Mozart v Rogers & Hammerstein
I was at a funeral for a much loved gentleman last week – he wasn’t into opera at all, but had heard Mozart on The Shawshank Redemption and loved it. He was a great believer in daring to dream. The whole room was surprised when we played an excerpt from the Marriage of Figaro as the […]
Richard III – is he or isn’t he?
Posted by Richard the Rawlinson The fully articulated skeleton of what might be Richard III is now being rigorously examined in a laboratory. Leicester University archeologists and DNA scientists are undoubtedly handling these human remains with great care due to their historic value, but perhaps also because of our tradition that the dead, exhumed or otherwise, […]
Richard III: fresh calls for state sendoff
Tory MP Chris Skidmore has tabled an early day motion in the House of Commons. It moves: ‘That this House notes the discovery of a skeleton beneath a car park in Leicester believed to be that of Richard III; praises the work of the archaeologists and historians responsible for the find; hopes that DNA evidence […]
Ageism
Text message sent to the Oldie magazine: Racism is rightly condemned but comics still feel free to make jokes about dentures. Another: Thanks to the good lady on Stockport station who told me my shoelaces were undone. I was quite well aware of that, but appreciate her concern.
Thoughts of a funeral-goer
Posted by Lyra Mollington We’ve lived in East Sheen for almost ten years. It would be perfect if we weren’t living under the Heathrow flight path. Even on a Sunday they start flying over very early in the morning. When we sit out in the back garden, conversation is impossible whilst the planes are flying over. […]
Richard III latest – Mail campaigns for state funeral
You couldn’t make it up. When the remains of the last Tsar of All the Russias, Nicholas II, and some of his family were found down a disused mineshaft outside Yekaterinburg in the 1990s, the government of Boris Yeltsin held a full state funeral in the cathedral of St Peter and St Paul in St […]
Worcester crematorium not for sale
Worcester City Council is, laudably, not inclined to sell its crematorium to one of those predatory sharks we all know and love so well. The council needs to spend up to £2 million to upgrade it. But read on and see what the jostling sharks are prepared to buy it for. Moral: when you’ve done […]
Screw says no
Many celebrants will have had the experience of welcoming a convict at a funeral, together with the prison officer to whom he/she is shackled. Do, please, share your experience in a comment. In Australia, belt-tightening has led to a review of the cost of this service to the banged-up bereaved: The Department of Corrective […]
Dove release inadvisable
Hawks have come to the rescue of mourners at a crematorium plagued by aggressive seagulls. The birds of prey were used to scare away gulls at Eastbourne crematorium after complaints that mourners were being dive-bombed as they left the chapel. Whole story here.
Abuses of assisted dying laws
From a comment piece by Terry Pratchett in today’s Times: Earlier this year a commission of the great and the good was set up by myself and another gentleman of means, to look at practices in other countries where assisted dying is commonplace and to report on how it could be evolved to suit Britain. […]
