Obit. Page #2

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if he could have an obituary in The New York Times."

I'll bet there's 10 or 15 calls like that every day,

and they're utterly sincere.

I think he's worth a short, you know?

- Just for the record. - Wendy's Hot and Juicy campaign.

Benson & Hedges, Alka Seltzer.

Pieces of pop culture history.

We have to decide if we want him to go back

to the lawyer for Waylon Jennings.

Well, you know, a lot of people persuading--

Yardley's concern, as I understand it,

is that if you write the story, you'd have to get into

the uglier aspects of it, and my feeling is, "So what?"

My feeling is that makes it a better story.

The question is who can do him?

I can ask Paul to knock that out.

- Yeah, why not? - Have Paul look into it.

Bruce is gonna continue with Wilson.

- Yeah, right. - Sounds good.

The one thing all the subjects have in common,

besides being dead,

is that their lives

had an impact of one sort or another.

The word "impact" is infinitely elastic.

That impact can be of world-shaking importance.

You know, when Brezhnev died, that was the end

of a particular era in one of the great social experiments

of the 20th century, the beginning

of the decline of the Soviet Empire.

And then you get to the guy who invented the Slinky,

and he had an impact too.

Millions of people bought the Slinky and took pleasure in it.

If you weigh in one hand Slinky and in the other hand,

Soviet Union 20th century,

obviously one hand is gonna dip way down here

and the other hand's gonna be way up here.

But I'll bet a lot of people turn

to the Slinky first to read about it.

Hello there.

"He crossed the Atlantic because it was there,

and the Pacific because it was also there.

He made both crossings in a rowboat

because it too was there,

and because the lure of sea, spray, and sinew,

and the history-making chance to traverse two oceans

without steam or sail proved irresistible.

In 1969, after six months alone on the Atlantic

battling storms, sharks, and encroaching madness,

John Fairfax, who died this month at 74,

became the first lone oarsman in recorded history

to traverse any ocean.

For all its bravura, Mr. Fairfax's seafaring

almost pales beside his earlier ventures.

Footloose and handsome, he was a flesh and blood character

out of Graham Greene with more than a dash of Hemingway

and Ian Fleming shaken in.

At nine, he settled a dispute with a pistol.

At 13, he lit out for the Amazon jungle.

At 20, he attempted suicide by jaguar."

- Thank you! - Very well done.

How does it feel to be--

I take property of this little bit.

Well done, John, well done.

The explosion that ensued,

readers just went nuts.

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