Loss, in pieces
Vol. 3, Issue 10
“When someone you love dies, and you’re not expecting it, you don’t lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time - the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes - when there’s a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she’s gone, forever - there comes another day, and another specifically missing part.” --John Irving
NEWS & NOTES
Emerging from the deep
Thirty previously unknown deep-sea species have recently been discovered by the Nippon Foundation–Nekton Ocean Census during expeditions in the Southern Ocean. One of those creatures was the carnivorous “death-ball” sponge (Chondrocladia sp.nov).
Although most sponges are passive, filter-feeding aquatic invertebrates, this predatory sponge craves other creatures for food. Found at 3,601 meters (11,814 feet) during the Trench North dive, east of Montagu Island, the “death-ball” sponge has a stalk like a small tree trunk. Out of the stalk grow several appendages, each ending in a fascinating white orb that resembles a translucent ping-pong ball. Wrapped around the stalk is a vine-like tentacle covered in tiny hooks, which the sponge uses to trap food, such as skeleton shrimp.
Since 2023, the Nippon Foundation–Nekton Ocean Census has been working to find and record new marine life in the Southern Ocean, one of the most remote and least explored corners of the planet. In 2025, the international scientific collaboration launched two exploratory research cruises.
One expedition took place in the Southern Ocean’s Bellingshausen Sea, off West Antarctica. When iceberg A-84 calved from the George VI Ice Shelf in January 2025, the researchers were the first to investigate the newly exposed seabed.
The other expedition studied the South Sandwich Islands, the South Sandwich Trench and the seafloor near Montagu and Saunders Islands. There, researchers gathered nearly 2,000 specimens and took thousands of images. They also captured hours of video, including a rare recording of a juvenile colossal squid in its natural habitat.
In addition to the “death-ball” sponge, researchers found new species of sea stars, crustaceans, mollusks, rare gastropods and bivalves and black coral. They also identified the presence of “zombie worms” (Osedax roseus), tiny creatures that feed on the fats found within bones. Although these worms have no mouth or stomach, they “eat” by secreting an acid from their skin that dissolves fish and whale skeletons found on the deep-sea floor. Once the fat and protein inside the bones are released, symbiotic bacteria living inside the worms digest the nutrients. The existence of “zombie worms” was first confirmed in 2002.
FMI: Click here.
The latest innovation in being dead
Apparently, someone believes that we need to curate music for the afterlife in order to make death “a lot less boring.”
Digital music service Spotify and canned water company Liquid Death recently joined forces to launch the Eternal Playlist Urn, the world’s first music-streaming urn. This $495 limited-edition collector’s item features a wireless speaker built into its lid, allowing the dead to “listen to their favorite jams for all eternity.”
Spotify also debuted its Eternal Playlist Generator to help people build a personalized playlist of favorite music that can be shared with friends via Bluetooth — or synced directly to the urn’s speaker. Not sure what to include in a playlist like this? Spotify will create one using the customer’s listening history, or help to curate a list based on one’s answers to questions like “What’s your eternal vibe?”
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The cursed grave of George “Bluidy” Mackenzie
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NOTABLE OBITS
* Scottish actor John Alford, who starred in two hit British TV shows, died. He was 54. Born John Shannon in Glasgow, Scotland, Alford was still a teenager in the late 1980s when he found fame playing rebellious student Robbie Wright on the popular BBC Children’s soap “Grange Hill.” In the early 1990s, he portrayed firefighter Billy Junfan Ray in the ITV drama “London’s Burning” for several seasons before being sacked for supplying drugs to an undercover journalist. That incident -- and conviction -- caused him to spend nine months in jail. Other than a few smaller acting roles, Alford spent the final years of his life repeatedly getting in trouble with the law. In 2006, he was convicted of drunk driving after a crash, and two years later pleaded guilty to two counts of resisting an officer. Alford died in prison just two months after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two teenage girls and sentenced to eight-and-a-half years behind bars. (Peter White, Deadline and Liam Kelly, The Telegraph)
* Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John F. Burns died at 81. During his four-decade stint at The New York Times, the British-born journalist reported from Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, India, Iraq, London, Pakistan, South Africa and the Soviet Union. He specialized in covering conflicts and explaining them to the world, both in print and on television. But Burns also had a habit of riling up the authorities in the countries he covered. In addition to receiving two George Polk Awards, Burns won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his 1993 reporting on the Bosnian conflict and one in 1997 for his coverage of the Taliban in Afghanistan. (Alan Cowell, The New York Times)
* Tommy DeCarlo, the former lead singer of the rock band Boston, died. He was 60. A longtime fan of the band, DeCarlo would often sing its hit songs, something his daughter would record and post on the social network MySpace. When Brad Delp, Boston’s original lead vocalist, died in 2007, the band’s founder, Tom Scholz, stumbled upon those videos. Scholz was so impressed with what he heard that he asked DeCarlo to perform in a tribute concert with the remaining members of the band. DeCarlo did such a wonderful job that the band asked him to join. In a strange twist of fate, DeCarlo died on the same day as Delp, only 19 years later. (Anthony Orrico, HuffPost)
