The rituals we observe surrounding death and dying are quite interesting. Never more so than in Hollywood. I heard on the weekend that the actor who played Scotty, the engineer in Star Trek has had some of his ashes sent into space. Hmmm. I won't ask why?; the answer seems blindingly obvious; in the words of PT Barnum "There's a sucker born every minute"...or, in this case dies every minute. Your job is to get your money out the their survivor's grief soaked wallets.
Not that the rituals surrounding death have ever really made any sense. Why would Tutankhamen need to be buried with his riches (and hundreds of perfectly healthy retainers)-don't they take Egyptian Express in the afterlife? Ditto the buried army (nice blog images here).
Apparently Walt Disney was cryogenicly frozen. Uncle Walt had a checquered relationship with his animators - alternately locking them out when they struck for better pay and work conditions and dobbing them into to senator McCarthy's 'Reds under the bed' witch hunts of the 50s. They said that Disney had been frozen 'to make him a warmer human being'
Nearly died laughing when I read that.
Don't think me morbid, but I have my own epitaph worked out -
"Here goes nothing".
With luck and a diet high in fibre I won't need it for a while.
I know the post was about death and I should be suitably sombre but your epitaph reminded me of this joke I had heard long time ago...
ReplyDeleteWhat will be incribed on a hypochondriacs grave?
-
-
-
-
See