GoogObits Website
All 45 hypertext enjambment-style GoogObits posts originally published on the dedicated GoogObits website I maintained from November 2003 through January 2005, with one last post in July 2006.
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4 Years With Nanette Fabray
No matter how good an obituary is, you can’t tell the entire story of someone’s life ibn one newspaper article published the day after they died. But the best obits can give clues wrought with meaning in a small space. Take the last two sentences of the AP obituary of David W. Tebet, TV Talent…
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Salon Blogs GoogObits
Recently I’ve going down my own personal Blog Memory Lane. I was thinking back to where I started and how my attitudes toward blogging has changed through time. I was also kind of taken aback by the number of different tools I’ve used and sites I’ve launched. I’m writing an essay on them, if for…
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Donald H. Ryan, 80, Entrepreneur in Repair, Is Dead
Wolfgang Saxon is one of the best at writing obits for unsung leaders. Donald H. Ryan made his money by doing the little things in a place where people stopped doing them. Donald H. Ryan, 80, Entrepreneur in Repair, Is Dead By WOLFGANG SAXON Published: May 30, 2005 Donald Hillsdon Ryan, an American entrepreneur with…
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Decaying on Laurels
The NYT always has an array of archival obituaries available on its website, and it is always insightful to read them. Here’s the one for J. Edgar Hoover. It shows that he started his 1/2 century tenure with startling innovation and pretty much coasted from there. Mr. Hoover’s power was a compound of performance and…
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The Difference Makers
One of the fundamental things I’m interested in with my /obits/ obsessions is what type of contributions to the world are worthy of publishing the day after you die? One type is the improvement. It’s one thing to be Charles Richter and come up with the Richter Scale. It’s another to improve such things incrementally,…