# Of airtight caskets and morbid curiosity **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029 "2002-11-02T23:14:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gopher)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/1 "2002-11-02T23:14:15Z")
Hamsters get inside of the caskets and eat the words inside. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/2 "2002-11-02T23:38:13Z")
You want to know if you’re going to rot anyway? Yeah. That bother’s you? Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/3 "2002-11-03T01:16:52Z")
The [url=]Master speaks. You begin to liquify. > [@](#): > > If the body has had the misfortune to have been sealed in an airtight metal casket, though, anaerobic bacteria–that is, those that thrive in an airless environment–will have had a chance to get to work, and the body will have putrefied, meaning it will be partially liquefied. The smell in such cases is indescribable. Simple wooden caskets, believe it or not, often result in more gradual decomposition. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/4 "2002-11-03T02:47:36Z")
Now that we all know what happens (except the OP, who’s left the building), do most people really care what happens to their corpse? Not me. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/5 "2002-11-03T03:26:36Z")
I plan on having my body packed tightly into a large airtight container and sent through the postal service with a fake address and without a return address. Eventually I’ll scare the hell out of somebody working the late shift at some post office. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/6 "2002-11-03T06:32:05Z")
😃 Good one, **clayton\_e**. Wait a minute, that’s mean. You know you can go to hell for stuff like that. And I’ll probably see you there for laughing. Now, how can I top _that_? ---
**Author:** ![Pythagoras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@Pythagoras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pythagoras)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/7 "2002-11-03T07:26:01Z")
Hmm is it a crime to mail a dead body through the mail? ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/8 "2002-11-03T08:39:57Z")
Gotcha Ya! ---
**Author:** ![Lou\_E.Thunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Lou\_E.Thunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lou_E.Thunder)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/9 "2002-11-03T09:08:09Z")
your not allowed to mail human remains (that means no turds in the mail either) ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/10 "2002-11-04T15:06:56Z")
Well, I think airtight caskets are fitting. I mean, for all those years people had the idea of death “returning them to the dust from which they are made.” And nowadays we know that we’re actually descended from slime. ---
**Author:** ![EchoKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@EchoKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EchoKitty)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/11 "2002-11-04T15:37:52Z")
Give me the big oven and bury my ashes beneath a young tree so that I may grow into its limbs and leaves and become one with it. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/12 "2002-11-04T16:51:34Z")
My body won’t be decomposing at all. I’m going to save being dug up 200 years after my death to make way for a new road, so instead I’ll go right for cremation. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/13 "2002-11-05T01:36:37Z")
Everybody keeps saying “I” and “me” when referring to their dead body. After you die, your body is an “it”. Carrion. Corpse. Cadaver. I think I’ll let the young medicos at Stanford play with mine after I no longer need it. What happen’s to the “I” and “me” after we die is a mystery to us. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/14 "2002-11-05T04:47:07Z")
I believe it was Anthony Hopkins who said that he wanted his ashes put into egg timers, so that he would finally be serving a practical purpose. Sounds good to me. . . . ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/15 "2002-11-05T08:21:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by EchoKitty \* > \*\*Give me the big oven and bury my ashes beneath a young tree so that I may grow into its limbs and leaves and become one with it. \*\* I want something similar… To be burned, then mixed into a slurry, and swallowed by a porn actress. What? I’m sure they already have a sub-genre of that sort in Japan… ---
**Author:** ![heresiarch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@heresiarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heresiarch)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/16 "2002-11-05T09:27:37Z")
So, in death, **Spit** will be transformed into **Swallow**? There’s a deep spiritual metaphor in that. Or not. ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/17 "2002-11-05T11:07:35Z")
Jesus! I thought I’d get around to dealing with this sooner or later. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mangeorge \* > \*\*Now that we all know what happens (except the OP, who’s left the building), do most people really care what happens to their corpse? > Not me. \*\* Yeah, but it’s not MY corpse that interests me, it’s those of other people! 😛 I know about the column Cecil wrote. That got me thinking about this. That a corpse “partially liquefies” is rather intriguing. So my concerns are: “Liquefies”–What kind of consistency are we talking about? Is the liquid watery or is it some kind of (forgive me if I sound crass) goo? “Partially”–Do just specific parts liquefy? It’s pretty clear that the skeleton wouldn’t, but is it specific tissue types that do this or is it just a generalized liquification all over the body? If given enough time, does the whole corpse liquefy? What kind of fluids are formed? I remember a documentary on the Discovery Channel about criminology that had a segment on the University of Tennessee’s “Body Farm” describing the various things they do there, among which is the practice of sealing donor cadavers in airtight boxes and collecting the resulting fluids. ---
**Author:** ![PurplePerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@PurplePerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurplePerson)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/18 "2002-11-05T14:17:36Z")
You can mail cremated human remains. I got my cousin in the mail. . . . . not UPS not, Federal Express. . . . . the mail. ---
**Author:** ![tramp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@tramp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tramp)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/19 "2002-11-05T15:00:05Z")
I want my ashes spread over Dave Matthews. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029/20 "2002-11-05T16:19:53Z")
What if you go before he does? He might get pissed… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-airtight-caskets-and-morbid-curiosity/135029.md?page=2)