Andrew 1: Knock knock.
New York: Who’s there?
Andrew 1: 9/11
New York: 9/11 who?
Andrew 1: You said you’d never forget.

via

Related: Bad Day at the Office

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Bird is the word lately. The theme of the day in the garden.

The intern has flown the coop.

The nest is empty. Or is it? After baby bird’s departure, I uncovered a golden egg, and it’s starting to crack.

Peace and prosperity to you!

The crypt directly above Marilyn Monroe’s final resting place is available.  Bidding starts at $500,000 on Ebay for one of the most expensive pieces of real estate on the market, based on a per-square-foot basis.

Currently occupied by Richard Poncher, his widow said that when he was dying, Poncher approached her with a request. “He said, ‘If I croak, if you don’t put me upside down over Marilyn, I’ll haunt you the rest of my life.’ ”

Right after the funeral, Mrs. Poncher told the funeral director of her husband’s wish. “I was standing right there, and he turned him over,” she said.

Source: LA Times

SHE WAS GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY:

A spinster who obsessively hoarded clothes died in her home after a mountain of suitcases fell on her, burying her alive.

BAD FENG-SHUI:

An eccentric loner is believed to have died of thirst after becoming trapped in a bizarre and intricate network of tunnels built from rubbish in his home.

Politicians had been talking for years about the need to replace the Oregon State Hospital, but didn’t get serious about it until a group of legislators made a grim discovery during a 2004 tour: the cremated remains of 3,600 mental patients in corroding copper canisters in a storage room. The lawmakers were stunned.

“Nobody said anything to anybody,” said Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, who dubbed the chamber “the room of lost souls.”

The remains belonged to patients who died at the hospital from the late 1880s to the mid-1970s, when mental illness was considered so shameful that many patients were all but abandoned by their families in institutions.

After doing some research into the story, Photographer David Maisel got in touch with the hospital administrators – the same hospital, it turns out, where they once filmed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – and he was granted access to the room in which the canisters were stored.

Maisel set up a temporary photography studio inside the hospital itself. There, he began photographing the canisters one by one.

His book, Library of Dust, will be released later this summer.

Tip of the Hat to: Cleanser

For Funeral Directors that worry about competition from Costco, internet retailers, and maybe even Wal-Mart. Remember, it’s all been done before.

Vintage Sears Catalog:

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An excellent cross-sell promotion for well-armed families.

Maple Park Cemetery is a privately owned association and is the final resting place of many prominent Springfieldians. The cemetery association was organized in 1876.

Maple Park was added to the Springfield Historical Site Register in 1974 and is a lovely and interesting place to visit. However, on a recent visit I was disturbed to find several of the stones broken and in need of repair.

Most of these are older stones, and I doubt back then there were perpetual care funds set up to maintain the sites. Maybe it’s a non-endowed cemetery? Missouri law requires that signs to be posted to that effect. Actually, many of these stones have been in disrepair for a long time. Just seems like as expensive as burials are today that some of the funds could be used to maintain existing grave sites. However, this may be the real reason why these broken headstones have not been touched.

During the ice storm in 2007 this cemetery had extensive damage from tree limbs and debris, I’m sure it cost a small fortune to clean up. On a recent walk on the grounds, several shrubs and large trees were overgrown and in some cases completely covering some of the stones.

What’s the answer?

This is the first year that we did not decorate graves of our friends and family at the cemetery. Usually on Memorial Day, I take Etta out to the White Chapel Cemetery. Yesterday, I asked her if she felt guilty about not going. She said she didn’t. She’d just try to do better through the year.

This is also the first year in a long time that she didn’t go back to her home state of Oklahoma for her high-school reunion.

When we were younger, rain or shine, Memorial Day was always a big party, and we worked in the tradition of honoring the dead. Since the death of his mother, my husband has never wanted to go back. Since we’re not Keith Richards and we don’t party like we used to, Memorial Day is kind of quiet around here. It’s been stormy which has put a damper on some of the bar-b-cues. At least we missed the killer tornadoes. This morning’s trivia question on the local news was, “What was the original name of Memorial Day?” The anchors were stumped. They “knew it but couldn’t remember.”

I’ve known some older people that make a day of decorating the graves over the holiday. Picnics and tail gate parties at the cemetery. As we move away from this ritual, it feels so “Civil War”. But I do miss going, the cemetery is lovely, and White Chapel Memorial Garden has the Walk of Flags that is so moving.

White Chapel Memorial Gardens 2004