Comments | viruswshoes: OMG Pilgrimage!

viruswshoes

OMG Pilgrimage!

Oct 30, 2007 16:42

The Museum of Funeral Customs!

How could I not love a museum whose slogan is "Death Is Only The Beginning"? Whose gift shop sells casket paperweights, chocolate coffins (with removable lids), and a T-shirt that reads "Everybody's Gotta Go Sometime..."?
Much thanks to Sarah Vowell's book, Assassination Vacation, for the tip ( Read more... )

links, nation, health, humor, travel, history

Comments 8

bodhipuff October 31 2007, 20:57:45 UTC

I heart Sarah Vowell. I would LOVE to visit that place. :)

viruswshoes October 31 2007, 21:47:33 UTC

She's got a wonderful, acerbic sense of humor. I like her writing rhythm and self-deprecation, too.

I tried to get my dad interested in Assassination Vacation. He politely told me he wasn't into the book. At first, I thought it was because of a (very understandable) generation gap between him and Vowell; it's kinda unavoidable, what with her contemporary pop-culture metaphors and all. Oddly, though, he claimed the book - which he said he did scan through at the library - was a bit too macabre and obsessive for his tastes. I found that particularly hilarious coming from him, since he's the former licensed funeral director and embalmer whose all-consuming desire for his own funeral home nearly destroyed his marriage.

Which is, oddly enough, why I would not invite my dad to go - even though it would be one helluva trip with him in tow. ;)

bodhipuff November 1 2007, 20:57:29 UTC

Wow. That makes for some serious storytelling. I thought my life with Dad was macabre because he worked inside people's mouths (he was an orthodontist and our basement was filled with models of people's teeth. He was always working on x-rays of people's bites/teeth and as a kid I remember looking at some really gruesome stuff.) I imagine you may have seen more bizarre?

viruswshoes November 2 2007, 00:07:55 UTC

You could say that, yes.
My first childhood memory is of standing up in the backseat of my father's orange VW Beetle - after he and my mother told me expressly not to. I was wearing my Strawberry Shortcake boots, and my left foot got jammed in between the two front seats as my dad was parking in the Thompson Funeral Home parking lot. I was spanked in the lot shortly thereafter ( ... )

Thread 8