorter. They remind us that interesting, successful people rarely lead orderly, linear lives.

And when I was on tour I read this lovely obit for Leo Dillon which gave me a ton of ideas for a book I want to write someday, and Joan Rivers’ hilarious explanation for why she reads them: “To meet new men!”

The NYTimes app has a dedicated obit section, the Economist posts theirs online, and there are a few twitter feeds for ‘em: [@NYTObits](http://twitter.com/nytobits] @washpostobits @guardianobits

Where are some other great places to read obituaries online? Who writes the best ones?

I like this. Gonna do the same.

  • 1 year ago > austinkleon
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  1. ialwaysreadobituaries reblogged this from austinkleon
  2. ub14 likes this
  3. tumblrintherye likes this
  4. deathworks reblogged this from austinkleon and added:
    “This week there was an obituary about the man [Curtis Allina] who developed the Pez dispenser. It was an incredible...
  5. izzykinsss reblogged this from austinkleon
  6. chasing-magic likes this
  7. gigglestax likes this
  8. beautybluntsblowjobsbread likes this
  9. iammelonlordd reblogged this from austinkleon
  10. seealmanza likes this
  11. mlarson likes this
  12. randomlyhaphazard reblogged this from austinkleon and added:
    Just might start doing this.
  13. mrdaynryan answered: obituaries.com - pretty much catalogues the newspaper obits from all over America and Canada.
  14. kassideelank likes this
  15. wobblebox5 likes this
  16. truckdrivingphilosopher likes this
  17. factsarenothing likes this
  18. theboywhocriedphoenix likes this
  19. lights-thatwont-fade reblogged this from austinkleon
  20. gabriellezevin likes this
  21. cloudygraylaborday likes this
  22. stephaniecorral likes this
  23. she-speakseasy likes this
  24. urbansheep likes this
  25. whimwam likes this
  26. ljdigital likes this
  27. slowlistener likes this
  28. witwikb likes this
  29. freshest-tittymilk likes this
  30. teresatothemax likes this
  31. yenta answered: I like searching the obit tag on metafilter.com
  32. everywordshesays likes this
  33. ludders likes this
  34. positivespace likes this
  35. alienswithankhs likes this
  36. mariaaa likes this
  37. emilyqualey answered: Obits from your hometown or where a mass of your relatives live.
  38. ohheycam likes this
  39. chezbro likes this
  40. bustr reblogged this from austinkleon and added:
    I like this. Gonna do the same.
  41. odana answered: Find the smallest, most ho-dunk, backwoods newspapers you can. Seriously. I suggest starting in my home region of Southern West Virginia.
  42. interweber likes this
  43. austinkleon posted this

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