Most of the explanations that occurred to me were comic, as were so many of the details on the stone. BORN IN SYRIA, 1897. DIED MAY 11, 1925. How’s that for parallelism? When you’re born, these lines implied, place is the important thing, so the calendar year’s specific enough. When you die, the exact date is the essential piece of information. It doesn’t much matter where, one place being as good as another.
