Police evacuated a Florida mall this week and kept it on lockdown after someone threw a powdery substance into a Lenscrafters store. The mysterious grains weren’t anthrax or ricin — nay, none of those dangerous toxins. But that doesn’t mean it was a pleasant powdered sugar party: Police say a man was scattering the ashes of his fiancée. [More]
cremation
Who's To Blame For Broken Urn: UPS Or The Crematorium?
By 5.1.12
When a California woman went to unpack the urn containing her late brother’s ashes, she found it had been damaged in shipping and the ashes spilled onto her floor. The crematorium that sent the urn blames UPS, which points the finger right back at the crematorium, saying it violated UPS policy by shipping human remains. [More]
By 7.29.09
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If you’ve got $2600 and a desire to really be remembered after you die, consider buying a personalized, three-dimensional urn modeled after a photograph of your own head. (Or buy the smaller version for $600 and keep candy in it.) [OhGizmo!]
Funerals Another Victim Of The Recession
By 7.22.09
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office reports that more bodies of deceased residents are going unclaimed than in the past, then cremated at taxpayer expense. Why the increase? Families claim that they simply can’t afford funeral expenses.
Biodegradable Coffins, "Composting At Its Best"
By 12.28.07
Biodegradable coffins allow you to rest in peace without putting a permanent dent in the planet or your wallet.
Canadian Funeral Home Owner Busted For Cremains Fraud
By 12.24.07
The former owner of a funeral home in Princeton, British Columbia, has been charged with fraud for handing out random urns of ashes to his customers. The funeral home had been shut down in 2005 for operating without a license, but since it’s rather difficult to spot the “wrong” ashes by sight, the problem wasn’t discovered until another funeral home began to sort through the leftover inventory and found over 50 urns that had been labeled unclaimed.
Cremation: The Cheap And Environmentally Friendly Alternative To Burial
By 11.17.07
Cremation is catching fire as Americans look for low-cost, low-resource alternatives to burial. Cremation often costs half as much as traditional funerals – $4,000 instead of $8,000 – and does not require wood or land space. This combination is putting the heat on traditional funeral homes.
In theory, death care should be immune from short-term economic swings. Death is one of only two sure things in life, and the U.S. population is aging.
