Brooklyn born writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak has died. He was 83-years-old.

Sendak was the author of Bumble-Ardy, In The Night Kitchen, and, of course, Where The Wild Things Are.

We just went back and listened to Sendak's interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air in September of 2011. It's almost 20 minutes long, but we highly recommend you take the time to listen to it yourself. It's an example of a master interviewer letting a master story teller reveal the important life lessons of love, loss, laughter and death.

Gross speaks to Sendak by phone from his home, when he is too weak to go to a studio. She speaks to him about his life as a gay man who never raised children, the death of his partner of 50 years, and the death of recent friends, including his publisher. Facing his own mortality himself, Sendak tells Gross, through tears:

More >>

Image Via

Wondering what will end up in your obituary is really nerve-racking to think about. What will people say about you when you're dead and gone? Everyone hopes that they sound like a good person, at least like a nice guy or something. But an ocean rower has just set a new standard for obituaries, because he's a total badass. John Fairfax died at the age of 74 and is now immortalized by having the coolest New York Times obituary of all time. He was an ocean rower who managed to cross the Atlantic by himself in a small rowboat. Three years later, he traversed the Pacific with his girlfriend in tow (they later broke up). He spent the end of his life making a living off winnings in baccarat, or as the Times says, "the card game also favored by James Bond." But that's just the tip of the iceberg really -- we didn't even get up to pistol fights and his attempted jaguar suicide yet.

More >>

Sad news out of Los Angeles tonight: The Associated Press reported that Whitney Houston has died at the age of 48. Houston was found dead in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she was scheduled to attend producer Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party tonight.

More >>

via Wikipedia

Former Czech Republic president and noted playwright Vaclav Havel has died. According to a brief statement by the Czech Consulate in New York, Havel died in his sleep on Sunday at the age of 75, while at his country house in the Czech town of Hrádeček in Bohemia. Prior to the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia, Havel had been a longtime dissident. He was a leader in the Velvet Revolution of 1989, and subsequently became the nation's democratically elected president. He served 14 years in that office.

More >>

Here's the story of a man named Sherwood. Sherwood Schwartz, the man perhaps more responsible than any (pre-reality) television producer for the dumbing down of America, passed away today, according to the Times. Before heading off to that coconut tree filled island in the sky, he littered the landscape of Americana with a treasure trove of icons: Gilligan, (the Skipper, too), Mr. Brady, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" and Alice were all his inventions. He made the nation ask itself deep philosophical questions, like "Ginger or Mary Ann?" It was his brain that sat us back and told us tales of Greg, the millionaire, and his wife.

More >>

And so it goes.

On March 18, 2011, the small straight line between "e" (for electronic) and "m" (for mail) finally gave up the ghost after a long struggle with trying to remain relevant in a society that wishes nothing more than to kill all that is pointless and protuberant, or that which makes us think too much, or that which takes up a space without that space being merited. Many thought that the dash had died long ago. But those who could remember the dash -- which isn't a dash at all! -- remembered its proper name, Hyphen, and perhaps even would speak to it casually in passing, doffing a cap -- oh, hey Hyphen! (Hy to his friends).

More >>

It is never easy to say goodbye to people you've come to know so well on the Internet, as thousands of people on Twitter have demonstrated today at the news that Ivy Bean, the oldest recorded Twitterer, died this morning in Brandford, UK, at the age of 104. She is survived by a sprinkling of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and 58,591 Twitter followers (and counting).

More >>