The Last Meals Project Every prisoner waiting to be executed is granted a last meal. Prisoners waiting to die choose their last meal for different reasons. Here's a list of exonerated death-row prisoners.
posted by modelenoir on Jul 28, 2011 - 45 comments

Last World War I combat vet dies in Australia. Claude Stanley Choules was 110. RIP, Chuckles.
posted by bwg on May 5, 2011 - 40 comments

Yeah that's right. The Last Dragon is the Greatest of All-Time. Why? For me there are so many reasons.
posted by Joe Beese on Sep 24, 2010 - 29 comments

The moving finger writes and having writ, moves on. From the Globe and Mail website: "John Babcock, Canada’s last known First World War veteran, has died, the Prime Minister’s Office said Thursday. Mr. Babcock was 109. In a statement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he is deeply saddened to learn of Mr. Babcock’s death. He said that because Mr. Babcock was Canada’s last living link to the First World War, it marks the end of an era. Mr. Babcock joined the military at the age of 16, but because of his age he wasn’t allowed on the frontlines." I could link to bazillions of relevancies but really, so can you. It's all over Canadian news websites. But perhaps just this. Gone west. Rest in Peace, sir. Lest We Forget.
posted by Mike D on Feb 18, 2010 - 42 comments

"Americans talk about institutions that are 'too big to fail.' In parts of Europe, it's more apt to speak of those 'too big to be saved.'" Last Man Standing by Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution fame.
posted by wittgenstein on Apr 11, 2009 - 5 comments

"American air superiority has been so complete for so long that we take it for granted. For more than half a century, we’ve made only rare use of the aerial-combat skills of a man like Cesar Rodriguez, who retired two years ago with more air-to-air kills than any other active-duty fighter pilot. But our technological edge is eroding. ... Now we have a choice. We can stock the Air Force with the expensive, cutting-edge F‑22—maintaining our technological superiority at great expense to our Treasury. Or we can go back to a time when the cost of air supremacy was paid in the blood of men like Rodriguez." - The Last Ace, a feature article in this month's The Atlantic by author Mark Bowden.
posted by billysumday on Feb 15, 2009 - 63 comments

Last Guy - input a website, any website, and save the survivors. [more inside]
posted by knowles on Aug 25, 2008 - 12 comments

William Rodriguez gave a captivating presentation in Seattle on 11/07/07. William is believed to be the "Last Man Out" of the north tower of the World Trade Center alive, but not before reentering three times with the master key after the first plane impacted the north tower to help rescue a countless number of people. Here is an interview with William after the presentation. His Ricky Ricardo impersonation at the end is pretty good.
posted by augustweed on Nov 13, 2007 - 31 comments

The Last Supper is now available in high definition at the click of a button. Feel free to take a gander and then cross it off your list.
posted by nixerman on Oct 29, 2007 - 37 comments

Read the last statements of executed Texas death row inmates. Texas now publishes the last statements online in a extremely well organised database. Search through offender name, offender information (scanned OCR with pics and crime description). If that's a bit too heavy, why not just browse through some last meals on death row?
posted by Funmonkey1 on Sep 18, 2006 - 135 comments

The Last Post, a military bugle call marking the end of the day, was originally sounded to call off-duty soldiers to barracks; later it was also incorporated into British and Commonwealth military funeral services (analogous to the playing of Taps for US military dead) and "symbolises that the duty of the dead is over and that they can rest in peace." It's perhaps as fitting as "Auld Lang Syne" at the close of year 2005.
posted by orthogonality on Dec 31, 2005 - 16 comments

Last words of fictional characters. [cached]
posted by Ljubljana on Aug 28, 2003 - 23 comments