Overheard on Green St.

"Yeah, she invited me to a weenie roast, you know, but her parents don't know about my age yet..."
-weasely-looking guy smoking a cigarette outside Kam's (gross undergrad bar here)

Is that what they are calling it these days, Chambana?

On an unrelated note, I am sharing with you yet another delightful peek into my life as a baby archivist. I have been confirming the death dates of the members of the board of trustees. Boring, you say? Not when the obits in question are from olden times, I counter! To wit:

• One subheadline reads "Cheerful to the last", with the heartbreaking paragraph that follows describing just how cheerful the deceased was:

"It's pleasantly cool this morning", he commented to his nurse...then he lapsed into silence. A few minutes later he was dead."

Dun dun DUNNNN feel the drama!

• Another of my faves, about a Democrat (in the minority) who died was entitled "Joined the Majority". BURN
• Some podunk poet's was called "Poet and brother of greater poet dies"
• Some other dude's mentioned that "Regret was generally felt."

Obituaries in the past were kind of harsh. I am trying to imagine the widow reading one and being like, "Um, brother of greater poet? That's the nicest thing you could say, Chicago Tribune?" [sobs]