I think. A long long time until I’ll be missing the earth.
I’m feeling fine. However, she-who-knows and I recently have been discussing obituaries or obits as many say. (really? obituary is too long of a word?)
My don’t-be-cruel wife has a newspaper routine of browsing through the obituaries. She found a well written funny one a few weeks ago. Didn’t know the fellow but he had a great obit. I mentioned that obituary in this recent post.
Now a month or so goes by (I feel as I slept through most of it) and don’t-be-cruel wife finds this poorly written (full of redundancies) lengthy one. Estimating from the prices we looked up for the Chicago Tribune this obituary ran way over $1000. That’s a lot beer money (or whatever your vice expense is) going to waste.
Just a side note - is there a market for obituary writer?
Take Note - the following is a Lisleman prediction -
It’s happening already with FB. The newspapers have Legacy.com. However, best I can tell you need to submit the obituary to a member newspaper before it will show up on Legacy.com. I can see that changing. Other than the slight problem of few people still reading newspapers, the lead time for disseminating the news and information on the funeral arrangements are just too slow. Also the newspaper published obituaries are expensive. Many papers charge over $200 for just a short 3 lines small print one. Save the $200+ and buy more food for the after funeral reception. Don’t know about you but after strolling around a cemetery I get hungry.
I expect most everyone wants to think there will something left in remembrance of their lives. (bloggers can imagine their posts being re-read by future generations) It’s not like you can just leave a voicemail or tweet the news to the family.
Although I try to lighten it up the topic of death a little (you have heard jokes about death right?), it of course is a very sad and serious event. I had a cousin who died over a year ago (much too young) and her FB wall is still active. Friends and family still post messages on her wall. I don’t know if she gave the password to someone before she passed on or not. FB does have an online form for your next of kin to fill out.
Do you know being alive is not necessary to open a FB page? Roy Orbison, died 1988, has a FB page. He died before the big WWW web existed!
Forms to fill - I hope Paul Simon was wrong in his song “Afterlife”. A surprisingly upbeat tune given the subject matter.
As Pablo Cruise once sang, “What’cha gonna do when she is gone?”
I’m feeling fine. However, she-who-knows and I recently have been discussing obituaries or obits as many say. (really? obituary is too long of a word?)
My don’t-be-cruel wife has a newspaper routine of browsing through the obituaries. She found a well written funny one a few weeks ago. Didn’t know the fellow but he had a great obit. I mentioned that obituary in this recent post.
Now a month or so goes by (I feel as I slept through most of it) and don’t-be-cruel wife finds this poorly written (full of redundancies) lengthy one. Estimating from the prices we looked up for the Chicago Tribune this obituary ran way over $1000. That’s a lot beer money (or whatever your vice expense is) going to waste.
Just a side note - is there a market for obituary writer?
Take Note - the following is a Lisleman prediction -
Newspaper obituaries will be overcome and buried by online-only notices.
It’s happening already with FB. The newspapers have Legacy.com. However, best I can tell you need to submit the obituary to a member newspaper before it will show up on Legacy.com. I can see that changing. Other than the slight problem of few people still reading newspapers, the lead time for disseminating the news and information on the funeral arrangements are just too slow. Also the newspaper published obituaries are expensive. Many papers charge over $200 for just a short 3 lines small print one. Save the $200+ and buy more food for the after funeral reception. Don’t know about you but after strolling around a cemetery I get hungry.
I expect most everyone wants to think there will something left in remembrance of their lives. (bloggers can imagine their posts being re-read by future generations) It’s not like you can just leave a voicemail or tweet the news to the family.
Although I try to lighten it up the topic of death a little (you have heard jokes about death right?), it of course is a very sad and serious event. I had a cousin who died over a year ago (much too young) and her FB wall is still active. Friends and family still post messages on her wall. I don’t know if she gave the password to someone before she passed on or not. FB does have an online form for your next of kin to fill out.
Do you know being alive is not necessary to open a FB page? Roy Orbison, died 1988, has a FB page. He died before the big WWW web existed!
Forms to fill - I hope Paul Simon was wrong in his song “Afterlife”. A surprisingly upbeat tune given the subject matter.
You got to fill out a form first, then you wait in the line.
As Pablo Cruise once sang, “What’cha gonna do when she is gone?”
5 comments:
Live long!!
Holy smokes! I didn't realize it was so expensive to put an obituary in the paper!
A rip off in my opinion. thanks
thanks that's the plan
Online obits are becoming more popular but newspapers will fight like crazy to continue convincing people they need a printed obit for a "proper send off" because they make soooo much money off them. It's really crazy the rates they charge.
And I knew a guy who was a Hollywood obit writer-- His job was to write obits so they were ready when the celebrity actually died. Crazy.
jj
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