Relationship Obituaries

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in mourning a victim of heartless emotions. The ultimate cause of death: incompatible TV viewing habits.

Welcome to the world of Relationship Obituaries, a Web site where users can mourn the passing of their romantic ties.

The site, designed like a newspaper, has even spawned a book.

Causes of relationship death span the serious ("his heart went cold"), the blunt ("his stupidity") and the lighthearted ("we had the horsepower of a snail").

Radio reporter Kathleen Horan came up with the idea after she and her boyfriend broke up. Shortly after the breakup, Horan's father died.

She found a sense of comfort in writing her father's obituary, and decided to find out whether that kind of comfort could be gained through a relationship obit.

Between Relationship Obituaries and Dear Old Love (yesterday's blog post), the Internet is rich with opportunities give a relationship written closure -- if you believe such a thing exists.

Are these sites comforting, or do they only extend an obsession with a relationship that's already dead and gone?