Saying goodbye with a laugh: The Jay Lake Wake

Astonishingly, our busy travel schedule this summer allowed me to attend an important event for a dear friend of mine, Jay Lake’s “live wake.” Anyone who knows Jay won’t be surprised that he would rather go out with a bang than a whimper, and the wake was certainly in the category of “bang” — and luckily, it looks as if it won’t be the last.

To begin the proceedings, Jay was carried into the room in a coffin.

After which he rose from the dead with a typically Jay-like gesture of triumph.

The...