Rest in Splendour!

Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

Thomas Gray, "Elegy in a Country Churchyard"

Completely by accident (I think -- who really knows) I came across this website. Now I'm guessing there aren't many people who would choose to spend all eternity in Buffalo, New York, (sorry, Buffalo) -- but think again. If you could be buried in the Blue Sky Mausoleum, in a tomb designed by Frank Lloyd Wright?!

Frank Lloyd Wright, as you may already be aware, was an architect, and recognized pretty much universally as a genius. His most famous creation, probably, was a house called Fallingwater, built right over a small stream.


They won't say anywhere on the website exactly how much it would cost, so I'm assuming that places it out of my price range. ("If you have to ask, you can't afford it.") There are only twenty-four crypts available (I'm not sure how many are left), and they claim that the design will not be reproduced anywhere in the world. If you've got to be dead, that is the way to go.

But then I start thinking that maybe burial's not for me. Maybe I'd rather be shot into space! Now, I can be placed in orbit for a mere $2495 -- well, not me, exactly. An ounce of my ashes. Of course, for double the price, I can send seven ounces of myself up. That would still leave almost five and a half pounds of cremated remains behind (ain't Wikipedia awesome?).

But why think small. For a mere $14,995, ($22,495 for Preferred Service -- whatever that is) my wife and I could spend eternity on the moon. Now that's more like it. That ought to make some impression at my 75th class reunion.

But I've got to admit I'm really tempted by the Voyager package -- an ounce of my earthly remains sent into deep space!

Now, in my research I also found this fascinating website -- for
the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery and Crematorium, "America's First and Most Prestigious Pet Burial Grounds." (I can't vouch for "most prestigious", but I'll take them at their word for oldest.) Good old Grumpy. "He waits for us" -- with pipe and slippers, no doubt.

"Addicted to Celebrities"

"Fame after death is the noblest of goals," says Beowulf, right before he goes off to tangle with Grendel's mother.

(No, not that Grendel's mother!)

Well, what good is fame going to do us after death, that's what I'd like to know. I just gave you an article by spoilsport Chris Hedges, who argues that our current obsession with fame is not good for us -- it fills us with false values and distracts us from important things.

But then I came across this article, which clued me into a phenomenon of which I was wholly unaware -- "haul videos". Apparently there are young girls who go out shopping, and then post videos on YouTube about what they buy. I watched the one about Blair all the way through -- man, does that girl ever stop talking -- but I have to give her credit: jeans for $6.99? I've paid as much as $35.00 for a pair of jeans. And the girl obviously has something on the ball -- she has makes and post these videos on two YouTube channels, some of them are tutorials and not just hauls. I just wonder where's she's going to be in ten years. Is this enough to build a life on? Or maybe it's just a hobby.

And click on the link for SoCal Ashley Danielle. It turns out fame can be a bummer. Ashley's been getting all these negative comments from people (including mothers, apparently), calling her a spoiled brat. She doesn't mind if poeple call her ugly, but it hurts her when people criticize her personality, because, she says, despite these videos about clothes and makeup, she's more concerned with what's on the inside than on the outside.

Anyway, I found the article interesting, and the videos, in a strange way, fascinating.