Though some fascinating individuals have passed away in recent days — from jazz pianist Oscar Peterson to the oldest WWI veteran to Laura Huxley, wife and biographer of Aldous Huxley — it’s also been a time for bizarre send-offs of all varieties. Jay-Z said Monday that he will leave his post as president of Def Jam Records after his contract expires this year, just days after Sacha Baron Cohen announced that he’d retired his Borat and Ali G characters. Chicago sports fans, take note: Bulls head coach Scott Skiles was handed the pink slip on Christmas Eve, and there’s plenty to say farewell to — from Super Bowl hopes to the passing of Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz — in the Chicago Sun-Times‘ Big Ten moments of the year in sports. The staff of ABC News in Chicago bids farewell to their studio wall. The neediest of New Orleans are dealt another blow, as demolition crews prepare to level 218 public housing buildings amid protests. Back in the sporting world, Jack Shafer of Slate writes about the migration of sports reporters to ESPN. The Washington Post asks if it’s time to put Cubism behind us. Salon wonders if the gadget of the year, the iPhone, is already past its prime. How soon we forget… But perhaps the strangest way to say goodbye comes from an Oregon man who continues to send holiday cards from the afterlife. And AP reports that Fidel Castro, never one for goodbyes, “remains on the mend, gaining weight, exercising twice a day and continuing to help make the Cuban government’s top decisions, his brother Raul Castro says.”