Kabosu, of doge meme fame, has passed away. Atsuko Sato, Kabosu’s owner, noted, “Thank you all so much for loving Kabosu all these years. I am certain that Kabosu was the happiest dog in the world.”
I did a little tribute portrait, above, in appreciation for a very good girl who left an outsized mark on the world. The Japanese text, 安らかに眠ってください” (yasuraka ni nemutte kudasai), translates as “please sleep peacefully” or more naturally as “rest in peace”.
Obituaries are a funny thing. Their impact depends so much on the reader’s connection (or lack thereof) to the deceased. Most of the time, the announcements of some famous person passing that pop up in my smart phone notifications I have no idea who they were and don’t invest the time to read. As our world has widened, and channels by which audiences can access information and entertainment have multiplied, and media diets have personalized (audience fragmentation), there are fewer “universally” known figures than before.
At the same time, there are new and more pathways to “fame”, like being turned into a popular meme, which is how we get to there being articles covering Kabosu’s passing in all the outlets (much more than those I linked).
Anyway, I know there are some folks who like reading even the obituaries about not-famous local people. Do you read obituaries about people you don’t know? What interests you about them?
