Yesterdays Times carried an obituary of someone described, right in the headline, as larger than life. In this case the obituarist clearly meant it both literally & metaphorically. Since the man died well before his time, as some would say (how do they know when is the right time for each & every individual?) it is easy to imagine that, in these days of war on the overweight, such a phrase may become taboo, even as a euphemism.
But which of us, secretly & at least for some of the time, does not wish to be described as larger than life, in the metaphorical sense of course
This reminded me of a weekend piece on the radio also about obituary euphemisms. I thus learned for the first time that there is a subtly different alternative to that discreet post mortem outing He never married
For anyone who, for a whole possible variety of personal or social reasons, found that marriage was something which they either could not, or never wished to, embark upon, the correct phrase is: He died unmarried
I wish I had known that earlier – I could have avoided some minor embarrassments
