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Essayist and Blogger Kathy Shaidle Posts Her Own Obituary

Mark Steyn remembers In a too short life, Kathy wrote in almost every form: She is the only writer I know who was both a respected poet nominated for major prizes and the “Ed Anger” columnist of The Weekly World News. And, as most of you know, after 9/11 she became the leading Canadian polemicist in the great messy decentralized blogosphere we miss so much in the age of Social Media woketalitarianism.

Kathy writes:

Following a tedious rendezvous with ovarian cancer, Kathy Shaidle has died, wishing she’d spent more time at the office.

Her tombstone reads: GET OFF MY LAWN!

She is relieved she won’t have to update her LinkedIn profile, shave her legs, or hear “Creep” by Radiohead ever again. Some may even be jealous that she’s getting out of enduring a Biden presidency.

Kathy was a writer, author, columnist and blogging pioneer, as proud of her first book’s Governor General’s Award nomination as of her stint as “Ed Anger” for the Weekly World News. A target for “cancel” culture before the term was coined, she was denounced by all the best people, sometimes for contradictory reasons.

Kathy did not lead a particularly “full life,” her existence having been comprised mostly of a series of unpleasant surprises. Her favourite corporeal pleasure was saying, “I told you so,” which she was able to utter with justification multiple times a day. A bookish movie-buff and agoraphobic homebody, as a child Kathy (as per the Roz Chast cartoon) “always preferred the little couch ride on the merry-go-round.” Yet Kathy managed to acquire a reputation for mouthiness, a side effect of her bullshit allergy.

Contrary to cliche, Kathy did not conduct herself with particular “grace,” “dignity” or “courage” in her final months. She didn’t “bravely fight on” after her cancer was pronounced terminal. All she did was (barely) cope, and then only with assistance from her generous employer, and some energetic and selfless friends whom she’d somehow managed to acquire over the years, much to her astonishment. Of course, the greatest of these was her stalwart beloved of over 20 years, Arnie, with whom she is now in the ultimate long distance relationship. They can all finally catch up on their sleep.

Donations can be made to the Dorothy Ley Hospice, Toronto.

Posted at Arnie’s page at Blazing Cat Fur

 

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Dirk January 12, 2021, 8:58 AM

    Rest in peace!. If she was important enough to be memorialized here, she deserves our prayers and best wishes on her journey to Valhalla.

    Dirk

  • Auntie Analogue January 12, 2021, 12:05 PM

    I shall miss Kathy Shaidle’s razor wit which she deployed with consummate aplomb in her blog and in her film reviews. My God grant her soul eternal rest.

  • Stargazer January 12, 2021, 12:14 PM

    This brought to mind a self-written obituary several years ago by another woman: I was born. I blinked. I died. Life is short and gets shorter every day.

  • ghostsniper January 12, 2021, 2:21 PM

    Where is this from?

    “I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.”

  • LP January 12, 2021, 7:15 PM

    ghostsniper, Your quote is from Humphrey Bogart

  • Redstickrant January 12, 2021, 8:22 PM

    Back in the Late Cretaceous, when the blogosphere just started to cool and law professors still drank puppy smoothies, Kathy somehow found my (now long deceased) blog – and actually gave me a shout-out a couple of times. Was thrilled to get such an accolade from a “famous” blogger, especially one of her caliber. She even friended me on Linkedin. I have no idea why. I will miss her movie reviews and gratuitously rarefied snark.

    So Godspeed, Kathy. I know the Lord has need of you now, but you will be missed here on this mortal coil. My prayers go out – to your spirit, to your husband, and also to God; the latter because I’m sure He will have his hands full with ‘Five Feet of Fury.’

  • David January 12, 2021, 10:18 PM

    “I was born when you kissed me. I died when you left me. I lived a few weeks while you loved me.”

    ― Dorothy B. Hughes, In a Lonely Place

  • Gordon Scott January 13, 2021, 9:34 AM

    Had she lived 20 years earlier, she would have had a nice column-writing job at a major newspaper, perhaps a syndication. But Craigslist and Google killed the newspapers, and now Andrew Yang proposes that the corpses be given massive government subsidies.

    I could foresee a revival of local newspapers, headed by iconoclastic editors and stubborn publishers. But AmaGoowitook would likely find a way to make newsprint illegal, or make interstate transportation of it a felony. “So sorry, comrade, but barrels of ink? We are not allowed to sell them to you, as they are petroleum-based. Global warming, you know.”

  • bilejones January 16, 2021, 3:42 PM

    Depending on the obedience of the wife, my tombstone may read
    “Beneath this Sod there lies another.”
    Who knows? I wont.