I enjoy checking the obituaries. Not a complete morbid nut, obituaries celebrate life rather than death [hackneyed...] example Norman Heatley. Here's a guy I had no idea about, but clearly I / we all owe much. So thanks to him.
The Times obituaries, before they went behind the irritating pay for subscription wall, are by far the best (Telegraph's fine, but they do like their war heros and military men. Stories of great bravery that remind me of my childhood comics.) But for me obits are a slice of history: a scientist, next to a sporting great, a school teacher, actor, civic leader. Often seemingly quite ordinary people who have helped shape (usually British) life.
The Telegraph's been running obituaries since the early 1960s, The Times much longer. Might be an interesting use of UK Lottery money to put them all online, a catalogued archive, searchable, indexed. The Telegraph produces books of its best (e.g. "The "Daily Telegraph" Book of Obituaries: Heroes and Adventurers"), but a full archive online would be interesting.
(I do pay for online sites, but The Times is just too expensive for my needs -- when so much is free, like this wonderful new site Digital Guardian)
