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“Departed”? By which train?

“Deceased”? Fancy-shmancy!

Can’t we finally get rid of 19th-century euphemisms & recognize that death is the inevitable end of mortal life? What’s wrong with “dead” and “died”? They imply nothing about any postdeath state, other than complete separation from interaction with the “living.” [This does bar discussion of ghosts, but Reed Magazine has a supposedly knowledgeable readership.]

Wm. D. Fountain ’61

Carlsbad, California