In Los Angeles by way of the Big Easy. Started delivering furniture at age 17. I installed my first Murphy bed that year, and the customer said there was no way they were sleeping in that "clamshell deathtrap", hence my name. 20 some years later and I own 22 Murphy bed stores and not one death!
I agree with BLP. But not in the same way others respect it. As a businessman, I don't adhere to rules for fear of litigation. I respect rules because they are created and adhered to because they were forged out of ethics and moral fiber. All biographies should be held to the same high standards. The dead cannot retort, and even though a subject is deceased, we still must give credence to the relatives, the loved ones, and the estate. The idea that once someone is no longer living, does not create in me a feeling that BLP should no longer apply. It goes beyond fear of libel - it delves into what is best for us, as editors. We should strive to source everything and anything that we write, regardless of a person's status. We should strive to make a living biography as bullet-proof as a biography of one who is deceased. Living or not, we are talking about the legacy of an individual. With that, we must take more care, more caution, and more insight with editing such as article. While toy may not have a problem with unsourced statements, people, living or dead, deserve to be treated with the core aspect of article creation - which is to source each and every single statement with fervor and interest.
