THE TERATOLOGY DEAD POOL: 2011 REDUX

I have made several New Year's Resolutions, but this is the only one I am sharing, because I have always found that resolutions are really about the person, to be known an striven for privately. I have a bad track record of publicizing all the ways I aim to improve myself in the coming year. It reeks of braggadocio and only sets one up for failure. For evidence, this post, an attempt to revive a failed resolution...

IN January, 2011, I created a list of people's graves that I wanted to visit. But, quite ironically enough, LIFE kind of got in the way. In the last three years, I've only made it only to the grave of Allen Ginsberg. For the first time in at least five years, I am optimistic about the coming year, and with a steady job, a steady apartment, and the will to do it, I am taking another crack at the 2011 Dead Pool.

There were 14 people listed originally. They were, in alphabetical order:

John Coltrane - Farmingdale, NY - Pinelawn Memorial Park

F. Scott Fitzgerald (and Zelda) - Rockville, MD - Saint Mary's Cemetery 

Robert Frost - Bennington, VT - Old Bennington Cemetery

Allen Ginsberg - Newark, NJ - Gomel Chesed Cemetery 

Spalding Gray - Sag Harbor, NY - Oakland Cemetery 

Dashiell Hammett and Charles Willeford - Arlington, VA - Arlington National Cemetery

Jack Kerouac - Lowell, MA  -  Edson Cemetery

H.P. Lovecraft - Providence, RI - Swan Point Cemetery 

Frank O'Hara - East Hampton, NY  - Green River Cemetery 

Edgar Allan Poe - Baltimore, MD, Westminster Burial Ground

Rod Serling - Interlaken, NY - Lake View Cemetery 

 Donald Westlake (a.k.a. Richard Stark) - ??? UNKNOWN ???

Walt Whitman  - Camden, NJ - Harliegh Cemetery

Two weeks ago I learned that Donald Westlake was cremated and his ashes were scattered on his property in the Hudson Valley, which removes him from the list. I've been to Ginsberg's grave twice, and I will go again if possible, but for the sake of this post, I will remove him as well.

That makes 12. One for every month. As I said three years ago, if you see someone on the list that you'd be interested in, by all means, the cemetery is just as interesting with the living.