The GFG Blog
2010Apr
Time to privatise cremation?
Charles
Apr
20
5 comments
Over in Apple Valley, Ca, Stephen Atmore, 11 years retired from the local phone company, has gone back to work. He’s opening a crematorium in a strip mall and trying to get his head around it: “I still wake up every morning asking myself why I am doing this.” Like
In life, in death…
Charles
Apr
19
1 comment
Good to see that Malcolm McLaren will be going out in the anarchic style he did so much to popularise. We are all invited to observe a minute of mayhem at noon on Thursday. More funeral arrangements here.
Embracing the unacceptable
Charles
Apr
19
1 comment
There’s a good piece over at Salon magazine which I’ve been holding over for a while to use on a slow news day in Deathworld. This is such a one. And what follows is a lot more nourishing than a bit of tittle-tattle. The piece is by Fred Branfan and
Co-operative Funeralcare – a case for care in the community?
Charles
Apr
18
3 comments
Video by Dean Martyn for his degree show 2008 Listeners to this week’s edition of Radio 4’s hilarious News Quiz hooted from the outset when the programme kicked off with this announcement from the Whitby Gazette: Does your Mum deserve an evening of pampering which will make her feel like
In the midst of life…
Charles
Apr
18
1 comment
Following on from the last two days’ posts, here’s another on the same theme. It’s a story in today’s Sunday Telegraph. Sorry, no link, they don’t seem to have archived it yet. Residents near a funeral parlour in Tonbridge, Kent, claim they are being made miserable because covered bodies are
A funeral is not a community event. Official
Charles
Apr
17
5 comments
If you didn’t catch Rupert’s delightfully unbuttoned comment on yesterday’s post, have a look. The interesting thing about the death deniers is that they don’t just put their hands over their ears and count noisily to ten until you stop. Whether death is the Old Enemy or just a Disgusting
The living dead
Charles
Apr
16
4 comments
Ever heard of Jane Jacobs? I hadn’t til this morning. I’m a fan already. I live in Redditch, a new town which must have looked great on paper but turned out a brutal, car-clobbered flop – even before a majority of misguided citizens voted in the felonious Jacqui Smith as
Dead man ruling
Charles
Apr
16
1 comment
Nice crazy story from the US, where the townspeople of Tracy City, TN, have just thrown out their mayor by electing a dead one instead. What an admirably creative protest vote. Read it here.
Slow blog day
Charles
Apr
15
No Comments
I’ve got nothing urgent to say today. So here’s a bit of Dark Sanctuary.
A very, very good book
Charles
Apr
14
4 comments
Tom Jokinen is a radio journalist and producer in Canada. In 2006 he took time off from his job to train as what we in the UK might call a funeral service operative. Why did he do it? Part curiosity: “There’s a time, from when someone dies to when they
