Newspaper humorist Art Buchwald has died at the age of 81. Last February he was told his kidneys were failing and that he had only a few weeks left. Refusing dialysis, he entered a hospice to die, but his kidneys mysteriously kept functioning for almost another year. By all accounts, including his own, he enjoyed himself thoroughly, entertaining a constant stream of visitors who came to say goodbye:
"'The French ambassador gave me the literary equivalent of the Legion of Honor,' he wrote. 'The National Hospice Association made me man of the year. I never realized dying was so much fun.'" (Where would Buchwald be on the level-of- evolution-at-death scale, I wonder?) The quote is from a great obit in the NYTimes today: http://tinyurl.com/2hzas5
