In this category, I give some thoughts and reflections on and around various deaths and the dead. I strongly considered naming this category “Obituaries”, but some contents might be a bit too atypical for that name.
Corresponding texts are very rare, so do not expect frequent entries. Some older texts from my Wordpress and Opendiary days have a similar nature, and will likely be imported here in due time. (Without the knowledge of those older texts, I would likely not have bothered with a separate category.)
Texts that deal with a death or someone dead in a manner too far from an obituary are not included here. (Say, when I discuss some event that was triggered by a death, when the discussion of the death and the circumstances around it takes priority over the person dead, or when the discussion is short and impersonal.)
On 2026-03-21, I am met with the news that Nicholas Brendon has died, about a year after the death of Michelle Trachtenberg. In both cases, I briefly considered writing something, the two being best known (certainly, to me; maybe, to most of the rest of the world) for important parts on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”—a series that I once watched fanatically and many times over.
In both cases, I chose not to (beyond what is present here). In as far as I had a (for want of a better phrasing) “connection” it was to the respective character—not the respective actor/actress. With their deaths, I felt a little sad; with Olivia Hussey, I actually cried, was blue the entire day, and was motivated to read her autobiography. (Which is not to say that any future entry here will meet the bar of “I actually cried”. Other types of significance are very possible. Certainly, there is no requirement of a career in acting.)
Moreover, if I wanted to write something, I am not sure what that would be in the case of Brendon; and the only thing that struck me about Trachtenberg, was her age—I cannot recall seeing her play anything older than a teenager, be it on “Buffy” or elsewhere, and I was actually more surprised by “already 39” than “already dead”. (Another angle for a Trachtenberg entry might be how the early days of her character, Dawn, were centered on keeping Dawn alive, but then we are back to the character—not the actress.)
Many others might be very significant to someone else (even outside friends and family) but not to me, be it sufficiently to justify a text or at all. Chuck Norris, for instance, went a day or two before Brendon, and was a childhood hero to many, but I have had minimal exposure to him and did not in the slightest consider writing something (and he is used as an example out of a coincidence in timing).
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