There was a report that the BBC used 30 percent more of its prewritten obituaries (i.e., the ones they write up in advance for famous people in case they should happen to die) in 2016 than it had in 2015.

I would believe it. And on top of sheer numbers, so many of the people who died this year seemed to be personally important to people I knew—and to me. That was the strange part, that it wasn't just like losing pillars of the establishment or familiar features of the landscape, it was like losing the stars you always look for at the right time of night.