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Short Stuff: Obituaries · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to short stuff. This is Josh,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck, there's Jerry. We're gonna talk about death, the natural,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: super hip thing to do. And there's Dave Ruse in
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: a bottle with a cork on top, screaming, let me
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: out right. That was weird, but I loved it. Yeah, Dave.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Dave helps us out with the longer form stuff. But
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: this is one of the old I don't know how old,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: but one of the old house stuff works shorties. Did
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: he put together? Yeah? I don't think it was old.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I think it was new, one of the new. Just
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: mean the old website old you gotta say it like that,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: then the old with any Yeah, the oldie. We sure
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: wasted a lot of time. Good. So Chuck, we're talking obituaries,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: that's right. Do you read these? Um Probably not because
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you're under eight. No, yeah, no, I know, but people
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: do love him. Yeah, it's interesting that I read that
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: um on. Oh. I think Beyond the Dash is what
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: it was called, which is great because you know the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: dash between the date of birth and the date of death,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: there's a dash between them. There's a website, an obituary
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: website called Beyond the Dash and they said, in obituaries
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: like your final gift to a loved one, you're celebrating
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: their life for all to see and read. Or if
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: you're one of those weirdos who reads obituaries for those
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: people to read and see. Yeah, I think, uh, I
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: think it's long been like elderly people read obituaries. The
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: joke is sort of the you know, because they're not
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: in them. Man, when when ages m becomes a real
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: thing in like ten years, this this episode is not
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: going to aged already a thing, a real thing. Okay,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Yeah, but they have always
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: well they've they've changed a lot over the years, um,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: which is sort of interesting. And this uh one of
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: the I mean, we're going to plug the genealogy website now, Okay,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: there's a genealogy website though that has apparently you can
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: learn a lot about your genealogy just from researching obituaries
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: because they list so many people in the family. It's
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: like a family tree there. Yeah yeah, so um. And
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: then even obituary websites and genealogy websites, they've unleashed a
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I on these things, and the bots have really had
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: a field day coming up with oh, bits dating back
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: as far as I can see to the seventeen fifties,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: at least in the United States. Yeah, this one genealogy
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: website has uh two hundred and sixty two million published
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: obituaries online. Yeah, see if you can figure out which
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: one it is. Yeah, I guess so. But um, so
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the bots have kind of they've they've said, Okay, well,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: from what we've been able to ascertain, at least from
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: digitized newspaper records going back to the mid eighteenth century,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: bits weren't a very big thing unless you were famous,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: very Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah, the deaths
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: of famous, well known, successful people have always intrigued us. Yeah,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I don't think you might might have told me that
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: obituaries were pre written for a lot of people, Yeah,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: like the New York Times, oh bits, you know, like
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the real deal ones. Yeah. Um, I think you told
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: me that a couple of years ago or something, and
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I was just astonished. I definitely knew that. Yeah, it
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: sounds like something I would tell you probably, and it's
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: not made up over or afternoon tea. Right, but they'll
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: they'll just have like an no bit going on somebody
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: and then when they finally die, they can get it
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: out the door really quick, just by kind of summing
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: up at the end, he's filling that last beyond the dash.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: And maybe if they did anything noteworthy in the last
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: like eight months of their life, they didn't. What I
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: wonder is do they Uh? Is it just for old
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: people or people that they think like a risky I wonder,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: you know, we'll have to ask Jeremy Piven. I don't
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: get that right. He played an obituary writer in One
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: in Something. Was he an obituary writer who was a
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: big jerk? Probably is? He got specializes in those roles
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: he does. Interesting. So mid nineteenth century, uh, you started
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: seeing this change from just famous types to regular old
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: people getting their local paper usually to publish sort of
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: stripped down obituaries. Yeah. It was called the death notice.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: It was basically superstriped town. Yeah, this person died and
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: that's that. There's still death notices around today. And apparently
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: if you're into obituaries so much that, um, you will
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: publish a death notice. What you're saying is it's basically
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: like a hold the date for more information about the funeral.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: They still do those today, But that was what obituaries
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: were Originally it was just you know, the person's name
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: they died, maybe who they were survived by, maybe a
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: little bit about the funeral. But the reason o bits
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: were so thin originally was because back in the day
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: before the Lena type was invented, and I think the
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighties, when you put a newspaper together, every page,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: every letter of every word of every sentence of every
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: line of every page LINGO, thank you um was set
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: by hand, by hand, yeah, every letter. So that's why
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: certain obituaries just had a name and died right exactly
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: with the date, maybe and you were you felt lucky
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: to even been mentioned. Probably. But then Lena type came
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: along and they said, hey, we've got a lot it's
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: a lot easier to make a newspaper. Now, let's make
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: more newspaper every day. So maybe we'll take a quick
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: break and we'll come back and talk a little bit
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: more about obituaries. You you want to know, you're in luck,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: just chuck, Hey, chuck, let's talk a little bit more
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: about obituary. Yeah. I mean, there's certain things like the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Civil War obviously would ramp up the death notices, like
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: tens of thousands of these going out every year. Yeah,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: and this was even before the lenotype too, right. I
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: think because they were soldiers, they felt like they needed
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: to do do so, even though it was a pain.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Plus also, there seems to have been a real increase
