And you thought we were sick

[Harry]

reading and studying the Borden murders. Here's a web site that takes death to the next level: Backdoor to the Morgue

http://www.whataslacker.com/backdoor/

BEWARE - For the brave of heart or those with Lizzie Borden nerves - there are pictures of children in caskets. You have been warned.

You can even preview the type of casket you would like (and for your pet too!) or if your handy with tools, a book on "Do it yourself" coffins. I love the one for the Illinois Casket Co. Not only do they sell caskets, they are also an employment agency! Hopefully no dead-end jobs.

BTW, the calendar that shows the day famous people died has Lizzie incorrectly listed as dying on June 2nd.

[1bigsteve]

I don't think I'll visit the site Harry but a few years ago I heard of a Company that was selling or promoting coffee tables that were also coffins. You could have your tea parties on the top and get put inside when you die. My Mom thought it was a great idea. I built coffee tables in the 70's but none that were pushing 7 feet long. A morbid idea if anyone were to ask me.

-1bigsteve (o:

[Edisto]

There are actually some people who collect "posthumous portraits." Quite often, they are of children, because the parents couldn't afford to have their children photographed (or didn't take the trouble) until the poor little darlings were no more. Then they would dress the dear departed up in his or her Sunday best and have a photographer take a picture for posterity. There are many articles in the old Fall River papers during the period of the Borden murders that point up how many children died in their early years. Thankfully, modern medicine has made that largely a thing of the past.

My mother's family had a drawerful of old pictures that hadn't been placed in albums. One was of a neighbor's child who had died when he was only a few months old. His parents had lovingly seated the tiny corpse in the porch swing and taken a snapshot of him. My sister and I used to play a game called "Dead Baby." We would dump the pictures out onto my grandparents' bed, make sure they were face-down, and then begin turning them over until we came across that photograph. We would then yell "DEAD BABY!" at the tops of our voices. Hmmmm...maybe that's what warped our little psyches.

The coffee-table-cum-coffin idea reminds me of that old Hitchcock film, "Rope." Anybody remember that one?

[Kat]

Yes, I remember when we stumbled over that movie at the video store many eons ago.
We were very pleased to find a rather obscure Jimmy Stewart/Hitchcock movie!
I liked it!
It has been on TV since then, tho.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040746/