Had to happen sooner or later: Caskets and funeral planning are coming to the mall. 

CBS News reports that Forest Lawn - cemetery of the stars - has established kiosk sales points in SoCal suburban malls.

The death business might be in decline if they're coming out from behind shuttered and curtained "funeral homes" and setting up consultation centers in commercial shopping centers.  Will this mean more transparency in the American business model of fleecing relatives of the dead with overpriced sateen and velour lined boxes sealed in expensive hardwood coffins and even more expensive metal containers?  So wasteful.  

Jessica Mitford's milestone investigation The American Way of Death points out that while the death industry might try different window dressing, it is still  bunko.  Funeral directors and their ghoulish henchmen the embalmers, need more regulation.  Competition should be encouraged; Americans need a low-priced option  -- simple containers and inexpensive burial or cremation options.
Embalming is not necessary and not required in many locations.

Intelligent and eco-sensitive folks can arrange burials efficiently and relatively waste-free with a cardboard casket or natural burial at many locations.

Meanwhile, a company called Til We Meet Again which specializes in lifestyle caskets and military funerals, has opened stores in Arizona, Louisiana, Kansas, Indiana and Texas, according to the CBS report and the company's website.

Stack the Deck

A Labor Member of Parliament from Scotland proposed in 1996 that London opt for double-decker graves to accommodate its problem of overcrowded cemeteries.

The plan to deal with over-crowded cemeteries with double decker graves was finally approved in 2008.

Eva Peron :: RIP July 27

The New York Times obituary notes that Eva Peron died on July 27, 1952.

For years, I held on to the uncorrected proofs of the book Life and Death of Eva Peron which was published in 1979.  (see photograph below). The book came to me at one of the many book sales in this area where bibliophiles comb through piles of oddities from reviewers, publishers and disappointed readers. 

Recently I donated the book to the friends of the local library, so they can offer it for sale.  And so the book change hands, possibly circuit around other used book stores and sales, much like Eva's corpse has traveled.

Does anyone  born after 1995 know who Evita was?  The broadway musical Evita! might help her live on, similar to the way Jesus Christ Superstar helps Jesus.

Mournful fictional video depicting Eva's end.

Green Graves

Jessica Mitford wrote extensively about the unnecessary procedures promoted by the opportunistic funerary industry in America in her ground-breaking (hah!) 1963 book The American Way of Death, reissued in 1998.  Embalming is not necessary, a waste of resources and a pollutant, not to mention an insult to the body and memory of the beloved deceased. Check out these resources for green gravesites.

Avoid embalming unless you are a Civil War soldier whose body will be sent back home by rail express, FedEx, UPS, or military cargo flight.

Digg the Grave

The open grave examines death.  We're all going to get there,  the ultimate travel experience.  It's not gloomy to plan ahead, but this isn't going to be a website about wills, legacy planning or cremation.  Nooooooo, this log will muse about the many connections we have to death, how death fans and foes examine the topic and whatever I find as I peruse my paper collection about dear old death.  Death art, death music, death dress.  Grave digging, monuments and lore. Cemeteries, ceremonies, cultural taboos.  

First of all, I want to get to Houston to see this very interesting exhibition about Papal regalia associated with death.  

If you've experienced the exhibition, let me know if it is worth the journey.  I'm about 4 hours and $400 by air away from Houston, so maybe I can find a video cam tour to experience the exhibition.