May 2013
12 posts
Makeup Said Part Of Death Ritual For Royals In... →
Death didn’t mean the end of beauty for pre-Hispanic civilizations in what is now Mexico. A new study finds that ancient Teotihuacans likely exhumed the dead and painted them with cosmetics during periodic remembrance rituals.
Where Not To Die In 2013 →
Think you don’t have to worry about estate taxes because of the new generous federal estate tax law? Not so, for families in 21 states and the District of Columbia where separate state levies are still a big concern.
Louisiana Cemeteries Sinking Along The Gulf Coast,... →
Local residents say 11 cemeteries in Jefferson Parish have repeatedly flooded since Hurricane Katrina. In Lafourche, Terrebonne and Plaquemines parishes, more than a dozen others have succumbed to tidal surge. Some have more than 300 gravesites.
A Shocking Death, a Financial Lesson and Help for... →
After Chanel Reynolds’s 43-year-old husband died in a bicycling accident, she had to suddenly face the financial tasks that grown-ups are supposed to have completed by middle age.
Men Twice As Likely To Lie About A Death To Get... →
Bereavement time has been used for vacation by 26 percent of workers surveyed and jury duty by 27 percent, according to a quarterly survey conducted by Adecco Group North America.
Phony funeral lands ex-mortician in prison →
When the casket that was supposed to hold the earthly remains of “Jim Davis” was finally lowered into the ground, the only thing missing was the late Mr. Davis. The coffin had been weighed down to simulate the approximate heft of a corpse. And Davis was not inside the box.
Flanders Rushes To Repair Cemeteries Ahead Of... →
About 2,000 headstones will be replaced with new ones, identical to the originals. Those to be replaced are marked in the corner with a small red X. Another 7,000 stones will be re-engraved. The rows of stones will be realigned into geometric perfection, the landscaping trimmed and renewed.
Oscar Wilde’s Tomb Sealed From Admirers’ Kisses →
Recently, descendants of Wilde, the Irish dramatist and wit who died here in 1900, decided to have his immense gravestone cleansed of a vast accumulation of lipstick markings from kisses left by admirers, who for years have been defacing, and some say eroding, the memorial in hilly Père Lachaise Cemetery here. But the decision meant not only cleaning the stone, a flying nude angel by the sculptor...
April 2013
19 posts
Virtual grieving: Funerals via webcast →
Can’t make it to the funeral of a loved one or friend because of the distance? Now all you need is an Internet hookup — and the secure link.
Jewish Tombstones Found In Greece's Thessaloniki →
In a find that local Jewish groups have described as highly significant, Greek police said Thursday that hundreds of marble headstones and other fragments from Jewish graves destroyed during the Nazi occupation in World War II have been recovered.
Men Twice As Likely To Lie About A Death To Get... →
Bereavement time has been used for vacation by 26 percent of workers surveyed and jury duty by 27 percent, according to a quarterly survey conducted by Adecco Group North America.
Map Reveals Former Gravesites Hidden Beneath San... →
San Francisco has long been a spooky town. Our Barbary Coast was a den of murder and crime, our serial killers have inspired blockbusters, Alfred Hitchcock regularly featured our landmarks and the largest mass suicide in history started on Geary Blvd. And with this handy map of the city’s historical cemeteries—now buried beneath our apartments and buildings—our lovely city gets...
What to Say (and Not to Say) to a Grieving Person →
Silly statements like, “You now have an angel in heaven.” Blaming statements like, “Were they wearing safety belts?” or “Had they been drinking?” Yes to the safety belts. No to the drinking. One lady came to the wake and informed me with a twinkle in her eye that “Scott appeared to me last night and said to let you know that he was fine.” I thought...
Chinese Student Fakes Funeral To Enjoy Life →
There’s nothing like dying to get a fresh perspective on life, at least that’s what one 22-year-old recently learned.
7 Writers Who Died Young →
In the cases where the writers knew of their impending deaths, it’s worth considering how much that knowledge informed their work, while in the cases of an unexpected death, we can only wonder how much more these writers could’ve accomplished with a longer life.
Glass Artwork Made From Cremated Human Remains... →
Some people might be disturbed by the fact that thrift stores are filled with objects once owned by people now deceased. But how would those people feel if they knew the actual remains of the dead were available for purchase as well?
