Dead Crickets Society

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The Salt Lake Tribune's Sean P. Means has compiled a list of 27 film crickets who've been fired, retired, reassigned, pushed into freelance servitude or taken buyouts -- in short, whacked -- over the last two years. Not included are critics who died over that period (Good Morning America's Joel Siegel, Arizona Republic's Bill Muller) or critics "whose print publications were shot out from under them (e.g., Glenn Kenny, who continues at Premiere.com now that Premiere magazine has folded)."

This list has the same vibe as those occasional articles about military deaths in Iraq having reached a certain round number. The next big dead-cricket piece will happen when the tally reaches 50, I suppose. Hey, that's an Esquire article. Get Jack Mathews, Kevin Thomas, Jami Bernard, Philip Wuntch, Dennis Lim, Michael Atkinson, Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Michael Wilmington, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Jan Stuart, Gene Seymour, Bruce Newman, Nathan Lee and David Ansen to pose in a big wide-angle group shot and get them to talk about the whys and wherefores of the New Reality, what it's like to live a different life, how they've adapted, etc.