Introduction -- 1. Death : can't live with it, can't live without it -- Is death necessary? -- Death across cultures -- Philippe Ariès and Western attitudes toward death -- Geoffrey Gorer and "The pornography of death" -- The good and bad news about immortality -- America : paradise regained? -- "The wild honeysuckle" -- The fellow in the bright nightgown -- Death fear -- The evil dead -- Death anxiety scale -- Never say die -- "Timor mortis conturbat me" -- I [love] death -- Agony to extinction : the death process -- How do you know when you're dead? -- Our bodies, our deaths -- Putrefaction : a handy guide -- "Ghastly gropings in the decay of graves" -- What a way to go -- A Grim fairy tale -- 2. Be prepared -- "The good death" : achievable goal or contradiction in terms? -- Mortuary hall of fame : Elisabeth Kübler-Ross -- Ars moriendi -- Death at the dinner table : talking about the inevitable -- Did Lincoln dream of his own death? -- Wills : last and living -- "Who gets grandma's yellow pie plate?" -- Wacky wills -- Tending to the terminally ill -- "Deathing" -- Quality of death : the hospice experience -- Death foretold -- What to do when someone dies -- Death certificates -- "Not so fast, Johnson" : the dos and don'ts of death notification -- The right to die -- Famous last words --
3. Funeral facts -- Burial : it's only human -- Ritual burials : so easy even a caveman could do it -- The wacky world of funeral customs -- God is in the details : religion and burial -- A brief history of the American funeral industry : making a big production of death -- Funeral favors -- It's a tough job but someone's got to do it -- From furniture maker to undertaker -- NFDA -- The funeral home experience -- Funeralspeak -- Mortuary hall of fame : Howard Raether -- Step into my parlor -- Pre-need : pro or con? -- GPL -- SCI : the 800-pound funeral gorilla -- Coffins and caskets : what's the difference? -- Coffins for the big-boned -- Unsung heroes of the death industry : Almond Fisk -- DIY coffins -- Rent-a-casket -- Kool koffins -- A brief history of embalming -- Thomas Holmes -- Equal-opportunity embalming -- Unsung heroes of the death industry : Roy F. McCampbell -- Embalming : don't try this at home -- How to beat the high cost of embalming (hint : skip it) -- American hearses : going in style -- Hearses for the Harley crowd -- Hearse clubs : for connoisseurs of fine vintage funeral coaches -- Funerals : the consumer's last rights -- FCA, USA -- Scams and what to do about them -- Funerals for the YouTube age -- Bereavement fares -- A meal to die for -- Eat, drink, and be buried -- Eulogies -- Wake me when it's over -- Oh, and never ever wear new shoes to a funeral -- Hand of glory -- Living funerals -- The dead beat -- Greetings from the grave -- Obit for an obituarist --
4. Grave matters -- From mass grave to memorial park : the rise of the modern cemetery -- Take me out to the graveyard -- Ten cemeteries to see before you die -- Legends of Père Lachaise -- The only travel book you'll ever need (assuming you spend all your vacation time visiting cemeteries) -- Cemetery shopping tips -- The ultimate cemetery locator -- Gravedigging : a dying art -- Written in stone -- Stone love -- Finally! A magazine addressed to the needs of taphophiles -- The tombstone of tomorrow--today -- Buried alive -- The Lebenswecker : if this doesn't wake you up, nothing will -- "One summer night" -- The undead : fact or fiction? -- Pet cemeteries -- Gladstone, Michigan : pet casket capital of the world -- In memoriam : Fluffy -- Corpse-napping : ransoming the dead -- Burke and Hare : making a killing from corpses -- Digging up the goods -- Necrophilia -- "The unquiet grave" -- 5. Cremation, cryonics, and other postmortem possibilities -- To burn or not to burn? -- Cremation : then and now -- CANA -- Ashes to art -- The perfect final resting place for snack lovers -- Fly me to the moon -- Sleeping with the fishes -- Ashes aweigh -- The eternal alumni club -- Hair today, memorial gemstone tomorrow -- Keith, Coke, and funerary cannibalism -- Cryonic preservation : cooling your heels (along with the rest of your anatomy) for a few millennia -- Ted Williams : dead head -- Green burials -- Ecopods : designer coffins for the save-the-earth crowd -- How to make a mummy -- You, too, can be a mummy (and so can Fido) -- 100 percent all-natural mummies --
Dr. Lindemann and the inferno
The Victorians : fetishists of death
Victorian postmortem photography : a how-to guide
Where do the gone things go? Children and death
Death comes to Mr. Rogers's neighborhood
The undiscovered country : where do we go from here?
"The Indian burying ground"
The light at the end of the tunnel
A death song that could make even John Wayne cry
Lullabies : ditties of death
Six feet under : must-see TV for morticians
Magazines you are unlikely to find in your doctor's waiting room
Death : king of terrors or really fun hobby?
Bluelips : your one-stop online shopping site for those hard-to-find mortuary novelty items
Build-a-corpse : fun for the whole family!
And following our midafternoon séance, there'll be lanyard braiding at the arts and crafts center
