Humans are far from alone in our attention towards the dead
Vol. 2, Issue 7
"Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean." --David Searls
NEWS & NOTES
Honoring the universality of pandemic suffering
A massive monument honoring the more than 7 million victims of COVID-19 will soon be erected at a new park in Chicago.
The COVID-19 Memorial Monument of Honor, Remembrance & Resilience is expected to feature a community green space as well as benches for reflection, rest and meditation. In the center will be a 25-foot stainless steel sculpture designed by Casey Schachner, an artist and professor at Georgia Southern University. The artwork will have five flower stalks topped by dandelions merged with the shape of the COVID-19 virus. At night, the stalks will be illuminated in different colors.
In addition to remembering those who died from COVID-19 and its variants, the monument will celebrate the resilience of humankind to endure the global crisis and honor essential workers, first responders and healthcare professionals.
“That’s all frontline workers. Not just nurses and doctors, but people that work in the grocery stores and those who delivered Amazon packages,” Sally Metzler, the art historian and museum curator who chairs the COVID-19 Monument Commission, told Block Club Chicago. “So many people risked a lot during the pandemic for all of us to keep society going.”
Grant money will be used to build the park and the sculpture. The project is also raising funds with a virtual memory garden. For as little as $20, anyone may support the monument by planting a white fluffy-headed dandelion in honor of someone who died from COVID-19 or a yellow dandelion to pay tribute to a frontline worker. Submissions may include a photo and a message.
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Life or something like it
For some, the fear of death is overwhelming. They will do anything -- and pay any amount -- to stay alive.
Many of these folks gather at "Don't Die" summits, paying up to $1,500 to meet others like themselves, hear a speech from tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson and even share a meal with him. You may have read about Johnson in the news or seen this documentary about him:
To delay his meeting with the Grim Reaper, Johnson avoids sugar and alcohol, engages in fasting, swallows more than 50 daily supplements and exercises for at least an hour every day. He engages in experimental gene therapies, stem cell trials and plasma exchanges to see if they will help extend his life.
Johnson hopes people will buy into the "Blueprint Protocol," his anti-aging program which sells products like food, supplements, protein powders and blood tests. Participants are also urged to join the community by downloading the app and engaging in Don't Die citizenship, which involves pledging to "rage, rage against the dying of the light." So far, more than 110,000 people have reportedly done so.
“We are transitioning from death being inevitable to something new,” Johnson said during a recent Don’t Die summit. “Is it being more healthy? Yes. Is it extending our lifespans? Yes. Is it enhancing our bodies? Yes. Is it immortality? We don't know.”
FMI: Click here.
How crows consider death
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NOTABLE OBITS
* Benjamin Moore, the orange and white cat who greeted customers at an Ace Hardware store in Baltimore, Md., has died. He was 15. The former stray spent most of his days sleeping in his heated pad or curled up in the cat tree between the store’s front door and the register. As a top-notch greeter, Benjamin would allow patrons to visit, play and pet him; he also kept the mouse population low. Benjamin was so beloved that a party was held in his honor when he retired in 2023. Members of the media, local politicians and hundreds of customers attended the event to sign a card and honor his service. (Abby Zimmardi, The Baltimore Banner)
* Anthony Faikus, the last living World War II fighter pilot of Czech heritage, died. He was 101. Faikus enlisted in the Army Air Corps at 18, just days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Once he completed his fighter training, Faikus joined the 40th Fighter Squadron (a.k.a. The Red Devils). He worked on patrol missions, bomber escorts, ground-attack operations and even shot down a Japanese Zero fighter over Taiwan. He also received the Air Medal six times. (Kade Heather, Chicago Sun-Times)
* Loretta Ford, who co-founded the first graduate program for nurse practitioners, died. She was 104. Despite facing resistance from doctors, including hate mail, Ford helped to establish licensing protocols and standardized curriculums for nurse practitioners. Today there are more than 350,000 nurse practitioners in America. Ford was inducted into the U.S. Women's Hall of Fame in 2011. (Clay Risen, The New York Times)
* Bob Geary, 85, a San Francisco police officer who often patrolled his community with a ventriloquist dummy, died. During his three decades with the San Francisco Police Department, the eccentric cop was decorated four times with the Bronze Medal of Valor. And though it rankled police brass, Geary spent 10 of those years working with his dummy partner, Brendan O'Smarty. During one of his many interviews with the press, Geary said the dummy helped to calm people and defuse tense situations. When Geary retired at 60, he was the oldest beat cop still walking the streets. (Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle)
