More than meets the eye
Yesterday’s Mail, among others, carried the pic, above, of Ronnie Biggs greeting the press at the funeral of fellow train robber Bruce Reynolds attended by the great and good of the criminal underworld. Check out the scene here. Bruce Reynolds’ son Nick is a member of the Alabama Three whose song Woke Up This Morning is the […]
Does failure feel like grief?
Posted by Richard Rawlinson Not so long ago, The Independent’s left-wing young writer Johann Hari fell from being an award-winning media star when he was exposed as a self-promoting liar and cheat. The Economist was not convinced by his apology for plagiariasm. It’s now the turn of right-wing, young digital hack Milo Yiannopoulus. His mainstream profile […]
Cool idea rides again
This is a tale of freeze-dried disposal. First, a bit of backstory: The method of preparing a body for disposal by freeze-drying was invented in the US by schoolteacher Philip Backman. He patented it in 1978, and that patent has now expired. Backman’s proposed method of reducing the body to particles left a little to be desired […]
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You may have noticed that we’re trying to calm the blog down a bit. The daily magazine format of up to five or so posts daily is more, we reckon, than you want or can cope with. (Today was a throwback day.) We recognise that there are many sources, now, from which you can gather […]
Red River Valley
From this valley they say you are going We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile For they say you are taking the sunshine That has brightened our pathways awhile CHORUS: Come and sit by my side, if you love me Do not hasten to bid me adieu Just remember the Red River Valley […]
Do the math
Add all these up. What do you get? Phosphate 47.5% Calcium 25.3% Sulfate 11.00% Potassium 3.69% Sodium 1.12% Chloride 1.00% Silica 0.9% Aluminum Oxide 0.72% Magnesium 0.418% Iron Oxide 0.118% Zinc 0.0342% Titanium Oxide 0.0260% Barium 0.0066% Antimony 0.0035% Chromium 0.0018% Copper 0.0017% Manganese 0.0013% Lead 0.0008% Tin 0.0005% Vanadium 0.0002% Beryllium <0.0001% Mercury <0.00001% […]
Remains to be seen
So, a bad week, then, for dead heads of state. Hugo Chavez can’t after all be embalmed ‘like Lenin’. By the time the experts got there it was too late for the disembowelling and the deep marinade which would have made him, in death, the centre of a cult and an object of pilgrimage – […]
Sit-up-straight or laid back?
Pictured above, the arranging room at Holmes and Family before and after its makeover. The GFG strongly encouraged this makeover. We acknowledge that our point of view is not shared by everyone, to the point that we’re not so sure, now, either. The role of the funeral arranger is to be both 1) an […]
Is Dignity overvalued, over-leveraged and operationally insecure?
A couple of copies of the Investors Intelligence have come to our attention. In them, financial analyst Aubrey Brocklebank entertains doubts about the viability of Dignity plc. He expresses himself very technically, so some of his argument and most of the graphs go somewhat over the heads of Team GFG. We’d be interested to know […]
Is it politic to target terror of death?
According to the BBC, the UK is falling off the pace in the international race to live forever. There may be a measure of national shame here. In a table of 18 countries we stand at #11 behind Greece. Spain is top. Spaniards enjoy an average of 70.9 years of healthy life. Finland is bottom. Finns […]
