Thiel embalming, anyone?
Professor Walther Thiel, an Austrian, developed an embalming process for medical cadavers. His process requires much less formaldehyde than conventional embalming fluids and, also, produces a much more ‘lifelike’ body with none of the hardness and stiffness associated with conventional embalming. Medical people are very keen on it — those who know about it. It’s […]
Approaching death
“You get nearer to the shore and you can actually, for the first time, not just make out this dim, insubstantial cliff, but you can see the little houses and cars moving.” Jonathan Miller
Dead bowler takes three for 47
From a report by Andy Bull in The Spin: Congratulations to Rangana Herath, the roly-poly Sri Lankan spinner whose 12 wickets at 33 each against Australia have bumped him up to fourth in the ICC’s Test bowling rankings. Herath took three for 47 in the fourth innings last Sunday, an exceptional feat for a dead […]
If music be the food of love, play on
Posted by Richard Rawlinson We sometimes differentiate between religious and secular music at funerals, hymns such as Abide with Me or popular hits such as Candle in the Wind. It was ever thus with music’s capacity to move, ranging, even in the Middle Ages, from sacred Gregorian Chant to itinerant troubadours with their songs about love […]
The unintended consequence of promoting longevity
Michael Wolff describes caring for his eldery, dementing mother in New York magazine. It’s a long piece and it will concentrate your mind. You’ll brood on it. Warning: once you start, you won’t be able to put it down. …what I feel most intensely when I sit by my mother’s bed is a crushing sense […]
You say coffin, I say casket
By Guy Keleny in the Independent here. “…this column does not wish to sound like a choleric pedant holding forth in about the year 1950, so we do not go on about ‘Americanisms’. “The simple truth is that there is more commerce of words eastward across the Atlantic than westward because American power, wealth and culture loom […]
Adventures in Funeralworld
1. The late night shopping experience Posted by Andy Clarke ED’S NOTE — We have featured Andy’s adventures with his innovative Curve coffin from the very beginning. Here, he describes the experience of exhibiting at a Christmas shopping event organised by his local Chamber of Commerce in Tenterden, Kent. And so it came to pass, […]
Bad death, bad memory
Pain that is not relieved in a person’s life continues after they are gone, held as a sordid memory by loved ones. Just as we retain treasured thoughts of joy, wisdom and warmth, we preserve images of pain. Unrequited suffering contaminates memory, preventing healing, healthy grieving and closure. This pain in turn flows across our […]
RIP CMJ
“Tony Greig died of a heart attack on Saturday. It was probably for him a merciful release because the late stage of any cancer is often hell on earth.” So wrote Christopher Martin-Jenkins in The Times on 31 December. He knew what he was writing about. He died of cancer himself on New Year’s Day. […]
Nobody knows anything
The old year is dead and buried (thank you, gentlemen). The lights are on once more in the GFG-Batesville Shard. We’re back at our desks. And we’re full of zest and zing. We hope you are, too. You have our best wishes for success, happiness in 2013 and the survival of your new year resolutions […]
