Well, that’s sad that it died. You could replace it with a much younger tree with a smaller rootball, then the roots will establish themselves over and around the casket. The larger/older the tree, the less likely it is to succeed... although it may hang on for a few years first!

But... without cemeteries and golf courses and suburban lawns, how would we use up all our water reserves, and where would we go for fertilizer bomb supplies? Plus, global warming would slow way down, and that would put a wrench in my plans for a tropical orchard in my back yard. I was gonna grow Hass avocadoes…

Hey, I think from now on I will always put my comments just above someone who commented “very true.” That way, to anyone who just skims without looking at the commenters’ names, it’ll always look like someone’s emphatically agreeing with me!

Maybe they’re just dedicated recyclers who are reclaiming the valuable metals and other materials that the caskets are made of. (Seriously, caskets are just huge, gigantic wastes of resources.)

London is just a layer cake of cemeteries, it seems. It’s fascinating to read about centuries of building over burial grounds there.

“Bury me beneath the willow tree

Yes, I think that’s probably more like what’s going on in these other cases. It’s not so much that the caretakers are “pretending” to bury a casket and digging it up the next day (except in CalliopeB’s case!)... it’s more that they’re keeping tabs on the older and unvisited graves and reusing those plots. Also, it…

Wait... a thousand dollars for a tree? What kind of tree? Or was it a mature tree and you had to pay for heavy equipment to plant it? Or the cemetery charged you to plant it? I’m curious, because a typical nursery tree would be somewhere between $10 and $30 where I live.

Being a closeted atheist in a Catholic community is not too bad, because it’s easy to just go with the memorized rituals in church and live your secular life out of church, with little crossover. Catholics — at least Irish Catholics — are reticent about feelings, beliefs, sex, body functions.... all the uncomfortable…

I’m grey, so no one will probably ever read this but you, but I just want to say I would have starred your comment for the sentiment, but it would be better if you just tried to educate without the personal attack. “Catch more flies with sugar than vinegar” and that sort of thing.

Now seems like a good time to mention Caitlin Doughty and the Order of the Good Death. I know she’s been mentioned on Jez before, but for newbies, her “Ask A Mortician” videos on youtube are informative and entertaining:

Ooh, ooh, I know one! It was the first one I ever heard, and I was so confused, but now I get it:

Dear Mr. Marchman, I don’t know a lot about sports, so maybe you could explain some things to me:

I don’t get it. That’s not a baby goat.

Which sucks because those things aren’t easily replaceable, so it’s like losing an extra day of your life to the sharks.

I like the itty bitty red one in the toppest picture.

So you can open the front and back trunks and slide in the fruit trees you just bought, so that the pots stick out the back and the trunks rest on your shoulders and the foliage shades the windshield out in front of you as you drive home.

Nor in NC.

If it swivels, the passenger can play Solitaire during the ride.

And function much better.