1/27/2004: Coke coffin
 

http://cellar.org/2004/cokecoffin.jpg

It's Ghana, and these carpenters are proud of their work on this coffin and severe trademark violation.

It turns out that Ghana has developed a tradition of building wierd, wild, and wonderful coffins. For the last few decades they have done this, put a lot of work into building them. Sometimes bodies will wait in morgues while these coffins are built, which are individually worked to represent the individual's life.

To me, this is a little better than the American tradition of building big, heavy, ornate deals with chrome and finish and silk lining... sold for too much money, used for a few hours, and just buried away.

For my own purposes, this is all useless. Once I'm dead I truly do not give a rat's ass what happens with what's left. If my bod can be used for some good purpose, such as organ donation or scientific, then please use it; otherwise, please dispose of it as cheaply as possible in an environmentally-friendly way.

What *would* be the most environmentally friendly way of disposing of you ?

Cremation? (a lot of fossil fuels are burned, I bet)
Buried? (Landfill problem)
Take you out to sea, encase you in cement, and shove you overboard? (seems like a lot of work/resources)

My brother has expressed a wish that he should be stuffed, set out on the front porch in a rocking chair, with a cooler of beer next to him so that passersby might stop and hoist a cold one periodically.

There would be worse things.

Made into hamburger (Toadburger?) or petfood.

Soylent Green is PEOPLE!

the gods must be crazy

Re: 1/27/2004: Coke coffin
 

I've always thought I'd like to be creameated. I loathe the thought of rotting in a box. If I had to be burried, I'd want to be planted under a sapling of some cool tree withOUT the coffin. I don;t think that's legal though. Donated to science is too icky.....i know a girl who's dad was donated, and they had him for 5 years, and then mailed her mom a box of his ashes ( the remains were incinerated)...so mom had to deal with her grief once more.

I'm an organ donor, but i restricted my skin and eyes for some illogical and emotional reason that i can't explain.


so, burn me i guess. and don;t keep the ashes.

Coffin? Why does it have shelves?

Yeah, I'd like to know that too. My dad just passed away (by which I mean we buried him last Wednesday) and I found myself unhappy with the usual embalming/preserved wood/concrete bunker style of burial. I'm not a rich pig; I have no interest in permanently shoving aside a piece of the world to remind it of my greatness.

I heard some religion (Jewish?) doesn't believe in such preservation, so some cemetaries have a section set aside for decomposers. I'd think I'd like to go there, after the organ depository.

There is a new movement know as "Green Burials" where one is buried without emabalming or virutally indestructable vaults and caskets. It has been around in England for awhile but now several private cemeteries in the US are popping up including one not far from me in Texas.

Check out http://www.msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3947912&p1=0

Cemeteries all have one thing in common, folks are just dying to get in :)

Yeah count me in for just being buried out back under a tree too. I know my damn dogs would dig me up tho.

I'm pretty sure there is one of those cemetaries in the Dahmer's back yard, too.

edit: spelling...thanks, shelb

This is something HP and I have discussed recently with the passing of his aunt. After watching her kids give her a large expensive funeral she wouldn't have wanted, we both decided we would like to be buried in a pine or cardboard box. After looking at that article on the green cemetery I am thinking that would be a nice way to go. I would love to be buried under a big pine tree with wild flowers growing on my grave.

I wish to be cremated, with some of my ashes spread over Chicago's Lake Michigan shoreline and the rest spread across the grounds of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Please make sure that anything usable by science is removed first. After my cremation, throw a party in my honor. Everyone attending must drink at least one pint of Guinness or I will curse you from the heavens.

These beautiful handmade Trappist caskets are just the ticket. Carry them to the grave, open the lid, dump the body in the hole and use the casket for a coffee table.:)
PBS had a show on the casket builders of Ghana. They were building one that looked like a banana on the show. Not just banana shaped, but yellow with a brown stem.

Yeah i saw a similar show, other coffins included a large shoe (red and white sneaker with laces and all) and a little row boat looking one also.

I would like to be cremated and my ashed scattered over the waterfall up the road from my home, its very beautiful, eventually the waterfall turns to a stream, which leads out to the tasman sea... this is where i will finally end up. And then ill spend eternity making some awesome swell and rollovers for the surfers to come and enjoy :)

I will not be donating any of my organs to science. i have elected to remove this from my file. I only have to walk down the street here in sydney to catch a glimpse of the 99% of the human race that i have no interest in saving or helping.

Thet there ''coffin'' don't look like no coffin to me .... looks to me, more like a cupboard .. drinks chest .. wall storage, of some sort .... I reckon there's been a slight mistranslation when the pic was passed on ....

'Sides ... coffins are nuthin' ... they get looked at for half an hour and then buried away to rot ... headstones is where the style is ... ever seen the American Almanac headstone quotes page .. ?
Great reading ...

My favorite .. (in Tombstone, AZ) ..

''Here lies Lester Moore ..
Four slugs from a .44 ..
No Les, no more .. "

A few have mentioned donating their bodies to science. I think that's very noble, but it may not always be what the donor imagines.

I was reading an article in Washington Post a while back. It was about forensic science. It was a pretty cool article. A lot of what those scientists know about how bodies look at different stages of decomposition come from having plots of land where they dump bodies that have been donated to science. Those bodies are just tucked under bushes, or dumped in the grass. The scientists go back every week or two and look at the bodies to see what happens to them as they decompose and are eaten by wild animals. Eventually, nothing is left but a dirty skull and maybe a moss covered bone or two. It's legitimate science, I suppose. The younger scientists/technicians learn a lot, and that helps them solve crimes. And the overall body of knowledge grows as well. But it may not be what people have in mind when they donate their bodies to science. I think a lot of people imagine they are helping to find the cure for cancer or something.

Because prices will only go up over time, why not buy your coffin ahead of time. If you don't want to use it straight away, you could use it as a:
• large coffee table
• small wardrobe
• new-age fish tank
• single bed for visiting relatives
• go-kart
• book case
• hampster house
• boat
• bedding chest

:cool:

Umm...because I don't want a coffin?

I want my naked body tossed into the dirt with no tombstone.

Tombstones, coffins, cemiteries, they're all just vanity.

I have no problem being forgotten the moment I die as if I never existed. It doesn't bother me. People get massive tombstones with large patches on the cemitery trying to be remembered. Well what good does it do that for the next say 100 years people might remember you? What's 100 years anyway? The earth is 4 billion years old...I'm happy feeding the worms.

Re: 1/27/2004: Coke coffin
 

I've seen other types of these coffins, chile peppers, luxury autos. I can't remember if the autos had logos, but you're right about the trademark violation.

Considering how tough some companies are cracking down, especially in the third world, I wouldn't put it past them to get a court order to dig up the coffin and destroy it.

I know what would be the most "me-friendly". Cryonic suspension. Replace the water with glycerol, freeze and store in liquid nitrogen. Then, in a few decades thaw and restore my body and my brain, so that I can continue my life after this unfortunate interruption.