On Saturday evening on a ranch in Woody Creek, Colorado, the ashes of Hunter S. Thompson were blasted out of a cannon atop a 150-ft monument, carried to their final resting place by custom-made red, blue and silver fireworks. Then 350 of his closest friends remembered him with a party. On Sunday evening millions of viewers tuned in to HBO to see "Six Feet Under" fade to white in a poignant, moving final episode, as viewers choked up right along with the weary and woeful Fisher family (disclosure: I was one of them). The two couldn't be more different but I'm going to venture that the takeaway was the same: everybody dies, but before that, we all get to live.

In Memoriam: A song, of course.