Digital Dying By: Justin Nobel

by Justin Nobel

Man's fear of being buried alive led to the invention of the safety coffin. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick may have been the first person in history to be buried in one. His had a window to let light in and a tube that delivered fresh air.

The philosopher Blessed John Duns Scotus lapsed into a coma in November 1308 and was reportedly buried alive. Sometime later he was found outside his coffin with torn and bloody hands.

The centuries that followed tell a story of mania and ingenuity, as a series of zany devices were constructed with the sole purpose of alerting the living that the dead had risen. They are called safety coffins and despite the vast resources gone into perfecting their functionality over the past several centuries, there is not one shred of evidence to say that someone has ever been saved by one. Read the rest of this entry »

by Justin Nobel

Funeral processions can be deadly. Earlier this year, a New York man was flung from his Harley and killed after a car cut into the procession then made a sudden stop. In some cities, citing safety concerns and liability issues, police officers no longer lead processions.

The woman pulled left to pass a slow car and was face to face with the oncoming procession. Spooked, she swerved back right and lost control. Her car crashed through a backyard and flipped over. Joe Merritt, the Tampa Bay area funeral home director who was leading the funeral procession the woman almost slammed into passed her moments later. Her face was squashed against the glass, but she was uninjured.

“Folks just have a one-track mind when they're driving,” said Merritt, in a recent article about the incident. “They don't even see the deputy in front of them.”

There is a growing concern among funeral home directors that drivers these days are disregarding the code of conduct for driving through a funeral procession. What is that code? The procession always has the right of way and when you see one coming you should slow down and let it pass. In cases like Merritt's, not only are people not slowing down, they are speeding up. The result is a growing number of funeral procession related accidents and a general breakdown in the etiquette regarding processions, say many directors. “Years ago, everyone pulled to the side of the road and stopped when they saw a procession coming,” explained Randall Earl, an Illinois funeral home director, in a recent USA Today article. “That tended to go by the wayside.” Read the rest of this entry »

by Justin Nobel

In 1964, Ed Headrick reworked a wobbly flying toy called the Pluto Platter to form the Frisbee. More than 300 million have been sold since then. His dying wish was that his ashes be molded into Frisbees.

David Morales Colon was murdered last month in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was 22 and loved motorcycles. His family, carrying out what they considered was a last wish, presented him in an unconventional posture for his wake: in tight black jeans, a black cap and dark shades, atop a fiery orange Honda motorcycle.

Dying wishes can be an artistic statement, a political statement or realize an ambition never fulfilled in life. Oftentimes, they are absurd.

In 1964, Ed Headrick added aerodynamic ridges to an unreliable wobbly flying toy called the Pluto Platter and created the modern Frisbee. By the time Headrick died in 2002 nearly 300 million Frisbees had been sold. His dying wish was that his ashes be molded into commemorative Frisbees and passed out to family and friends. “When we die, we don't go to purgatory,” said Headrick. “We just land up on the roof and lay there.” Read the rest of this entry »