MMMM # 69* - Last Words

     The job of writing obituaries in newspapers (remember them?) used to be the lowest of the low positions in the newsroom. The interns, or the youngest cub reporters around, would be tasked with the job, or, sometimes, reporters at the other end of the career bell-curve.
     And yet. What could be more important?
     I got thinking about all this because a) I'm not 20 anymore and b) I read this headline in the New York Times last week:  David Lloyd, 75, Dies; Wrote ‘Chuckles’ Episode.
     There are probably some people who have no idea who "Chuckles" was, and therefore completely miss the fact of Mr. Lloyd's life that folks at the Times (and elsewhere) found compelling: he had written the script for one of the best-known episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the funeral of "Chuckles The Clown".
     There are, of course, much worse headlines to have on your obit:

Jeffrey Dahmer, killed and ate victims

or

Richard Nixon, 81, disgraced President

 (I finally watched Frost/Nixon on cable Friday night.) Of all the things Mr. Lloyd did in 75 years, it was Chuckles that made the headline. Who among us have not wondered at one time or another what few words will be used to sum of our lives?

     If you've led a public life, those words will not be left up to the junior journalist writing the actual obit, but to another newspaper functionary...the headline writer du' jour. Pray he or she had a good night's sleep, and that you never did anything personally to anger them. Also, in this time of the Internet, there are a million bloggers out there who will choose their own headline. Then there's TV...what will the first sentence..the lead..say?  "THE WOMAN (MAN) WHO......" Which aspect of your life will make the cut? Here are three obit headlines from the front page of the online N.Y. Times on Sunday:

James R. Lilley, 81, Envoy in Tiananmen Era, Dies


Earl Cooley Is Dead at 98; Fought Fires as Original Smoke Jumper

Amir Pnueli, Pioneer of Temporal Logic, Dies at 68

     At 75, David Lloyd probably presumed that his life's work would be summed up by the clown who's life he ended with such great humor. But like the rest of us, he never knew for sure what his media epitaph was. Because he was gone, as will be we.
[*The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]