Like a baccarat player holding his cards close to his tuxedo, the buttoned-down headline barely hints at the payout to come: “John Fairfax, Who Rowed Across Oceans, Dies at 74,” the New York Times header states yawningly.
But there was more to John Fairfax’s life — so much more that Gawker immediately published a list of the seven best lines in his magnificent obituary, penned by the Times’s inimitable Margalit Fox.
“At nine, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At thirteen, he lit out for the Amazon jungle,” Fox’s obit begins, and only gets better. “To please his mother, who did not take kindly to his being a pirate, he briefly managed a mink farm, one of the few truly dull entries on his otherwise crackling résumé, which lately included a career as a professional gambler.”
Great stuff, but in the adventuring world Fairfax is best known for his ocean-rowing achievements. In 1969 he became the first person to row solo across
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