We prefer to mourn in solitude, and basically prefer everything in near-solitude due to a slight case of agoraphobia and premature elderliness, so we didn't make it over to the Bored To Death wake at the Brooklyn Inn last night. That doesn't mean we don't care! But looking at today's recaps we can say that we made the right decision, you know, for us, as internet chatter suggests the place was packed, with a line around the block. So plenty of people were there to surround Jonathan Ames and John Hodgman with love, including FIPS, who just posted a hilarious interaction with Hodgman himself. In it, he discusses everyone's favorite movie theater, the Pavilion: more ›

Yesterday, a wake was held for two victims of last Saturday's Chinatown bus crash in the Bronx. Ock Thling Wong, 83, and his wife, May Ling Wong, had emigrated from China over 50 years ago; NY1 reports they had "many children and grandchildren, and were well-known in their community." His nurse said, "He's very nice. Both of them are very very nice. just the nicest people you can meet. And they're down to Earth. And it's such a tragedy for them—for the family." more ›

Police sources revealed today that in addition to the knife wounds to his abdomen and neck, Nicaraguan Diplomat Cesar Mercado had drain fluid in his system when he died. While the findings support the NYPD's theory that Mercado died of a suicide, they have yet to rule out homicide as the cause of death. Last night, friends and family gathered at the Ortiz Funeral Home in Washington Heights for Mercado's wake, and his sister told NY1 that they don't believe he would have taken his own life. "Until the authorities tell us otherwise we will continue to believe that there was a homicide in this case." more ›

Yesterday, Danielle Edwards, widow of the off-duty cop Omar Edwards who was killed in a police "friendly fire" incident last week, was among the hundreds of mourners at the Woodward Funeral Home for her husband's wake. The Daily News said she sat in the third row with her two young sons, "the grief of lost love [was] etched on her face," and the NY Times noticed how "two drawings from his toddler son — jagged scribbles on plain white paper — were clipped together and placed on the satiny white interior of the casket, near a gold plaque that read 'Omar J. Edwards, 1984-2009.'" Leonid Timoshenko, whose police officer son Russel was killed during a 2007 traffic stop, paid his respects, telling the Post, "We're united in pain." Today is the second day of Omar Edwards' wake; tomorrow is the funeral at Our Lady of Victory Church on Throop Avenue in Brooklyn. He will be buried in East Farmingdale. more ›

At the beginning of this week, actress Natasha Richardson was readying to take what turned out to be a fateful trip down the bunny hill at a ski resort in Canada. Now at week's end the Daily News reports that she's "embarked on her final journey." This morning, Richardson's body, in a wooden casket, was transported from Greenwich Village Funeral Home on Bleecker Street, to the American Irish Historical Society on 5th Avenue for a private wake held at 2 p.m. It's been rumored that she will be buried in Millbrook, NY, where the family had a home and Richardson belonged to the St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church. Prior to today's sad goodbye, the Tony award winner's husband, Liam Neeson, went to Broadway last night, where the lights were dimmed in tribute to his wife. The couple fell in love there while co-starring in "Anna Christie" in 1993. Though he came and left alone, reportedly Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, and actor Fisher Stevens were seen with him before he "walked by himself through an alley and drove away." more ›