It all evens out in the end

The great Irish critic, playwright, philosopher and reformer George Bernard Shaw died on this day in 1950. He was 94. He once wrote:

"The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist."

That one just killed the audience

TV giant Ed Sullivan died on this day in 1974. Once, when singer Connie Francis had just performed and Ed was chatting with her, he asked:

"Tell me, Connie, is your mother still dead?"

October 7, 1849 -- Edgar Allan Poe died, after a violent bout of drinking left him delirious. Poe once wrote:

"My love, she sleeps! Oh, may her sleep
As it is lasting, so be deep!
Soft may the worms about her creep!"

"Quoth the Raven nevermore." -- Poe's epitaph.

It would have been elegant for Poe's last word to have been "Nevermore," in answer to the question he was asked on his deathbed ("Would you like to see your friends?"), but his dying utterance was probably the much more somber, "Lord help my poor soul."

Exit laughing

October 5, 2004 -- Comedian Rodney Dangerfield didn't get any respect -- he died.

His epitaph:

"There Goes the Neighborhood."

He had relations with animals

October 4, 1226 -- Saint Francis of Assisi died.

"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent." -- George Orwell.

Today's Deathless Verse:

Isn't it a pity, how often he or she we deemed to be a saint,
Ain't?

If not, forget it

Ernest Renan, French philosopher and writer (Life of Jesus), died on this day in 1892. He wrote:

"O Lord, if there is a Lord, save my soul, if I have a soul."

Don't go near the water

Author E. B. White (Charlotte's Web) died on this day in 1985. His famous essay, "Once More to the Lake," ends like this:

"When the others went swimming my son said he was going in too. He pulled his dripping trunks from the line where they had hung all through the shower, and wrung them out. Languidly, and with no thought of going in, I watched him, his hard little body, skinny and bare, saw him wince slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy garment. As he buckled the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death."

All comics die at times

August 19, 1977: Groucho Marx died. His last words, according to legend:

"Die, my dear? Why, that's the last thing I'll do."

But he may be mistaken

Two immortals died on this day: Babe Ruth in 1948, Elvis Presley in 1977.


"To desire immortality is to desire the perpetuation of a great mistake." -- Arthur Schopenhauer.

I'm afraid this quote just won't do

German playwright and poet Bertold Brecht died on this day in 1956. He wrote:

“Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.”

http://www.amazon.com/Farewells-Last-Words-Thoughts-Things/dp/1468083252

And make-up

American screen goddess Marilyn Monroe died on this day in 1962, perhaps of a suicide, perhaps of an accidental overdose.  She once said:

“It’s all make-believe, isn’t it?”

Today’s Deathless Verse:

The world is a stage,

  Everyone has his part,

According to age,

  And the scope of his art.

No matter the role,

  How lofty or mean,

It all becomes whole

  With our own dying scene.

For that matter, kids are like sausages, too

Two people died on this day who uttered memorable quotes.

Denis Diderot, the French essayist and encyclopedist, died July 30, 1784. He said:

"All children are essentially criminal."

German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck died July 30, 1898. He said:

"Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made."

With a pension, of course

The great Scottish writer Robert Burns died on this day in 1796.

"I have a hundred times wished," Burns wrote, "that one could resign from life as an officer resigns a commission."

Today’s Deathless Verse:

A Reply from The Agency:

“Dear Sirs,” you recently wrote us,

  “I’d like to turn in my notice.”

Which naturally prompts us to ask:

  Do you find staying on there a task?

We really don’t want you to go—

  There’s nothing else out there, you know.

True faith is always sublime

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, died July 16, 1910.

"A sublime faith in human imbecility has seldom led those who cherish it astray." -- Havelock Ellis.

Now you lay me down to sleep

Casey Anthony may haved buried her child in the woods. Is it legal to bury a loved one on your own?

Visit http://www.slate.com/id/2298586/.

Bury me where you will -- I won't care one way or t'other;
Bury me in a pine box -- or without one, if you druther;
Dig a hole and throw me in, and cover me up with dirt;
Stick a fork in me first, if you've a mind to -- it won't hurt;
Lay me down in the cold, cold ground -- I won't hold it against you, honey;
And if you're bound to go out there and live it up -- you're gonna need the money.

What does a Grecian mother earn?

Writer William Faulkner died on this date in 1962.  Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 and delivered a famous acceptance speech.

He also wrote the famous line:

"If a writer has to rob his own mother he will not hesistate; the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of old ladies."

She wouldn't ask for directions, either

Aviatrix Amelia Earhart went missing sometime on this day or yesterday in 1937.

"Please know that I am quite aware of the hazards. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others." -- Her last letter to her husband before her last flight.

"KHAQQ calling Itasca. We must be on you, but cannot see you. Gas is running low." -- her last radio communiqué before her disappearance.

And suicide a knee-jerk reaction

Ernest Hemingway committed suicide on this day in 1961.

"Hemingway was a jerk." -- Harold Robbins.

An article in the New York Times explores the persistent phenomenon of suicide. More people die by suicide annually than by murder and warfare combined. In the United States, suicide tolls have held steady since 1942. Worldwide, about a million people kill themselves each year. In short, a lot of people will always agree with Pliny the Elder (AD 23 - AD 79), who wrote: "Amid the sufferings of life on earth, suicide is God's best gift to man."

Read the Times article

Got to go now

Both FOX News and the New York Times have run stories about a website that broadcasts the last words of condemned inmates in Texas. Here are the last words of Richard Cobb, executed April 25:

"Life is death, death is life. I hope that someday this absurdity that humanity has come to will come to an end. Life is too short. I hope that anyone that has negative energy towards me will resolve that. Life is too short to harbor feelings of hatred and anger. That's it."

Visit the site...

A relief for all of us

The great American actress Katharine Hepburn died on this day in 2003.

"Death will be a great relief," Hepburn once said. "No more interviews."

The Custermary propaganda

Custer's Last Stand happened on this day in 1876. The famous battle was a great victory for the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, led by Sitting Bull. The U.S. Seventh Cavalry, of which five out the 12 troops (about 700 men) were led by George Armstrong Custer, was defeated; Custer himself was killed along with two of his brothers and a brother-in-law.

The sole survivor of the battle was a horse, named Comanche.

"When the cavalry won it was a great victory, and when the Indians won it was a massacre." -- Dick Gregory.

Followed by caviar and cymbals

English clergyman Sydney Smith died on this day in 1845. He once said:

"My idea of heaven is eating pate de foie gras to the sound of trumpets."

And also:

"A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort."

My favorite Sydney Smith quotation, having nothing to do with death or dying:

"I never read a book before previewing it; it prejudices a man so."