It may sound odd, but we cats are big fans of funerals that are done well.
If we had to pick the two best funerals that we've seen, either on TV or online, we'd have to say that Katharine Graham's is probably in in the number-one spot — with Jack Layton's a close second.
Take your pick: A-list stars from the US political, academic and journalistic worlds vying to make the pithiest quotes at the first, or the Youngbloods' "Get Together" and Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" at the second. (We cats are loyal Americans, but we have to admit that in our heart of hearts, we're leaning toward Layton's.)
Third runner-up might be Pierre Trudeau's Montreal rites in the fall of 2000. Not only did you have Jimmy Carter and Fidel Castro sitting a pew or two apart from one another, but there was also that lovely eulogy by Trudeau's son Justin, which has made it into "best Canadian speeches" anthologies. Great stuff.
And now, perhaps the latest entry into the race? Could it be none other than the funeral of a monarch who died a mere 530 years ago?
Yep, believe it or not, the citizens of Leicester, England, buried Richard III today. After half a millennium of scorn — heaped on by some incomparable Shakespearean poetry — the newly discovered remains of one of the sceptr'd isle's least-regarded kings were buried after years ignominious entombment under a car park.
We have no idea if any UK celebs jockeyed with one another to pay tribute at today's services. But we think it's really hard to compete with the stature of a funeral for a king who had gone missing for so long. Especially one who was so astonishingly discovered and identified, and in so short a time.
Every now and then, we Americans are reminded that our history as a country is laughably short. It's always jarring, because we've had such an outsized influence on everything, from wars to business to culture. But today was one of those days.
When Richard III was fighting at Bosworth and when Shakespeare was setting down his immortal lines, America was just a continent of green dark forests, too silent to be real. Hello, perspective! We cats PURR.
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