Among the participants in last night's D'Arcy McGee dinner were historian Roger Hall and journalist Sandra Martin, the latter of whom mentioned to me that she had written the Globe and Mail's long Saturday obituary article on political scientist John Meisel, who for his work on the history of Canadian elections deserves note here.
Also it's a gem of an obituary, well worth reading and not looking the least bit hasty. I didn't know John Meisel but I like him already.
Writer to writer, Sandra grumbled a little about having to push out a long obituary article on a very tight deadline. I said that surely for someone prominent and aged 102, as Meisel was, the Globe and Mail would have had a draft obituary prepared long ago.
Does not happen, she told me. You gotta die to attract the attention of Canada's national newspaper, apparently. Whodathunkit.
