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: Conventions you wish you were invited to: the 6th Great Obituary Writers’ International Conference:
In the closing minutes of the 6th Great Obituary Writers’ International Conference (their title), one of the events that obituarists hate the most burst in on them. Just as Tim Bullamore, a Bath city councillor who writes for Fleet Street newspapers and the British Medical Journal, began an elaborate slide show on the glories of his city, where the conference takes place next year, someone rushed in and shouted: “Reagan’s died!”
Gasps of astonishment, cries of surprise, uproar and confusion. Several delegates sprinted to the hotel lobby’s public call boxes or grabbed cellphones. The bringer of the news was surrounded and peppered with questions. Bullamore’s presentation was ruined. Finally, he grabbed the microphone and bellowed: “Reagan’s dead and he’ll be deader. Let’s go on with the show.”
He resumed his slides, but it wasn’t the same. The 40th president of the United States, Ronald Wilson Reagan, had died inconveniently and thrust obituarists into disarray. But really, they loved it. One delegate, her eyes sparkling, gushed: “Isn’t this just wild?”
[via Editors Weblog]