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: in fascination with death among the Victorians. Oh yeah, yeah,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: I mean that's when they were taking bereavement photography. You know,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: they were holding funerals at home. But they became much
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: more elaborate over time. Yeah. Well, what really changed was
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the newspapers discovered that they could charge people money to
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: get a loved one listed in an obituary column, and
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: they could make some dough on it, and then it
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: became a real thing. They made fat stacks is everyone
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: called it. In two thousand eleven. These stats are pretty amazing, though,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: From nineteen hundred, four hundred thousand obituaries in nineteen hundred
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and then, uh, and that's from two million total newspapers.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: By the nineteen thirties, there were one point to five
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: million obituaries in about two and a half million total pages. Yeah,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: so obituaries themselves in number exploded because they were mecondoh right,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: but they also the amount of the newspaper that they
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: represented exploded to and from a fifth to a half
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: of all pages were obituaries. Really, yeah, that's that's I mean, yeah,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: it's usually wrong, but I'll bet it's close one point
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: to five million obituaries and two and a half million pages.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: That's half right down the middle on the middle. Uh.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: And this is where in the thirties and forties is
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: where you start to see that sort of classic obituary
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: notice that we know today not just died, sorry, but stuff.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: It's it's a four part thing, the death announcement, a
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: little bit of a bio who they're survived by, and
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: then a little bit of the funeral info. Right, And
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: it didn't have to be like one paragraph each, but
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I mean like it was in those segments. Sometimes the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: middle bio part was extensive, depending on what they've done,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: you know, sometimes the survived by was bigger than other
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: times like that. That's that sweet story about that veteran
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: who died in Florida, I think a couple of months ago,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: and he outlived all of his family, and somebody got
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: word of it and it became like a viral thing
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: and tens I think like ten thousand people showed up
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: for his funeral, to make sure that he was seen off,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: that he wasn't forgotten. What is your obituary, say, I
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: assume you have pre written it. First of all, it
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: just says died, died. Yeah, I've pre written it on
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: draft like six or seven. Yeah, No, I have not.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Have you now yours? I haven't even thought of mine.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: I'm still l I V I N. Alright, alright, alright,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: So this is where the genealogy comes in, and that
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: now you've got spouse's name, children's names, married names of daughters, grandchildren.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: I mean you might see cousins if it's noteworthy, or
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: even even if it's not, if that's what the family
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: wants in there. Right, Because so the obituary, as Ruse
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: puts it as a quasi legal document. A lot of
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: people think you have to buy law, publish this in
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the newspaper. You don't. You do, by law have to
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: file for a death certificate like we talked about in
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the home burials short stuff. But you don't have to
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: publish it an obituary. But it's still definitely lets the
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: community know, hey, this person died, if you happen to um,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: if this person happened to owe your money. It's about
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: to say, here's your chance to come, you know, make
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: your claim against the estate or whatever. So it does
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: serve some sort of function, but it's not like a
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: law that you have to publish an obituary. But but
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: it is up to the funeral home typically to publish
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the obituary or contact the local newspaper. But the family
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: gives all the info that they want included in it,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and they're the ones who are footing the bill. I
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: think it's usually charged by line. So if you want
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: to include cousins, sure, but you know it's going to
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: cost you an extra eight cents second cousin Eddie really
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: worth it? Yeah? Uh? And then things changed again really
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: after nine eleven, apparently when the obituaries became much more
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: personal and these great stories started coming out about the
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: people who died on nine eleven. And I think that's
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: sort of, at least according to the people that they
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: quote in this article, said that that kind of changed
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: things all over the country and people started being a
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: lot more honest and maybe funny and making them real memorials,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: but also, like I said, being honest and not brushing
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: things under the rug um, like if someone suffered from
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: depression and died by suicide. They wouldn't just put a
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: vague died suddenly at home. Yeah, exactly what they used
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: to say. Yeah, and I'm sure some of them still do.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: But I think there's a trend towards honesty and openness
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: now more so for sure. And and apparently according to
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Susan Soaper, who is an obituary expert as far as
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Dave Ruse is concerned, she said that that was probably
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: what turned the tide, that that September eleven narrative obituary thing.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Did you read about that last thing about the saying
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: that the deceased will not be missed in some cases?
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Whose was that? Was that just one? As far as
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I could tell, it was just one. But a few
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: years back there was a woman um whose children, whose
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: adult children, UM said that the world would be better
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: off without her, or the world is now better off
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: without her, and she will not be missed. She she
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: really jilted them as children and they had never forgiven
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: her for it, and caused a huge outcry backlash, and
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: actually everyone sympathized with the dead woman, not the kids,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and not the kids. The kids were taken as like
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: little monsters who could not, who couldn't forgive their mom.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: But it was a huge deal and it really kind
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: of said a lot about how we view the deceased
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: and their last you know send off. You know, just
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: how how many warts should you show? Right? And like,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: even if that was I don't know, I'm not gonna
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: take a side. But even if that's the case, is
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: it is it gratifying to give mom a finger on
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the way out the door? Yeah? I don't know, I don't.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: You'd have to ask those kids not They were very um,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: they were probably very surprised at the international backlash that
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: it garnered. Interesting. Well, that's a f obituaries, Chuck, Yes,
• 12:50
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• 12:55
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