Absurd Singularity

A report from the SF Chronicle on what the dead football player’s brother said at his memorial:

Tillman's youngest brother, Rich, wore a rumpled white T-shirt, no jacket, no tie, no collar, and immediately swore into the microphone. He hadn't written anything, he said, and with the starkest honesty, he asked mourners to hold their spiritual bromides.

"Pat isn't with God,'' he said. "He's f -- ing dead. He wasn't religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's f -- ing dead.''

Oddly, the AP cleaned it up quite a bit:

Once the out-of-towners stopped talking, and invoking the almighty and patriotism and all of that, the people from San Jose were allowed to speak. And the honesty came out.

"Thank you for coming," said Richard Tillman, who was Pat Tillman's younger brother. "But with all respect to those who have been up here before me, Pat's not with God. He's not religious."

The Washington Post managed to be accurate, respectful and illuminating at the same time.

The family and friends of Pat Tillman, most of whom remained respectfully silent after the former Arizona Cardinals safety was killed last month while fighting in Afghanistan, came together Monday for a public memorial service that was at once moving, humorous, and, at times, sweetly profane.

Later:

"He had a Christmas sweater and pink slippers and kimono; he wore them together. And he'd often talk about how blond his hair was. When it was cool to have it short, he wore it long. And when it was cool to have it long, he wore it short. He was tremendously proud of his mono-brow, which I never really got. And he thought there was a conspiracy by all those people who were tall against those who were short, like him."