From: Shez Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 01:52:20 +0000 Subject: Death of Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst In addition to what Daev has reported, there are a couple of other obits that were posted to Darkpaths-L, which I attach below. This text and the one Daev posted are also available from the Stop Press item on my homepage, with the embedded weblinks made "live". Or just click here: - -Shez. ============ Subj: Kerry Thornley. Date: 12/2/98 12:35:37 PM PST From: Fnordian To: Fnordian BCC: MrsTrotsky Greetings, my fellow lovers of Eris- I'm sending this out because I wanted to make sure everyone heard the news about the death of Kerry Thornley. As you surely know, Kerry was one of the co-authors of the Principia Discordia. As Sondra's attached email notes, there will be a memorial in Atlanta on December fifth. For those of you who can't make it, the Erisian Saint Vinge has pointed out that December 8th is Afflux, which would be a very fitting day to remember Lord Omar. Let's make December 8th the one day where we all acknowledge that Kerry went down but that we still have a few sucker punches left in us yet. Take a few moments that day to write something or paint something or sing something or tell a stranger she's beautiful or prank the hell out of your friends or go see a band or visit a museum or simply resolve to Feel the Disco-Love, Baby. (Throwing a party and/or laughing your ass off wouldn't hurt, either.) Someday, someone will be writing obituaries for you and me; let's give 'em something ridiculous to fill out the column. The Nonprophet is dead. Long live the nonprophecy. Source: The Beatus Ffungo http://www.concentric.net/~darkfox/main.html Sondra London's Obit: - ----------------------- Kerry Thornley Memorial Fifth - -------------------------------------- Sondra London 1998 S. London - ------------------- It is my sorrowful duty to report the loss of the Discordian Nonprophet sometimes known as Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst, Jesse Sump, the Grand Caliph of California and Ho Chi Zen, the author of Zenarchy and The Idle Warriors, co- author of the Principia Discordia, my dear close personal friend, Kerry Thornley. Kerry went into cardiac arrest after an extended illness at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia at about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, November 28, 1998. Team efforts to rescusitate him continued until approximately 1:15 a.m. when he was pronounced dead at age 60. Born April 17, 1938, Kerry Thornley is survived by his only son, Kreg Thornley, a young computer professional who wants the world to know little of him except that he is not "Kerry Junior," and is not involved in Kerry's politics or philosophies. His son loved him "as a dad." A service was held on Sunday morning, November 29, 1998 at a crematorium in Cobb County. Kerry's quiet remains were laid out on a hospital gurney. His body was draped with a green cotton cover, except for his face, which was unmarred and unretouched. He was cold and still. Among the five seated in the front row with his son were Kerry's former wife, Cara Thornley, who cared for him throughout his last year. Twenty-three participated in the Buddhist ceremony, which included meditations allowing the fetters which had bound Kerry to his suffering to be breathed in, and then released with the breath, along with prayers that his spirit be freed from confusion and pain and allowed to achieve its own true Illumination. Then a paper inscribed simply "Kerry Thornley" was burned while his spirit was chanted free. Part of his ashes will be scattered in the sea off the coast of Sonoma, as were his father's, and part will be scattered in a Discordian waterfall he called his home in his later days. Towards the end of his last visit to Little Five Points, when Kerry was ready to go home, he said he felt "like a tired child home from a very wild circus," alluding to his favorite passage from the Principia, this one penned by his co-author, Malaclypse the Younger, Greg Hill: "And so it is that we, as men, do not exist until we do; and then it is that we play with our world of existent things, and order and disorder them, and so it shall be that Non-existence shall take us back from Existence, and that nameless Spirituality shall return to Void, like a tired child home from a very wild circus." A Memorial Service is planned for the Fifth of December, a Saturday night, at 7:30 p.m. Those who are unable to give tribute to Kerry in person might take some time on Saturday the Fifth to bear in mind the legacy left by this mad genius whose ideas have affected so many lives. May Discordia disorder your memorials in ways only Eris could believe. - -- ____________________________________________________________ _____________ "When your brother leaves the residence of Being, he shall not reside again in Non-Being, but shall return to Me, Void, from whence he came. ... My son is your Brother and We are all of Myself." -- Void. ____________________________________________________________ _____________ Take a break at the Last Stop Cafe at ------------------------------