# Buried, Cremated or "Other" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 22, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789 "2006-08-22T19:35:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MizGrand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@MizGrand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizGrand)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/41 "2006-08-23T14:34:45Z")
DH wants to be entombed; I prefer the burn myself. Much more efficient and takes up less space. Somehow, I just don’t see the **value** of a several-thousand-dollar drawer in a mausoleum. The several-thousand-dollar hole in the ground doesn’t appeal either. I’ve already invested in real estate, thanks. Mayhaps it has something to do with the fact that he believes in God and Heaven, and I don’t. Or maybe he’s hoping to come back as a Zombie. The burn will prevent that, I’m told. Only way I’d get buried is if I could claw my way out, kinda like Buffy did. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/42 "2006-08-23T14:41:39Z")
[QUOTE=gabriela] Gabriela, expert in really most sincerely dead [/QUOTE] This would look **really** cool on a business card. Anyway, I’d like to give anything I could to whomever needs it organ wise and then be cremated. Don’t much care what is done with the ashes - I certainly don’t want to make my husband or son lug them around - I can’t even get them to get rid of all the crap they have while I’m alive! ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/43 "2006-08-23T16:38:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*Originally Posted by Gabriela \*\* > I remember my first cadaver. We were all terrified of it (ah, those halcyon days of yout’). Yes, sweet memories indeed. I’ll always remember nearly breaking my neck by slipping on a cadaver nipple that a fellow classmate, better suited to being a Benihana chef than a surgeon, somehow managed to drop on the floor. Hmmm. “I slipped on a nipple” – there’s a sentence that doesn’t come up in everyday conversation very often. Then there was the time one of the cadaver heads came up missing. When located, the guilty student told police that he took it home in order to study it better. His story may have been more believable if not for the fact that the theft took place on the eve of Halloween. Then there was the time that the cadaver testicles were…ah, no, I’ve droned on long enough. We’ll leave the other stories for a rainy day. Me? I want to be cremated and have my ashes sprinkled over my dogs food in order to be defecated throughout the neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/44 "2006-08-23T16:48:24Z")
I wanna be cremated. And put in a permanently sealed, rather large, heavy urn. So that the next wife has to dust me, but can’t just vacuum me out or throw me away. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![melondeca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@melondeca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melondeca)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/45 "2006-08-23T17:16:53Z")
I want my body taken to a taxidermist, stuffed and mounted in angry bear pose, and passed around to my living relatives to be placed by their front doors. One relative takes me for 6 months then passes me to another. If I die young, I want to be made into a [LifeGem](http://www.lifegem.com/secondary/whatisLG2006.aspx). My husband is to get remarried but his new wife has to wear me. When her friends comment on her beautiful ring she can tell them that it is her husbands dead wife. Realistically, I want my remains sent to the Body Farm or donated to some med school. If my organs can be harvested beforehand, then do that. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/46 "2006-08-23T17:27:13Z")
I would prefer to be buried, but as simply as possible - no embalming, no huge coffin (if necessary they could rent a show coffin for the funeral), etc. I understand that Orthodox Jews are buried just as simply as can be - just a shroud, IIRC - and that appeals to me. I want to return to the Earth. My dad has a plot in Mount Royal Cemetery, which strikes me as a pleasant patch of earth to return to. (He was cremated, and I believe my mom wants to be as well.) Failing that, I could be cremated and have my ashes scattered into the St. Lawrence from my favourite spot on Île Sainte-Hélène. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/47 "2006-08-23T17:29:38Z")
Funeral Pyre. Failing that to local ordinances, I’d like to be shot out of a large cannon. probably also a no-no. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/48 "2006-08-23T18:19:35Z")
I want to be turned into a [life-sized action figure](http://www.bodiesrevealed.com/index-process.html). ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/49 "2006-08-23T19:06:06Z")
I’m probably going to go the “cremation then having my ashes made into a diamond” route. Something about the idea of the value of my material composition increasing upon my death amuses me. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/50 "2006-08-23T19:28:26Z")
Cremated, of course. Then I want my ashes mixed with poison and fed to whichever of my enemies was responsible for my death, or, failing that, whichever of my enemies has survived me, or, failing that, whichever living person is most likely to lead humanity out of whatever morass of suffering & despair I have left the world in. ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/51 "2006-08-23T21:00:54Z")
About a year ago I came up with the idea of having my ashes scattered on a local popular beach. I get a sense of guilty pleasure knowing that some people would be squicked out if they knew they were sunbathing on or building sand castles out of bits of a dead person. But that’s just fantasy. In real life, I’d probably have my ashes dumped off one of the ferries that ply Puget Sound. If you’re still allowed to do that by then. I know of a barber on Queen Anne Hill who had his ashes put in the planter outside his shop. I used to catch the bus that stopped there. He’s made the wait a little nicer with the pretty flowers he’s helped create. Maybe I could have my ashes scattered on a community garden instead. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/52 "2006-08-23T21:22:25Z")
[QUOTE=Dr. PoopiePants] Me? I want to be cremated and have my ashes sprinkled over my dogs food in order to be defecated throughout the neighborhood. [/QUOTE] Don’t forget to rename your dog Luck on your deathbed. Then you can really be shit out of Luck… ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/53 "2006-08-23T21:57:56Z")
[QUOTE=gabriela] You have a touching faith in the permanence of National Geographic. Also a faith I wouldn’t mind being able to hold myself in the permanence of Antarctic ice. [/QUOTE] I figure that before Antarctica melts, there’ll be a catastrophic nuclear war over the dwindling fossil fuel reserves, touching off nuclear winter. So not only will the climate even out again, but future civilizations will have a hell of a lot of interesting ruins to explore, so there’ll still be a demand for the _Geographic_. So I win! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/54 "2006-08-23T22:35:34Z")
[QUOTE=gabriela] … also, presumed you meant Body Farm when you wrote [Bodyworks](http://www.bodyworks.com/))… [/QUOTE] Turns out I meant to type [Body Worlds](http://www.bodyworlds.com/index.html). The body farm would be fine; it’s a useful purpose. ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/55 "2006-08-23T23:31:05Z")
[QUOTE=Frank] Turns out I meant to type [Body Worlds](http://www.bodyworlds.com/index.html). The body farm would be fine; it’s a useful purpose. [/QUOTE] Oh, as per **Fear Itself** , who brilliantly described that fate as “being turned into an action figure”. ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789/56 "2006-08-23T23:32:14Z")
[QUOTE=Ranchoth] I figure that before Antarctica melts, there’ll be a catastrophic nuclear war over the dwindling fossil fuel reserves, touching off nuclear winter. So not only will the climate even out again, but future civilizations will have a hell of a lot of interesting ruins to explore, so there’ll still be a demand for the _Geographic_. So I win! 😃 [/QUOTE] Okay, okay. You win. Uncle. Uncle Cecil. (goes away grumbling with arm twisted up behind her back) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buried-cremated-or-other/369789.md?page=2)