It started at a recent lunch with Annette, who at various times was my editor and my boss. I told her my idea for my own memorial service. After I'd been dead, say, two weeks, I wanted my friends to gather in a sticky bar and hold a full-blown roast. No sentimentality, no hugging, no tears. Just one unabashed "he was such an asshole" story after another.
Annette perked up. "You're stupid if you don't do this while you're still alive," she replied. Annette's feedback always includes some variation on my being stupid.
"I mean, don't you want to be there for this?"
It was shortly after that conversation that I thought of having Ex Week on this page. Get an ex-girlfriend, an ex-friend, an ex-boss, an ex-subordinate, and an ex-editor to serve up their "he was such an asshole" stories. The idea's never really gone away, especially during weeks like this one where all of the ideas in my queue are difficult to write.
I'll see what interest I can drum up.
Since that conversation, I quietly nixed the idea of my posthumous roast. It was all too easy to imagine my two childless friends sitting in an otherwise empty bar, everyone else skipping the event because it couldn't be held at their house.