{"id":155540,"date":"2021-11-03T02:17:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T08:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=155540"},"modified":"2021-11-03T02:17:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T08:17:27","slug":"quotations-and-memento-mori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2021\/11\/03\/quotations-and-memento-mori.html","title":{"rendered":"Quotations and Memento Mori<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I run a (much more active) side blog, focused on quotations: WIST.info<\/a> (WIST = “Wish I’d Said That”).\u00a0 Quotations have been a labor of love for me for a lot of years, the close thing I have to a pure personal hobby.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A sample quotation … about quotations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have about 3,000-odd people who I quote there, and for each I track name, birth\/death date, a few words of biography, and an image. Because knowing who said something, when, and what their background is can be useful in understanding what was said. Also, I’m a history geek, so there’s that.<\/p>\n

For the last month or so I’ve been slowly crawling through that list of quoted folk to confirm, for those of the contemporary era, if they are still alive. It’s kind of embarrassing (as an history geek) to cite someone who died five years ago with just his birth date. Unprofessional, you know.<\/p>\n

(For the record, Wikipedia<\/a> is an awesome resource for such things, and for a lot of things. I support it, and most Internet users should, too<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, updating biography snippets to include death dates has been kind of disturbing, emotionally. I have to check everyone where I just have a birth date, no matter what it is. But I can, actuarially, make a few preliminary assumptions.<\/p>\n

Folk born in the 1910s are almost certainly dead.<\/p>\n

Folk born in the 1920s-30s are probably<\/em> dead, but not necessarily. And not jumping to that conclusion is important, because I have a parent and a couple of in-laws that fall into that category and they are not<\/em> dead and I do not want them to be, so\u00a0 I keep rooting (and keep wincing).<\/p>\n

On the other hand, folk born in the 1990s (and later) are probably<\/em> not dead … but they need to be checked any, because accidents, disease, drug abuse, etc. may very well have taken such people.<\/p>\n

And then there are people in-between. Like, oh, say, myself, born in the 1960s. A majority are not dead (yet), but a disturbingly large minority are, again due to accidents, disease, abuse, or just an “early” death.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Remember, Man, that dust thou art and to dust thou shall return.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have not reached my Biblical three-score-years-and-ten, and an still enough below the US average (esp. given my economic bracket) that it’s not\u00a0too<\/em> worrisome. But being reminded by research that Things Happen, and there are famous people born later than me who have gone to join the Choir Invisible is … not reassuring.<\/p>\n

And that I have loved ones who are on the far side of those numbers, even less so.<\/p>\n

\"Memento<\/a>
Memento Mori – “Vanitas” by Philippe de Champaigne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One would think collecting quotations would be, like collecting stamps, an very cool and unemotional and non-risky passtime.<\/p>\n

Apparently not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The problem with providing bios of people say cool things is realizing when people tend to die.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,4,33],"tags":[2217,2216,1483],"class_list":["post-155540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-personal","category-wist","tag-age","tag-death","tag-quotations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Memento-Mori-StillLifeWithASkull.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26557,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/21\/quotations-damn-quotations-and-statistics.html","url_meta":{"origin":155540,"position":0},"title":"Quotations, Damn Quotations, and Statistics","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-Feb-12 3:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"My annual checkpoint for my \"WIST\" (Wish I'd Said That) quotations site (http:\/\/wist.info). It's ... a hobby. #ddtb Embedded Link ~~Admin - Doing the Numbers: 2\/2012 | WIST Quotations Another good year of WIST since I last ran these (back last March). Let's look at the historical count:Another good, steady\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25753,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/26\/a-personal-and-obsessional-milestone.html","url_meta":{"origin":155540,"position":1},"title":"A personal (and obsessional) milestone","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Jan-12 8:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"I maintain a quotations database as a hobby and labor of love, and I just rolled over the 10,000 entries mark. It's always nice (and\/or frightening) to see one's compulsive activities reach some new plateau of over-achievement. #ddtb Embedded Link ~~Admin - 10,000 quotations, huzzah! | WIST Quotations Sometime over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37947,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/30\/quotations-blogs-updates.html","url_meta":{"origin":155540,"position":2},"title":"Quotations! Blogs! Updates!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 30-Jun-13 2:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've updated the template for my WIST (\"Wish I'd Said That!\") blog (http:\/\/wist.info), where I indulge in my quotation collecting obsession hobby. The old format had gotten a bit long in the tooth, and while I'm not 100% happy with how it now looks, it's a darned sight better and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13393,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/01\/quotes_by_the_numbers.html","url_meta":{"origin":155540,"position":3},"title":"Quotes by the numbers","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Jan-09 11:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I went and ran the numbers on my quotations database, WIST, yesterday, the first time since February 2007.\u00a0 I'm currently at 6600 quotations, vs. the 5100 I was at back...","rel":"","context":"In "Quotations (WIST)"","block_context":{"text":"Quotations (WIST)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/wist"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32812,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/06\/quotations-and-numbers.html","url_meta":{"origin":155540,"position":4},"title":"Quotations and Numbers","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Mar-13 9:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"My annual report (mostly to myself) on how my quotations database (WIST -- \"Wish I'd Said That\") is doing. A true labor of love. Doing the Numbers: 3\/2013 Another year, another \"State of the WIST\" post. I last ran this report last February. Despite vacations and illness and other vagaries\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41253,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/01\/on-the-counting-of-quotations.html","url_meta":{"origin":155540,"position":5},"title":"On the Counting of Quotations","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Mar-14 12:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In my copious free time I maintain a quotations blog. And each year I run the numbers, look at what's most popular, etc. \u00a0And ... here they are.\ufeff ~~Admin - Doing the Numbers: 3\/2014 | WIST Another year, another \"State of the WIST\" post. I last ran this report a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155545,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155540\/revisions\/155545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}