Obits

I've been reading too many obits lately and have come to the conclusion that most are wasted on the dead. Instead, what would be a genuine service to mankind is a career obituary.

For many public figures death is the greatest career move of all. Look what it's done for Elvis and Jimi Hendrix. For others not so much. By the time Whitney Houston died did anyone outside of her family really care? Not so much. What we mourned was the loss of her majestic musical talent which in fact died several years earlier.

A glance at the sports pages of the local newspaper each day shows the passing of sports heroes from long ago who died in obscurity in advanced old age. Better to remember his career's death, back when it was meaningful, especially to the principal. Likewise, PBS is great for for resurrecting long thought dead entertainers, dressing them up and making them put on a travesty of a show in hopes that baby boomer nostalgia for 1950's and'60's songbirds will ease the transfer of wealth.

What I'm imagining is a public vehicle, much like the Daily Telegraph's obits, that would be the designated resting place for careers. Click on the web site, type in the subject, and in return the site says perhaps; career dead, yet still alive. Envision Tom Jones or The Little River Band while you do so.

PBS could become self-funded forever if they became gatekeeper to the site. In exchange for baksheesh, PBS might keep off those who don't want to go on the cart.

In the mean time we are stuck with Dead or Alive, the web site that keeps track, so I don't have to.

toad