Think about this:
In moments when he may have contemplated his demise, do you think Sir David Frost could ever have imagined that one in a continuous line of the British prime ministers he'd interviewed would send a "tweet of condolence" upon hearing of Frost's death?
It is a measure of the great journalist's storied career, terminated by his death of a heart attack on a cruise ship, that his life of communicating stretched from television to tweeting.
David Frost was only 74 when he died Saturday night on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth, where he was to have entertained fellow passengers with a speech. The ship was en route to the 
Mediterranean, on a 10-day cruise, and more than his fellow passengers were shocked by his death.
Among them Prime Minister David Cameron, whose tweet read, in part:
"Sir David was an extraordinary man – with charm, wit, talent, intelligence and warmth in equal measure. He made a huge impact on television and politics. He could be, and certainly was with me, both a friend and a fearsome interviewer."
For us, his connection to people who write about cruising goes beyond the fact that he died on a ship, because those of us who write about cruising often interview people on ships and his style of getting to the point was masterful. Sometimes criticized for being "soft" but those who knew him say that was only a reflection of Frost the man and his quality as a human being.
Another British PM, Tony Blair, put it this way to The Guardian on the weekend:
"He had an extraordinary ability to draw out the interviewee, knew exactly where the real story lay and how to get at it, and was also a thoroughly kind and good-natured man. Being interviewed by him was always a pleasure, but also you knew that there would be multiple stories the next day arising from it."
The Frost way — and this man was much more than an interviewer — was applied to sessions with seven U.S. Presidents and six British Prime Ministers, the most famous of which was getting Richard Nixon to admit to some blame for Watergate for the first time. His way was to get to the tough questions by being nice, as opposed to being confrontational, and interviewers at any level could learn from it.
Even those interviewing cruise-ship captains.
Photo credit: Chatham House
Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas
4 nights
November 4, 2013
Port Canaveral (return): CocoCay, Nassau
Oceanview: $299
Cost per day: $74
www.royalcaribbean.com