"...one of the only newspaper editing jobs... in which you have to think like an actuary"

The art and craft of presenting obituaries. In response to a question about the percentage of women eulogized in the NYT:

One of our writers has a wonderful metaphor for what the Obit page is: to her, it's a sliding glass that is always inching forward as it offers glimpses of the past but that always lags several decades behind us. To me, the Obit page is not a reflection of the times in which we live. It's a mirror on a past that is slipping away.

(Sadly, I would quibble with "always" -- cancer, AIDS, and other illnesses/traumas/mishaps having already claimed a number of people I've admired and/or known before they could reach the age of sixty -- but I like the metaphor nonetheless.

Also, "Kill Bill" McDonald is funny.)