Hubby says they did this in 'Nam too. That’s about all he’ll say about it though.
Exhumably – sorry Presumably, those of us engaged on an eternally elegant one legged pose would be spared the embarrassment of having something unsavoury inserted about our person. But confirmation would be nice otherwise I’ve got to re-write the damn will again.
This idea of a 10’ hole for mother seems pretty good in principle. However, I can now report that it’s best to dig
(1) in daylight, and
(2) not next to your neighbour’s path (especially if they tend to take short cuts across your lawn after the pub shuts)
Yes. We did it in Viet-Nam as well, but the dogtags didn’t have the tooth slot.
In old cemeteries in “fly-over country” you will occasionally find graves where people are buried upright. Well, up-down. A suicide would be buried upright but headfirst, literally sending the heathen to hell.
There is one in the “pioneer cemetery” a few miles down the road from my parents’ place in central, rural Minnesota.
I’ve always liked the idea of a very deep narrow hole, with an endless chain and pulley system. each person so entombed would have a large hook embedded into their spine to allow then to be hooked onto the chain. Exhumations would be so much easier…
An alternative would b e a long slit trench with a hanging rail running the entire length. 
Yeah but you’re all forgetting one thing… being buried standing up just sounds damn freaky. Now each time i’m in a room alone I get scary thoughts of people being dead standing up, like zombies or something.
Oh yeah, guess it was just originally not exactly easy to build deep narrow holes to bury people, and its just been tradition to countinue burying people laying down.
I can smell your brains.
I was obviously kidding, moron.
And that smell must be yours, cause I probably live at least a thousand kilometres from you.
Way to make a grand entrance, Ian. :rolleyes: Here’s a tip…try actually READING all the posts next time!
I did read the posts. All I did was state a opinion and a fact.
Have you ever actually seen any good zombie movies?
BTW: You’ll know when I’m insulting you. I don’t really do anything half-assed, so there will be no doubt at all. Further, it’ll be in the pit, which is where insults belong.
Lighten up.
Ian: I think Commander was quoting Night of the Living Dead.
re donating your body to science… best of all, be an organ donor. It seems the best possible use for dead humans. Of course as was mentioned somewhere (I think Deep Thoughts) it’d suck if there were an afterlife and it turned out you needed all of that…
OK, folks.
Ian, Commander was quoting one of the all-time worst movies (see if that doesn’t get this thread sent to GD or the Pit!). That’s allowed (and encouraged). You responded with an insult. That’s not allowed.
Don’t worry about it though. It’s pretty clear that you felt moved to respond because you missed the reference. You’ll get the hang of it. Welcome to the Straight Dope.
Interesting, this Ben Jonson plaque. First, the addition of the “H”. Second, the space between O and RARE, unless it’s a play on words. ORARE is the infinitive form of the verb “to pray”; on the other hand, if I’m not mistaken, “rare” could also be the vocative form of the adjective “rarus”, which means rare. Thus, we could also read the inscription as saying “O rare (human being)”
P.S.: lan, I like your style!