# May 18th Graveyard Tour--The Best-Laid Plans
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 12, 2003, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682 "2003-05-12T13:14:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/41 "2003-05-16T16:46:26Z")
**Stranahan** is not dead. **Stranahan** lives on in the hearts and souls of strong men, everywhere. **Stranahan** is a beacon of hope to the faithful.
re: Bizarre Monuments. Ooooooh! I hope we get down to the **Morello-Volta** tomb, with the ten-foot green Mourning Bride all sprawled across the front steps!
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/42 "2003-05-16T21:07:34Z")
I hope everyone who can takes the tour. I’d love to go if there weren’t that 3-day drive to get there. Too often the loveliest tombstones are taken for granite.
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/43 "2003-05-17T01:54:34Z")
If it wasn’t s’late, I’d think you’d have lost your marbles.
You can drive down to Graceland Cemetery in Chicago in a few hours…that’s gotta be my favorite non-East Coast boneyard.
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2003, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/44 "2003-05-17T02:25:34Z")
Wish I weren’t so far away. I’ve just ordered a used copy of **Permanent Parisians** for cemeteries there.
[hijack] Eve, do you go to a lot of theater? If you do, it is possible that you know one of my sister’s friends.[/hijack]
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2003, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/45 "2003-05-17T14:28:08Z")
Who do you think I am, Brooke Astor? $25 for dinner, $60 for tickets, $50 for cabfare home . . . Nope, I just _write_ about it, I can’t afford to actually _see_ it.
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### Author:  [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/46 "2003-05-17T23:00:37Z")
I hope we get to see Charlotte Canda. Her monument has always been one of my favorites. And such a sad story behind it!
I’m debating whether or not to bring my rediculous amount of camera equipment with me. One of my big hobbies is taking B&W “art” photographs of tombstones and I’m trying to decorate the bedroom in my new apartment with my own work, but I don’t want to slow us down with my stupid lenses and such. Maybe I’ll just leave the telephoto and the wide-angle at home and bring the bare bones. Not like I can’t come back!
Re: non-East Coast cemeteries. Graceland in Chicago is, of course, fantastic. There’re so many “money” families buried there that it can’t help but be. The Palmer temple? Ye gods! I like Bellefontaine in St. Louis, though, because its grandeur is on a more intimate, approchable level. It has amazing pieces, like the Adolphus Busch mausoleum and the “girl in the shadow box,” but there are wonderful stones at every turn, like the riverboat captain still at the wheel (across from the Busch tomb) and the Merriweather Lewis monument tucked away at the back of the cemetery. Lovely place to spend the day.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2003, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/47 "2003-05-17T23:23:56Z")
I’m bringing a cheap crappy throw-away camera, as I never did replace the one that got stolen in New Orleans a couple of years ago . .
Trying to figure out what to _wear_: “It’ll be near 70 during the day, except in the morning, when it’ll be about 50 . . .” Layers. I don’t want to schlep a lot of stuff, so I guess a light sweater and a spring coat (I have a dandy c1960 coat I bought at a thrift shop; very Tippi Hedren in _The Birds_. Wonder if that would be tempting fate?).
See y’all tomorrow! Remember, we’ll be leaving for the F train from B&N at 11:30. Looking forward to this!
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/48 "2003-05-18T02:05:44Z")
You’re leaving at 11:30? Then you’ll be at the 20th Street gate by noon. Make sure you bring a nice long book.
– Uke, leaving home by 12:30 at the earliest
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### Author:  [@Alto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alto)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2003, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/49 "2003-05-18T02:54:10Z")
Yay, I can come after all. Add one more to your train.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2003, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/50 "2003-05-18T03:16:11Z")
The way the trains run on Sundays? And the fact that none of us has the slightest sense of direction? Don’ be optimistic, baaay-bee.
–Eve (in her Tippi Hedren coat and carrying a big Flit can for the birds)
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/51 "2003-05-18T03:19:33Z")
Oh, right–for those of us meeting at the B&N, I no longer have red hair (dunt esk, it’s a long story). Look for the _brown_-haired middle-aged matron in the khaki skirt, blue sweater and beige Tippi Hedren coat.
Magazine rack, B&N, 6th Avenue (aka Avenue of the Americas) and 22nd Street.
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2003, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/52 "2003-05-18T03:21:15Z")
Well, I want to know how it went and what you saw. Don’t just leave me like this! I need vicarious thrills and chills!
[hijack again] Eve, the person I was referring to has the initials CJ and does serious theater, both off and on – lead roles. Please don’t mention names if you figure it out. If I _ever_ make it to Manhattan and she has a play going, I’ll bet we can get in. I’ll have to eat at a hotdog stand though.
I would also appreciate it if no one else who reads this uses her name here. Thanks![/hijack]
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/53 "2003-05-18T03:29:40Z")
Oh, don’t worry, Zoe, we’ll be taking (and posting) photos.
Hmmm . . . Girlfriend of yours . . . In the theater . . . Well-known . . . Omigod, you know [Dame Celia Johnson](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Johnson,+Celia)?
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2003, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/54 "2003-05-19T02:41:06Z")
_Well, I want to know how it went and what you saw._
We…saw…dead people.
OK, sorry. A good time was had by all. Except maybe John Cashman. Because of the size of our group, they decided to split us off into our own exclusive SDMB graveyard tour. Poor John never knew what hit him. He’d be trying to lead us around in a group and half of us would be wandering around like kittens chasing a cricket. When he was able to gather us together, he’d tell us about some famous personality whose tomb we were looking at (or not looking at, depending on the mood of the crowd). Then someone in our group would turn out to know more about the person than John did. I think John was torn between sneaking away and taking notes. (I’m sure I saw him writing down some of Eve’s one-liners.)
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### Author:  [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/55 "2003-05-19T04:45:11Z")
The highlight of the day:
**Cashman:** Now all of you have heard of the firm Dun & Bradstreet, right? Well, the man in that there grave is Mr. Bradstreet.
**Eve:** And now he’s done.
My God, I’m still laughing as I type this!
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2003, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/56 "2003-05-19T11:54:36Z")
LOL!!! (I’m grinning from rear to rear!) Eve, no, I don’t know the woman that you mentioned at all! The woman I am thinking of is my sister’s friend, not mine. Okay. Another clue. Toni.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2003, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-18th-graveyard-tour-the-best-laid-plans/174682/57 "2003-05-19T12:48:58Z")
Recap of the trip is [on this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=184890).
Now: I ordered prints _and_ a CD, as per **Oxy** ’s instructions. I have _absolutely no idea_ what to do with the CD. Never had one before. So—I take it home and stick it in my computer. Then what happens? How do I e-mail photos to people? I think **Oxy** said he could post them somewhere so’s y’all can see them (only the Eve-approved photos, of course).
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