The Daily Goodbye

Good morning!

We lost of a couple of environmental leaders: Peter Berle who proved the National Audubon Society was "no longer just for the birds," and John Firor, whose book about global climate change and ozone depletion was called was "about as agreeable as a dose of ipecac," for generating "a sense of astonishment that human intelligence could have permitted us to reach this predicament."

Rapper Kanye West's mother has died. Speaking of famous relatives, the daughter of polar explorer Admiral Richard E. Byrd has died. "I was jealous of Antarctica," she said, "because it took him away for three years at a time."

A geneaologist known as the detective of death has indexed thousands of published obituaries and researched the unusual history of a handful of South Florida cemeteries.

As most everyone knows by now, Norman Mailer died early Saturday morning, sparking a return of the fine work of now-retired obits scribe Bart Barnes.