Local hero
In the matter of household shopping we look back nostalgically to the high street of yesteryear. Ah, those were the days. The butcher, the baker, the grocer. Ooh, hello, Postman Pat! In every shop a cheery greeting. And great personal service. Gone. For ever. Whatever happened to them? You bankrupted them. Yes, you. You trooped […]
Natural burial – it’s against nature!
Natural burial ticks alot of eco-boxes—but how many emo-boxes? They’re good for butterflies and vetches and voles and honeysuckle—but are they any good for living people? They may satisfy the head, but can they ever satisfy the heart? Over in the US, Thomas Friese is developing his website, Perpetua’s Garden, as a place where people […]
Sky’s the limit?
Civilisation drives a wedge between us and nature. We prefer the artificial to the elemental, an iPhone to a sunset. When we hit a problem we look to technology to get us out of a hole. Cremation did that very well – till we discovered just what awfulness comes out of those chimneys. Now we […]
You were the future, once…
Interesting piece in this month’s Funeral Service Journal (FSJ), the undertakers’ trade mag, by Howard Hogson. Howard Hodgson? He was the young turk who bought his dad’s ailing funeral home in Birmingham for £14,00 in 1975 and embarked on an acquisition spree which had landed him 546 branches by 1991, at which time he pocketed […]
Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace
So, farewell, then, Keith Floyd. Others have celebrated your cooking and your maverick and disastrous lifestyle. It is the custom of dull people to envy tortured souls who hit the heights and plumb the depths. In truth, it was only sometimes fun being you. You taught us much, though, about what a marvellous thing the […]
Fair trade, slave trade?
Interesting piece in Sunday’s Observer. The Co-op, which boasts about its ethical credentials, has been accused by farmers of making ‘unreasonable’ demands and flexing its market muscle in the wake of its £1.6bn takeover of Somerfield. One large grower has sought advice from both the National Farmers Union and the Office of Fair Trading. Terry […]
Sage shall not weary them
There are bad people who can be made better (the majority) and there are bad people who can’t. It begins to look as if our good friend Richard Sage belongs to the latter category if fresh allegations are correct. He has resurfaced in Manchester disguised as the Edmund Funeral Home and, true to form, has […]
Costing the dead
I think we all buy into the notion that capitalism is a species of altruism, only more caring. So it comes as no surprise to discover that Sun Life Direct, vendor of financial services to the over 50s, cares like mad about us—all of us, not just on-the-way-out over 50s. They’ve just commissioned research from […]
Got that summer’s over feeling? Grieve it.
Do the waning of days and the coming of autumn make you come over elegiac? It probably depends on the length and sunniness of the summer. If it was brief and wet, that first nip in the air leaves you feeling cheated. But if the summer was long and glorious, the coming of autumn feels […]
Way to go
Elmer Johanning, of Douglas County, Kansas, sold tractors for 35 years. He died at the age of 91 ten days ago. He was borne to the cemetery on a tractor-drawn trailer, and followed there by nine other tractors. Now that’s what I call a procession. Watch it here.
