Oscar,
the Grim Reap-purrrrr!
Oscar, a hospice cat at Steere House Nursing and Rehab Center in
Providence, Rhode Island, predicts when patients are going to
die. Observed in 25 cases, he picks someone to befriend usually
less than four hours before they die. He sniffs and observes the
patient, and then sits by until the end. Doctors believe people
emit a substance that cats detect, just before they die. (Source:
Associated Press 7/27/07).
Don't
die in London! They just don't have the space!
As an island that's already 12 times more crowded than the U.S., England
barely has enough room to house its living residents anymore, let alone
its dead ones. And that's exactly why the British government has
just ruled that local authorities can re-use burial plots. There
are some stipulations: graves must be at least 100 years old - or 75
years old in places with severe space shortages - and surviving family
members must give the go-ahead. In order to re-use burial plots, a
technique known as "lift and deepen" will be employed through
which a coffin is exhumed and the grave deepened to create space so that
as many as six new coffins can be placed on top of the older remains.
(Source: Cox News Service, published in Chicago Tribune 7/24/07).
Who
gives a sh*t!!
News of the Weird (Chicago Reader, July 13, 2007) reports that the feces
of the late Italian artist Piero Manzoni, which he sealed inside a
limited run of 90 tins (labeled "merda d'artista," or
"artist's shit") in 1961, seems to have peaked in value in
1993 when a collector bought one of the 30-ounce tins for $75,000.
Last month, however, Agostino Bonalumi, a collaborator of Manzoni's at
the time the piece was conceived, told a Milan newspaper that the cans
really contained only plaster. A spokesperson for London's Tate
Gallery, which bought a tin in 2002 for about $33,000 (a bargain!),
assured reporters that the work would retain it's subversive power
regardless of the tins' actual contents.
What
would Elvis eat?
Richard Roeper of the
Chicago Sun-Times reports in his July 11, 2007 column that a Peanut
Butter & Banana Cream "Elvis Cup" will be released
by the Reese's Peanut Butter company in honor of the 30th anniversary of
Elvis Presley's Death (August 16, 1977).
HBO's
Entourage showcases cemetery
In Entourage episode #46: Sorry, Harvey, Ari Gold meets
writer-director M. Night Shyamalan at an undisclosed L.A. area cemetery
(not listed in the show's location credits) to share his new
screenplay. Shyamalan is there shooting a commercial, which will
probably be viewed by more people than for one of his films. (July,
2007).
Funeral
Sex Shows! Talk about putting the "fun" back into funerals!
In China, if you wanted to boost the turnout at funerals to show more
"honor" to the deceased, you hired a stripper or two. That's
what wealthy local villagers were doing in Jiangsu Province to lure more
mourners. But authorities recently prohibited such practices and
opened a "funeral misdeeds" hotline, with a $40 reward for
reporting violations. (Source: Parade magazine,
October29,
2006)
Death as a career
move UPDATE: Cobain now rules!
If you scroll down a few items, you'll see that Elvis has been the
long-time leader in the "revenue-generated by a dead celebrity
category." But that has now changed, thanks to a one-time
event. Kurt Cobain now leads the pack of dead celebs for the title
of top posthumous earner. Thanks to widow Courtney
Love's sale of 25% of his music catalog, Cobain now catapults ahead of
Elvis (income between October 2005 and October 2006, according to Forbes).
(Source: MSNBC, October24,
2006)
Grinny's
favorite
news story of 2006!:
Be
afraid! Be very, very afraid!
A Long Beach, California mortuary owner named Ken McKenzie has created a
new calendar for 2007 called, "Men of Mortuaries." It's
a full-color calendar with a cover featuring hunky, shirtless morticians
holding shovels while lowering a casket into the ground, mixing
"dark humor with dazzling smiles." McKenzie wants to
show that funeral directors have a sense of humor. For the calendar
and/or T-shirt for the "lucky stiff" on your holiday
gift-giving list, visit: http://www.menofmortuaries.com/
(Source: Chicago Tribune, October22,
2006)
NBC's
"The Office" Deals with Death
Michael learns about the death of his former boss, Ed Truck. The
former regional manager was decapitated and Michael laments, "(He
died) alone and out of the blue. Without his own head to comfort
him." Michael talks to the camera about the Five Stages of
Grief: 1) Denial; 2) Anger; 3) Bargaining; 4) Depression; and 5)
Acceptance. "I need to get them (his staff) all to
acceptance. If not acceptance, then just depression. If I can get
them depressed, I've done my job," he says with calm
confidence. But no one could possibly be depressed with this
laugh-filled episode. The group ultimately stages a funeral for a dead
bird, complete with a flaming shoe box funeral pyre. Michael says that
our society looks down on grief, "But there can be good
grief." He pauses and says solemnly, "Just ask
Charlie Brown." (Episode aired: 12 October
2006)
Death as a Career Move: ELVIS left the world
almost 30 years ago, but is still top
earner!
Elvis is still the king! Elvis Presley, the King of
Rock'n'Roll, was crowned top-earning
dead celebrity of the past 12 months, according to a list
compiled by Forbes magazine.
