Googbits Essays

Reading the obituaries has given me countless of unplanned, uncontrollable, unpredictable lessons born from the lives of those who died yesterday. Today, we get an old lesson: If it smells like a fish, and looks like a fish, and feels like a fish, it really could be a fish. George Elliott, 85, Dies; Warned of…

Sometimes an obituary will startle me slightly, shake me out of silly conceptions and lazy thinking. Before I read Daniel Nehme’s obituary, the nature of the Syrian political and educational systems– the number of political parties, the existence of law degrees, the apparent ability to be known as a Communist, never occurred to me. Now,…

One thing you often see in the world of obituaries is the difference between the pop and real. A person will be celebrated the world over for a particular contribution to this or that, but in the real world of their chosen profession they are respected and admired for something else altogether, usually something more serious and…

There’s one in every bunch. Funny thing about corrupt jerks– they seem to be everywhere, whether you’re a Western-style “democracy” or a revolutionary-style place like Iran in the early 80s. The more I learn about that place we’re occupying and their neighbors, the more I realize there’s really not a whole lot separating us. Here’s the obituary…