A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

JIM HENSON, YOU HAVE SOME COMPETITION: Legendary NYT reporter R.W. "Johnny" Apple planned his own memorial service before he passed away in October, and it was quite a celebration:

Yesterday the event he wished for unfolded with appropriate grandeur at the Kennedy Center, whose Eisenhower Theater barely held the crowd of celebrating mourners, and whose North Terrace accommodated a post-service buffet to remember. Apple would have savored the spread laid on by 21 of the Washington area's best restaurants, and lubricated by the wines of 20 American vineyards. Apple apparently knew the proprietors of all 41 -- and of course had sampled their production, in all likelihood prodigiously. Had he been able to partake, Apple would have particularly liked the huge fresh oysters flavored with generous dollops of real Russian caviar provided by Patrick O'Connell of the Inn at Little Washington.

It wasn't a state funeral, exactly: no pomp, no men in uniform. Perhaps you could call it an estate funeral -- fourth estate. This isn't a known category, it couldn't be -- to the best of your correspondent's knowledge, there has never been an analogous event, and there will never be another. Like Raymond Walter Apple Jr., the memorial service was sui generis. How many great political writers were also great food writers? How many reporters became famous, really famous, for the immensity of their expense accounts?

The service, featuring 13 eulogists, will air later on C-SPAN.