Presley earned a reported $52 million in
2005, followed by dearly departed Nirvana front man Kurt
Cobain, who committed suicide in 1994, with $50 million. Einstein,
who has been dead for more than 50 years, took in about $20 million in
2005, Forbes estimates. (Source: Chicago Tribune, June
16, 2006)
Rock
Stars should avoid travel by air
Walter Scott's Personality Parade in Parade
magazine reports that some 34 musicians (from the modern rock era alone)
have died in small plane (or helicopter) crashes starting with Buddy
Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper in 1959 to Aaliyah in
2001. Note: Waylon Jennings was scheduled to fly on Feb. 2,
1959 with Buddy Holly and the gang, but gave up his seat at the last
minute to J.P. Richardson. (Source: Parade
magazine, August 6, 2006)
What's
on Grinny's Reading Night Stand
NEW!
Philip Lister's Ghosts & Gravestones of
Haworth (Tempus Publishing Ltd.) provides a well-written,
meticulously researched tome about this Victorian countryside community
nestled in the steep hillsides of Yorkshire, England. The book
features haunting tales, 90 original photographs, graveyard maps,
and even a Graveyard Cookbook! For more information, visit Michael Nejman's To Die For! - Tomes of the Dead
Lisa Rogak's Stones and Bones of New England (Globe Pequot) provides a solid overview of cemeteries and the famous people buried in them in the New England area.
Patricia Schultz's 1,000 Places To See Before You Die
(Workman Publishing, NY,2003) provides a global view of the best the world
has to offer, provided you have enough frequent flier miles. A fun
book to flip through as you consider vacation ideas. The clock
is ticking, so get moving!
The
Future of the Funeral Industry
The International Cemetery and Funeral Association, a trade group representing some 6,500 cemeteries, funeral homes and crematories, gathered in Las Vegas in the spring of 2005 and announced the following trends for their industry:
-
Masses to Ashes: Cremation is becoming more popular, representing 30 percent of funerals today. It is expected to hit 45 percent by 2025. That could be because it's much cheaper, costing $1,500 compared to $7,000 burials on average.
-
Funeral broadcasts: Short digital movies of a person's life are being bought more frequently. The presentations can be played during a service, broadcast live over the Web or embedded in tombstones.
-
Bigger caskets: An increasing obese nation is leaving behind huskier mortal remains, prompting one casket company to roll out "plus-size" coffins.
(source: Chicago Tribune, May 2, 2005)
Hunter
S. Thompson's Memorial
Captured
on Film
The ashes of Hunter S.
Thompson were blasted from a cannon mounted inside a 53-foot-high
sculpture of the journalist's "gonzo fist" emblem. The cannon shot,
which took place in
August on the grounds of his Aspen-area home, fulfilled the writer's
long-cherished wish.
Thompson, 67, shot himself in the head on Feb. 20, 2005 after a flamboyant
career that produced the cult classic, "Fear and Loathing in Las
Vegas."
Fans got an inside view of this memorial service in a film directed
by Wayne Ewing. "When I Die" was shown at the Starz Denver
International Film Festival this past November (there's no update as to
when the film will be released on DVD). Johnny Depp paid the $2.6
million cost of the memorial. (source: Chicago Tribune,
November 8, 2005)
Corpse
No Easy Rider
Mexican police discovered that a passenger aboard a motorcycle involved in an accident in the border city of Tijuana was in fact a corpse the drive had been carrying through the city strapped to his back. The motorcycle driver lost control and skidded in the downtown area; when a police officer approached to investigate the mishap; the driver fled. The police officer checked the passenger, who had been seated behind the driver, and found it was a corpse of a man who had died sometime before. (source: Chicago Tribune, October 23, 2005)
Grinny's
vocabulary word for the day: taphophile
Meaning: People who have a passion for cemeteries.
Now, go use it in a sentence!
Orthodox
Church: Let's Bury Lenin
A top Russian Orthodox official declared this past November that
the church believes the body of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin should be
removed from a Red Square mausoleum and buried. With the 15th
anniversary of the death of the Soviet Union nearing, a debate has been
brewing on whether to bury Lenin's body, which has been on display in a
mausoleum just outside the Kremlin since 1924. Metropolitan Kirill,
who heads the church's external relations department, called the display
of the body, "an artificial phenomenon with some sort of very strange
mysticism."
(source: Chicago Tribune November 16, 2005)
Hughes'
Grave site continues to draw visitors
With the popularity of "The Aviator,"
there is renewed interest in Howard Hughes, and therefore, his
final resting place in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston. Hughes died
nearly three decades ago at age 72, from kidney disease, and is buried in
his family's plot. Yet another site for Grinny to visit...sigh! So
many cemeteries, so little time.
A
Tribute to the Legendary Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Dr. Elisabeth Kulber Ross, author of the 1969 blockbuster book On
Death and Dying, created the hospice system as we know it and
helped countless souls deal with death and dying. As Dr. Sherwin
Nuland, author of How We Die, summed it up: "With a
single book and a vigorous campaign of proselytizing, this remarkable
woman gave permission to an entire generation and its successors to speak
openly about our greatest fear." (Nuland quote from Time magazine,
September 6, 2004).