Expanding hallowed ground at West Point cemetery →
The West Point Cemetery has taken in graduates of the Long Gray Line from the age of the cavalry charge to the dawn of drone strikes. Headstones etched with names like Custer and Westmoreland stand near plots with freshly turned earth. And after almost two centuries, the 12-acre cemetery is close to full.
'Dead' Prostitute Comes Back To Life After Being... →
A prostitute in Bulowayo, Zimbabwe, is bringing new meaning to the term “killer sex” after authorities thought she died during an encounter with a customer. However, she came back to life just as officials placed her in a metal coffin.
Ukranian Helps Customers Rest In Peace With New... →
Stepan Piryanyk, an enterprising funerary box maker in Truskavets, offers afterlife-fearing patrons the opportunity to rest in peace with a session of coffin therapy.
Where'd You Get that Shirt? →
That living man comes home and places the dead man’s clothes in the laundry. I drive them to the cleaner’s and send others through the wash. I dry them in the sun. I run the iron over them, I take them into the closet. I find them hangers. I add them again to rest of the living man’s clothing, making a space for the linen shirt among the white dress shirts, for the aloha shirt among the...
TLC Orders 'Best Funeral Ever' to Series →
For most of us, death is a time to mourn. But for others, it’s a time to honor loved ones and celebrate their lives with home-going celebrations, services that turn the traditional funeral on its head. In its first season, BEST FUNERAL EVER goes inside the Dallas-based Golden Gate Funeral Home where John Beckwith Jr. and his staff organize the most unique ceremonies in the country, proving once...
March 2013
24 posts
Ancient Bones That Tell a Story of Compassion →
In Vietnam, archaeologists say, a Stone Age community took care of a man who couldn’t take care of himself.
Zefrey Throwell Paints With Meth And Father's... →
The US-based provocateur is now showing his second series of works formed from this most morbid of media, entitled “Panic in the Chalk Cave,” which is slang for the descent into drug addiction.
There Are Over 200 Bodies on Mount Everest, And... →
The mountain offers seemingly endless options for kicking the bucket, from falling into the abyss to suffocating from lack of oxygen to being smashed by raining boulders. Yet climbers continue to try their skills – and luck – in tackling Everest, despite the obvious dangers. Indeed, the living pass the frozen, preserved dead along Everest’s routes so often that many bodies have earned nicknames...
Dad Gets His Child's Cremated Remains After 26... →
A man has been reunited with the ashes of his baby daughter more than 25 years after she died, thanks to a chance encounter and the work of a coroner’s office in the Chicago metro area.
“Legally I am a ‘widow’ — that is the box I must check. But beyond that — I am...”
– (via vmburkhardt)
Plague Graves Unearthed: Rail Dig May Shed Light... →
During excavations for a rail project in London, archaeologists found a graveyard which might hold the remains of some 50,000 people killed by the “Black Death” plague more than 650 years ago
Baby Reportedly Sent To Morgue Alive By Mistake,... →
A premature baby born in a hospital in Brazil was reportedly sent to the morgue while still alive. The child later died after the staff was unable to revive him.
Medieval Knight Found Under Parking Lot In... →
Archeologists this week announced the discovery of an unidentified medieval knight’s skeleton buried along with several other bodies under a Scottish parking lot.
New book reveals spine-chilling true stories of... →
Until the medical advances of the 20th century, methods of determining death were far from reliable and could involve applying hot bread to the soles of the feet to check for reactions.
China Ghost Marriages: Grave-Robbers Sold Corpses... →
Four people have been jailed in China for digging up corpses to sell as brides for traditional “ghost marriages” — where dead single men are buried with a wife for the afterlife — local reports said.
The strange art of death →
Hundreds of works from a unique personal collection devoted to the iconography of death are now on show at the Wellcome Collection in London. Take a look at some of the artefacts and artwork amassed by American Richard Harris - with Wellcome Collection curator Kate Forde.
Frieke Janssens' 'Your Last Shot' Captures Your... →
The artist writes on her website, “As a photographer, I feel that the moment when one reflects about their own death is a precious moment to be shared and portrayed.”