* Gerald "Jerry" M. Gordon, who once appeared as a sideshow attraction at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, has died at 91. Gordon and his twin brother Larry were born several months premature. On the advice of hospital workers and because they couldn't afford an unexpected double delivery, his parents had the infants placed in an incubator and put on display in an exhibit at the fair. The attraction -- “Infant Incubators with Living Babies" -- promoted the success of incubators in having saved at least 100 lives. The twins survived and thrived and eventually joined the baking industry. Jerry's brother died in 2023. (Mitch Dudek, Chicago Sun-Times)
* Dolphin trainer and author Karen Pryor, 92, who was a famed proponent of positive thinking, died. It was while working at her husband's marine park and research center in Hawaii that Pryor discovered how to use behavioral science and positive reinforcement to train dolphins. She later applied those same skills to other animals, including horses, cats, dogs and even people. Pryor published eight books on the topic, including “Don’t Shoot The Dog: The Art of Teaching and Training.” (Penelope Green, The New York Times)
* French film director Jeannot Szwarc died at 85. Although he earned a master's degree in political science from Harvard University, Szwarc was a passionate cinephile. He launched his Hollywood career in the late 1960s, working on documentaries and TV commercials. Szwarc later directed numerous movies ("Jaws 2," "Somewhere in Time," "Enigma") and had a long career directing episodic TV (“JAG,” “The Practice,” “Smallville,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Bones.” (Abigail Lee, Variety and Etan Vlessing and Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter)
* Nathan O. Thomas, a Tuskegee Airman who served stateside during World War II, has died at 98. Drafted in 1945, Thomas was assigned to the Army Air Forces’ 99th Pursuit Squadron where he supported pilots and ground personnel as an information and education specialist. Thomas spent decades working as a data technician for the U.S. Postal Service after the war. However, much of his free time was dedicated to representing America’s first Black military airmen at parades, ceremonies and other events. The Greater Philadelphia Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. and Legacy Bridges STEM Academy have both endowed academic scholarships in his name. (Gary Miles, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
* Ad man Ron Travisano, 86, who helped to develop "one of the best known, most readily sung commercial jingles," died. In the early 1970s, Travisano and fellow ad exec Jerry Della Femina were struggling to find a way to sell pet food for the Ralston Purina account. After watching footage of cats eating food, Travisano and editor Joe Lione became inspired by one cat who started choking on its food. They thought its mouth movements looked like singing, so they put together looping images of the cat, added music by composer Tom McFaul and singing by Linda November, and created the classic Meow Mix ad. The commercial won a Clio Award. The cat who was choking survived the incident. (Sam Roberts, The New York Times)
* Wolfgang Zwiener, the owner of a steakhouse empire, died at 85. Zwiener immigrated from Germany in 1960 and spent nearly four decades working as a waiter at the famed Peter Luger steakhouse in Brooklyn. After spending six days a week on his feet, Zwiener decided to build rather than retire. With years of service experience and the help of his brother Steven and two other Peter Luger waiters, Zwiener launched Wolfgang's Steakhouse in the basement of the former Vanderbilt Hotel on Park Avenue in Manhattan. It was such a success that Zwiener soon began expanding. By the end of this year, there will be 35 Wolfgang's Steakhouses in locations around the world. (Pete Wells, The New York Times)
FAMOUS DEATHS IN HISTORY
On February 17, British landscape painter William Collins (58), newspaperman/politician/inventor of the typewriter Christopher Latham Sholes (71) and Apache leader/resistance fighter Geronimo (79)
On February 18, baseball broadcaster Harry Caray (83), French-Polish painter Balthus (92) and auto racer Dale Earnhardt (49)
On February 19, author Harper Lee (89), German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld (85) and comedian/actor/author Richard Belzer (78)
On February 20, actress Sandra Dee (62), gonzo journalist/author Hunter S. Thompson (67) and Japanese musician/video game designer Kenji Eno (42)
On February 21, German doctor/founder of modern botany Hieronymus Bock (56), Dutch diarist Anne Frank (15) and African-American rights activist/Muslim minister Malcolm X (39)
On February 22, blues violinist "Papa" John Creach (76), animator/cartoonist Chuck Jones (89) and journalist Daniel Pearl (38)
On February 23, English poet John Keats (25), President John Quincy Adams (80) and English comic actor/director/writer Stan Laurel (74)
On February 24, singer/actress/talk show host Dinah Shore (77), actor/comedian/filmmaker Harold Ramis (69) and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson (101)
RECOMMENDED SUBSTACK
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
"My post is here. I can't leave it until ordered." --James C. Jarvis, U.S. Navy midshipman aboard the USS Constellation during a battle with French frigate La Vengeance. He was 13.
MOMENT OF GRATITUDE
Thanks to Edwin Hooper, Unsplash, the Covid-19 Memorial Monument Project, Block Club Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times, Apple News, Don't Die, Netflix, YouTube, Bryan Johnson, Twitter, Instagram, Men's Health, Kaeli Swift, TED, WJZ CBS Baltimore, The Baltimore Banner, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Parks and Expos, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Falzhobel, On This Day, Playback.FM, Britannica: This Day in History, Time and Date, Wikipedia, The Moonlight Reader Society, Soulspun Kitchen, Canva and Deposit Photos for art and story suggestions.
KEEP IN TOUCH
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