A memorial service for Elden Carnahan, father of Loserdom
Elden turned a newspaper humor contest into an obsessive competition and a lasting social community.
I’m waking up this dormant newsletter for a moment to share the news with the Loser Community — contestants and fans of The Invitational (nee The Style Invitational) — that a memorial service for Elden Carnahan, the guiding force behind the Invite for almost thirty years as the center of what we now call a social community, will be held July 15 at 2 p.m. at Laurel Presbyterian Church, 7610 Sandy Spring Road, Laurel, Md.
Elden died on June 13 of a brain tumor that was diagnosed about a year earlier. He spent that final year trying everything to fight it, then turning his remaining energy to passing along his enormous role as the Losers’ archivist, statistician, event coordinator, and more to a whole team of successors, and then to sharing a series of funny, wry reminiscences on a blog called Days of Wine, Roses and Vasectomies.
There’s a tribute to Elden by Gene Weingarten and me in this week’s Invitational at The Gene Pool at geneweingarten.substack.com.
Condolences may be sent to Mary Carnahan and the family at 327 Montgomery St., Laurel MD 20707. I’ll announce any further details in the Style Invitational Devotees group, and perhaps in The Invitational itself, in the coming weeks. Also, feel free to contact me personally at myerspat@gmail.com if you’d like me to email you with further details as I learn them.
Pat
Thank you for keeping us up to date, I am sure so many of us/you are still trying to process the loss.