Wanna buy a casket at Costco?

Posted on: August 18, 2004
In the "life and death… but more death" dept., Death (capitalized) is of course an obsession of mine. (As is life, and what's in between.) Well then, thanks to Ian?on the?DeadLikeMeOnline.com boards for bringing this to our obsession, uh, attention: Costco Begins Test Marketing Caskets. No doubt there are reputable funeral homes, and I know I had good personal dealings with the one that helped to bury my Dad six feet under. That's the past now. But there are a lot of scammers out there and in a capitalist market, something so sure as death (half of the taxes certainty-probability pair) is sure to be a moneymaker.

I've got to hand it to Costco: I like their services, I like their prices. I DON't like their fluorescent lights. I'm sensitive to that part of the spectrum and it annoys the heck out of me. But, I suppose, like their quaint cement floors and unobstructed view of construction girders and other things-in-progress, it is part of saving bling whales, as my brother Merritt puts it.? Thank you Costco for a good deal. In fact, I bought my Donald Trump book from them, which goes to show something!

And even more surprising to me lately, after watching the appropriate Penn & Teller's "Bullshit!", was the story behind the seemingly innocent term "living room". Oh really? Well, that's where the story gets more complicated. Of course, I just have to be pleasingly trite and cliched and think: We each grieve in a different way. And as Emperor Palpatine, who looks like he's just about ready for a funeral aaany time now would say: "So be it, Jedi!"

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