On 05/10/2007, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I once talked to a librarian at a major news
organization here in the U.S.;
one of the most interesting things I learned was that a big part of her job
was doing biographical research on older famous people considered "likely to
die soon" -- so that when they actually did bite the dust, there would have
a nice obit ready to go. Apparently most news organizations do this.
The BBC's such department, legend has it, is known within the
Corporation as "the Department of Stiffs"...