Weekend O-Bits: The Week in Death

Every Sunday, we’re going to post a few of our favorite stories from the past week…

If the serpentine, skin-shedding, venom-scented life of a “snake whisperer” appeals to you, you’re in luck. There’s an surprise opening. in the Malaysian fire department. You’ll be taking the place of Abu Zarin Hussin, head of the King Cobra Squad. In case you’re wondering: he didn’t leave the job willingly. He died, bitten by a king cobra who just wouldn’t be whispered to. He must have loved his job—this wasn’t the first time a snake bit him. The last time was in 2015, when he spent two days in coma after another King Cobra sank its fangs in him. If interested, leave your name in the comments, and we’ll pass it on. One piece of advice: avoid the cobras.

This is as close as we want to get to a King Cobra…

We’re all for modernizing the funeral business around the O-Bits niche, but we’re skeptical about the “innovations” Ian Strang of Beyond outlines at Forbes. He’s determined to disrupt the industry, creating what he calls “a consumer brand for death.” Fresh of his success introducing fee-charging ATMs to the United Kingdom (how he missed out on the Nobel Prize for that, we don’t know), he’s looking to apply what he learned to the world of death. Among his ideas: contacting people who have recently attended funerals with funeral business emails. “The people who attend a funeral,” he says, “start thinking about their own mortality.” Because nothing makes event more dignified and caring than the knowledge that signing the guestbook is just like clicking “yes” on the “terms and conditions” page when you install new software. What’s next? A meter next to every grave charging mourners by the minute?

In today’s Washington Post, writer Jacqueline Dooley writes movingly of of how she got throughthe first year after the death of her 15-year-old daughter, leaving origami cranes—a joke between her and her daughter—in random places as a way to keep her memory alive.

Steven Mirkin

Steven Mirkin’s diverse career has taken him from politics to pop culture to high art, offering him a front row seat to some of the most fascinating events and personalities of our time: writing speeches, fundraising appeals and campaign materials for Ed Koch, John Heinz and independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson; chronicling the punk/new wave scenes in New York and London; interviewing musicians such as Elton John, John Lydon and Buck Owens; profiling modern masters Julian Schnabel, Paul Schrader and Jonathan Safran Foer; and writing for TV shows including 21, The Chamber, Let's Make A Deal, and Rock Star: INXS.

Steven Mirkin

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