Archive: November 2007
What Does Gatorade Taste Like?
Dr. J. Robert Cade, who was largely responsible for the invention of Gatorade, was quite a guy. He was a nephrologist -- a kidney specialist -- at the University of Florida who studied the blood composition, fatigue levels and body temperatures of the university's football players before brewing up the...
By Matt Schudel | November 28, 2007; 6:23 PM ET | Comments (4)
New Life on the Obits Desk
Alert readers may have noticed, and welcomed, the return of veteran Joe Holley to the obits pages. Joe, whose background includes stints as a magazine editor, editorial page editor and deputy press secretary to a governor, is our resident Texan. We're happy he's back on the beat after six months...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 27, 2007; 12:53 PM ET | Comments (1)
I Don't Drink ... Wine
The best first paragraph of the day:...
By Adam Bernstein | November 21, 2007; 12:12 PM ET | Comments (0)
Ian Smith
It's been illuminating to read many takes on Ian Smith, the Rhodesian leader who in the 1960s and 1970s defied the transition to black rule in Africa. I would urge readers to look at three major British papers for their vastly different styles: The Telegraph, the Guardian and the Times...
By Adam Bernstein | November 21, 2007; 11:38 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Death comes in doubles: Two banjo players died in the same week -- one in Minnesota and another in Milwaukee. And again: Two textile artists, a quilter and a knitter of art. On a slightly more action-oriented front, check out this story of a police-Black Panther confrontation in New Orleans...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 20, 2007; 11:30 AM ET | Comments (0)
So You Wanna Be a Rock 'N Roll Star....
At the end of a phone call this morning, the caller said she had one more question. "Do you have any openings?" she asked. " I've been reading the obits since my mother got sick, knowing that I'd have to write something for an obit, and I'm thinking I'd like...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 19, 2007; 4:37 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Before you do anything else, read this obit about the Rev. John Cross Jr., the pastor of the Birmingham, Ala. church where four little girls died in a firebombing. Who taught Martha Stewart those homemaking skills? Her mother, of course. When it was harder for women to get credit, some...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 18, 2007; 11:03 AM ET | Comments (0)
Fight of the Century
Norman Mailer, the great or greatly annoying (depending on your point of view) novelist, journalist and provocateur, died last Saturday at the age of 84. We had an obituary in hand by Bart Barnes, a former Post obit writer who retired about three and a half years ago. (I sit...
By Matt Schudel | November 16, 2007; 6:09 AM ET | Comments (3)
Who Said It First?
We get a lot of e-mail here but today's mail brings in a query from one of the volunteer editors at Wikipedia who's trying to resolve which astronaut first quipped that as he waited for launch into space, he thought "Every part of this ship was built by the low...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 15, 2007; 10:33 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning! We lost of a couple of environmental leaders: Peter Berle who proved the National Audubon Society was "no longer just for the birds," and John Firor, whose book about global climate change and ozone depletion was called was "about as agreeable as a dose of ipecac," for generating...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 12, 2007; 10:44 AM ET | Comments (0)
Admirable Names
Since one of the rules of journalism is Get the Names Right, and since names are so integral to everyone's identity, I have a weird fascination with some of the monickers that pass by our eyes. Matt Schudel already told you about Mr. Gray, born of a woman named Black,...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 7, 2007; 10:38 AM ET | Comments (0)
Fabulous Moolah or Jo Nobody?
Here's the dilemma of working obits: Do we choose the entertaining life story of the Fabulous Moolah or the gazillion smaller obits of local residents? It's pretty obvious what writers and obit fans like to read; but people who actually subscribe to the paper (the ones who pay the bills)...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 6, 2007; 11:40 AM ET | Comments (2)
Nixon on Jews
In case anyone ever asks you why some people still have an anti-Nixon complex, here's a small reminder. I'm writing about Harold Goldstein, a former Bureau of Labor Statistics man who died last week at the age of 93. (The obit will be in the paper and online in...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 5, 2007; 2:30 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
If you think e-mail, instant messages and cell phones has cost society a measure of graciousness, you'll want to get acquainted with Nancy Harkins. There's no escaping the mundane, however; her obit appeared adjacent to that of a beer distributor. Appointed by President Richard M. Nixon to the bench, Judge...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 5, 2007; 12:48 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Here's the roundup of today's interesting obituaries from around the country and around the world. We'll start, naturally, with The Post, where our lead obituary is of Igor Moiseyev, the remarkable Russian dance master who created a new form of dance, combining folk idioms with the high art of ballet....
By Matt Schudel | November 4, 2007; 1:57 PM ET | Comments (0)
A Matter of Perspective
I'm working on an obit of a former deputy chief of police in Washington, and as I write, it occurs to me how much depends on perspective. This man was known within the police force as "Gentleman Jim," and by demonstrators in the 1960s and 1970s as "Mad Dog Davis."...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 2, 2007; 3:55 PM ET | Comments (0)
Far-flung Death News
Some newspapers have taken full advantage of harnassing video technology to obituaries. It can often add great value to the printed-word version. Today, London's Guardian newspaper offers video clips of a Tamil Tiger rebel leader who was killed by the Sri Lankan government in a raid. And for a fun...
By Adam Bernstein | November 2, 2007; 1:56 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
We're going to try something new; a morning roundup of notable national and international deaths. We're going to assume you have already read the best obits in the business; if not, go there now. We'll wait. And now for the breaking news: Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay...
By Patricia Sullivan | November 1, 2007; 10:51 AM ET | Comments (4)
