Edwin Schneidman, Pioneer in Suicide Prevention

All Things Considered had a nice obituary of Edwin Schneidman, a legendary researcher of suicide prevention. 

Along with publishing several books, Schneidman founded the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center and the American Association of Suicidology. 

As the obit points out, Schneidman believed suicidal tendencies could often begin to be untangled by asking two simple questions: "Where do you hurt?" and "How may I help you?" 

Schneidman lived to 91. In this audio piece, he shares a quote in which he describes showing up to the ER at the age of 90, disappointed to still be alive. Realize he hadn't died, he sobbed, because he was ready for death. 

He also often wrote about enriching life by contemplating death and dying and was a proponent of open dialogue on both topics, arguing that people should be unafraid of death. 

Life After Writing About Death

In this week's column, Elizabeth Lardie of Lemondrop contemplates how to know when it will be time to give up her obituary-writing gig.

When Editors Write Obituaries

Another nice column from Elizabeth Lardie at Lemondrop in which she explores her reluctance over writing obituaries for people she does not know:

"I really don't think obituaries should ever be written by some no-name editor with a lot of deadlines and little life perspective. ... Because of this cookie-cutter process, obituaries start sounding like postmortem personal ads to me. "He was romantic, honest and loved eating out. In his spare time, he enjoyed taking long walks on the beach."

When my grandfather passed away, my family and I wrote his obituary. Has anyone had an experience with an obituary of a loved one being written by a paper's editor and not their actual family? I'd be curious to hear what it's like from the other side.

NPR Tribute to Eartha Kitt

NPR has posted an audio link to a 1993 piano jazz session with Eartha Kitt—the woman Orson Welles once called the most exciting woman in the world.

If you don't know Kitt apart from her role as catwoman on the old Batman TV show, you should check out the clip. She is graceful, classy, vivacious and full of life.

And, of course, it doesn't hurt that she was sexy as hell and approached life with great humor.

"Died" in Obituaries

Another succinct and poignant column by lemondrop's Elizabeth Lardie. This one deals with the practice of using the word "died" in obituaries to describe when a person passes away ... and how that sometimes sits with surviving family members. Lardie contrasts our discomfort with death terminology in actuality with the ease with each we use the word when it means nothing, e.g., "These martinis are to die for!"

Insider's View of the Obituary Industry

Blog reader Laura tipped me off to this great column at lemondrop by Elizabeth Lardie, a professional obituary writer. Lardie writes with humor and distance, as you'd expect from someone who deals in death every day ... but she also manages a nice degree of reverence for what she does, as she shows in today's column, where she is shocked by a coworker who comes by each morning to ask if there are any "cool" dead people.

Here's the intro. paragraph from one of her columns:

"After a mere few months as an obituary writer, I got disturbingly accustomed to saying things like, 'Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to say that your grandmother was beloved, since that would be editorializing.' It was very easy to forget the implications of a day's work. It was more than easy. It was necessity."

Q&A with an obituary writer

A fascinating Q&A with Bruce Weber, an obituary writer at The New York Times. He addresses issues like handling controversy in obits, writing advance obituaries, what questions are hardest to ask surviving family members, and who gets "the verb." (In The New York Times, only one obit per page receives a verb in the headline. That obit is considered the most important. It's another way to rank people by class and stature even after their lives are over. The Times loves systems of power and influence, especially when they're in charge.) Well worth at least a quick skim.

Nobel Laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Dies

Literary great Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died Sunday at the age of 89. Writers just don't get more important than Mr. Solzhenitsyn, who challenged his nation by writing about some of the harshest realities of Soviet Communism in works like The Gulag Archipelago, which tells the history of the Gulag prison camps.

I'll refrain from chronicling his life because this New York Times article does it much more eloquently than I can in the limited time I have ... and in the limited space and attention-span offered by a blog. And there are so many noteworthy events that should be mentioned when talking about this man. I will note, when Robert Rauschenberg died, I thought it was impressive that his biography was four pages online. Solzhenitsyn's is eight pages!

There are some great interactive features on the NY Times page, too—a photo slideshow with some pictures that show awesome personality, what you'd expect from a Russian writer with lots of personality; some audio clips; etc.

A fashion legacy

The man who made it stylish for women to wear suits passed away over the weekend. Yves Saint Laurent will likely be remembered for making it okay for women to wear pants—at work, in the evening, for any occasion at which it is suitable for a man to wear pants. And as a feminist, I love him for that. Women can wear dresses, but you don't have to be constricted by them when it's inconvenient. And as a fashion-conscious woman, I love that he focused on classic design. He was a big proponent of women filling their wardrobes with classic pieces that would last for years, instead of buying new trendy pieces every season. If you shop that way, you can save money.

I find it interesting that he has such a clear and distinct legacy already set out for him. Other lasting effects of his designs and his life make emerge as years go by, but it's hard not to see his legacy already all set before us here the day after his death.

Here's his obituary from the New York Times.

Robert Rauschenberg is Dead :(

One of my favorite artists, Robert Rauschenberg, has passed away. He was truly a modernist ... not just for his technique and subject matter, but for his willingness to switch styles. Rauschenberg was amazingly prolific. Even being somewhat studied in his work, I could walk into a museum and be completely floored by something of his that broke what I thought was the Rauschenberg mold. The New York Times has an obituary for him online. It's four pages long. Four pages! Most of their obits are two, maybe three pages. So what, you might say? Well, that extra page is one way the Old Gray Lady is telling us they think this man is important. And well, for what it's worth, I do too.