* Iraqi human rights activist Yanar Mohammed, 65, has died. For more than 20 years, Mohammed campaigned for women’s rights through public demonstrations, the press and in the halls of the Iraqi Parliament. She co-founded the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and established a network of safe houses for victims of rape, abuse and torture. From 2012 to 2015, Mohammed provided assistance to Yazidi women, who were forced by the Islamic State to become sex slaves and subjected to mass rape. She also launched the feminist newspaper Al-Mousawat (Equality) to expose her country’s repressive institutions and demand change. Such actions were credited with helping to save the lives of more than 700 vulnerable girls, women and LGBTQ+ people, but it also made her a target of men who did not appreciate her efforts to challenge Iraq’s religious and political patriarchy. (Adam Nossiter, The New York Times and Dr. Mehiyar Kathem Al Sa’edi, Counterfire)
* Master Gunnery Sgt. Juan Jose Valdez, the last Marine out of Saigon during the final days of the Vietnam War, died at 88. The Texan was just 18 when he enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1955. He would spend the next 32 years serving his country at home and abroad, including combat in Da Nang and Chu Lai, South Vietnam. Valdez’s most historic assignment occurred in 1975 when he was the staff non-commissioned officer in charge of the Marine Security Guard detachment at the U.S. Embassy in the South Vietnamese capital. As North Vietnamese forces closed in on the city, Valdez helped to coordinate the evacuation of thousands of U.S. civilians and at-risk foreign nationals. He oversaw the lowering of the American flag at the embassy, the safe departure of U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin and the evacuation of the surviving members of the Security Guard detachment, and was the last Marine to board the final helicopter departing the embassy rooftop on April 30. Following his retirement in 1987, Valdez continued to support Marines and their families by working at the Camp Pendleton Family Housing Office. (Trip Gabriel, The New York Times and Dignity Memorial)
* Isaiah Zagar, a mosaic artist who helped to transform walls and buildings across Philadelphia, died at 86. Zagar was a self-taught mosaicist who used found objects such as broken bottles, dishes, mirrors and tiles to create stunning works of public art. Although his mosaics adorn walls in the U.S., Chile and Mexico, Zagar became renowned for transforming several abandoned lots near his home into the mosaic-covered landmark now known as Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens. About 150,000 visitors tour the art-adorned indoor and outdoor spaces each year. Near the end of his life, numerous harassment allegations were leveled at Zagar, prompting the PMG to issue a statement distancing itself from the artist who had created it. (Rosa Cartagena and Nick Vadala, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
FAMOUS DEATHS IN HISTORY
On March 16, Swedish author/first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature Selma Lagerlöf (81), blues guitarist T-Bone Walker (64) and composer/musicologist/educator Roger Sessions (88)
On March 17, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (58), speculative fiction author Andre Norton (93) and French-American fashion designer Oleg Cassini (92)
On March 18, English-American actress Natasha Richardson (45), guitarist known as the “Father of Rock and Roll” Chuck Berry (90) and test pilot/engineer/NASA astronaut Alfred Worden (88)
On March 19, author Edgar Rice Burroughs (74), fashion designer Anne Klein (50) and journalist/columnist/novelist Jimmy Breslin (88)
On March 20, humorist Lewis Grizzard (47), Juliana, Queen of the Netherlands (94) and country singer/songwriter Kenny Rogers (81)
On March 21, Pocahontas (20-21), a Powhatan woman who fostered peace between English colonists and Native Americans, English actor/filmmaker Michael Redgrave (77) and game show host/creator Chuck Barris (87)
On March 22, German writer/philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (82), cartoonist Walter Lantz (93) and businessman/sports team owner Wayne Huizenga (80)
On March 23, actress Elizabeth Taylor (79), actor George Segal (87) and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright (84)
RECOMMENDED SUBSTACK
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Throw up your hands! Throw up your hands!” --Graham County deputy sheriff Thomas Kane Wooten, prior to his death in the Power Brothers shootout of 1918
MOMENT OF GRATITUDE
Thanks to Yoksel Zok, Unsplash, The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census/Schmidt Ocean Institute, Science Alert, YouTube, the University of Essex, Smithsonian Magazine, BBC News, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Liquid Death, Spotify, The Hollywood Reporter, What’s Trending, Laura MacKenzie, This Is Scotland, Instagram, The Written Word, Deadline, The Telegraph, Apple News, The New York Times, HuffPost, the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, Counterfire, NBC7, Dignity Memorial, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, The Philadelphia Inquirer, A Bit of Good News, On This Day, Playback.FM, Britannica: This Day in History, Time and Date, Wikipedia, The Daily Respite, Historynet, Canva and Deposit Photos for art and story suggestions. Note: Generative AI was not used during the ideation, creation or publication of this newsletter.
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