This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger. And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense. Let's get concrete. The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what "day in day out" really means. There happen to be whole, large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine, and petty frustration. The parents and older folks here will know all too well what I'm talking about. First reported by an anonymous tip to a blog, the Los Angeles Times has confirmed that David Foster Wallace has hung himself.
posted on Sep 13, 2008 - View this thread

Robin Prosser was a former concert pianist and systems analyst who suffered from an autoimmune disease similar to lupus for over 20 years. The disease left her in constant pain and made her allergic to most pharmaceutical painkillers. Only medical marijuana brought her relief, but last spring the DEA seized her medicine. Unable to cope with the chronic pain any longer, she committed suicide on October 18th. [Via Andrew Sullivan.]
posted on Oct 29, 2007 - View this thread

Game developer/ perfume critic Theresa Duncan has died, and longtime companion Jeremy Blake is missing. The art world is buzzing about the seeming suicide-by-water of video installation artist Jeremy Blake. The perfume blogs are fizzing with sadness over the death of Theresa Duncan, whose suicide preceded Blake's. The cops are not releasing the notes left by the late, pretty people, but a clue might be found in the paranoiac screed Duncan posted on her blog in May, in which Blake's ex-girlfriend, the CIA, FBI, Church of Scientology, Jeff Gannon, bloated plutocrats and many other bugbears of the psy-ops crowd were put on Duncan's mental merry-go-round and given a real strong spin.
posted on Jul 21, 2007 - View this thread

Pam Bricker Passes - Just as Thievery Corporation's The Cosmic Game hits shelves, it's announced that acclaimed jazz vocalist Pam Bricker, long-time Thievery conspirator--and probably the best guest vocalist the D.C. duo has ever had--has passed. Chung's blog post mentions, "it was most likely suicide." Are there any MeFi'ers out there who can provide more information? Confirm? Disconfirm?
posted on Feb 23, 2005 - View this thread

NY Times Reporter Jumps to His Death: Matt Drudge reports that New York Times Business reporter/editor Allen Myerson jumped to death at the NY Times building in New York City on 43rd Street this morning. Myerson was the Weekend Business Editor at the NY Times and a member of the Business Journalism Advisory Council. Among other things, Myerson reported on Enron. An abstract of a Myerson article that appeared in the newspaper last December says, "Enron Corp's failure is having repercussions not just on nation's energy industries, but is being felt through retailing, real estate, insurance, banking, Internet services, newspaper publishing, plastics and glass manufacturing, all of which Enron touched in its boundless appetite for risk and growth."
posted on Aug 22, 2002 - View this thread

Gnutella pioneer dead at 25. No details on cause of death yet.
posted on Jul 9, 2002 - View this thread

Feeder drummer Jon Lee found dead "JON LEE, drummer with Welsh rock trio FEEDER, has been found dead in his MIAMI home after committing suicide."

Feeder are one of my favourite bands. In my eyes a tragic loss. What drives (apparently successful) people such as Jon to suicide? Especially since they've just had a track in UK Top 20...
posted on Jan 9, 2002 - View this thread