Nick Catucci contemplates our collective grief for Whitney Houston:
[W]hat all those gestures really spoke to was the discovery, however fleeting, of a common ground in an increasingly fragmented world of cultural exchange. It’s a similar impulse that sparks Twitter trends whenever a more minor celebrity dies — a group of people basically recognize each other for being aware of the same person, and for noticing news of their passing. What’s being called mourning here is in some ways a simple celebration of a celebrity. But more than anything, it is a hunt for connection between non-celebrities.
Megan Garber measures the very short window for doing so. Liel Leibovitz takes a page from the Jewish book of mourning. My own remembrance here.
The Dish 