Four films

This 1975 documentary follows Jacqueline Kennedy's relatives Edith Bouvier Beale (1895-1977) and her daughter "Little Edie" (1917-2002), who were eccentric and co-dependent hoarders. It is one of the few films that my friend Chris walked out on, imagining the stench of so many cats in their decaying mansion in East Hampton, New York. My Mom and I watched this on dvd a few years ago, and watched the 2009 TV movie of the same title recently. We enjoyed both films immensely and thought Drew Barrymore did a remarkable job portraying "Little Edie."
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I had seen this documentary and heard the director speak at the 2006 Silverdocs Festival. The movie captured all the emotion surrounding the suicide jumpers who leap from the Golden Gate Bridge - the number one spot from which to do so. They filmed almost every daylight hour for a year, and from several angles, and were criticized for it, but they did intervene if they spotted a likely jumper. The film brought attention to the fact that the bridge has no barricades to prevent jumping, and I just saw in the weird news that a permanent net is finally being installed.
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We saw this 2009 film at the theater yesterday. We both enjoyed it and neither of us found any fault with it. The biographical bits rounded out my picture of Julia Child (1912-2004) and a truer image - not Dan Ackroyd's spoof, which is featured in the film - appears in my mind's eye when I think of her. She was cremated, by the way, and her ashes were scattered, but not in her beloved Paris.
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We watched this 2007 dark comedy the other night and I enjoyed it, even though I see that it rates only 33% on the tomatometer. The basic plot line is the inheritance of a funeral home and the antics involved to make it profitable again. One review states that any episode of Six Feet Under had "more sharp, mordant wit and freewheeling derangement" than this film, but I quite liked it - it made me both laugh and wince.

Burial shoes

Here we have a selection of lovely shoes that were, as the box in the 3rd photo proclaims, practical. Because it did not matter whether they pinched the wearer's toes - just whether the funeral director could get them on swollen or misshapen feet. That was, and is, the main reason for burial shoes. Unless the family gives other instructions, funeral directors will provide any clothing and accessories that the family does not supply. It is no longer the custom, as it was in cultures where shoes were too valuable to relinquish, to bury the dead in bare feet. And as you can see, these vintage burial shoes now fetch a fair price above ground.

Clown's funeral

"Boppo" died on Monday. He was 79 - a father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He was also a clown, and took great pride in that. For 15 years, Norman Thompson of Bellefontaine, Ohio, was a member of the Antioch Shrine Funster Clown Unit, helping to cheer children who were hospitalized with burns. "Willie," the boss clown, explained that laying him to rest in their costumes was the greatest honor his fellow clowns could pay him, but that it was only done at the request of the deceased and their family. In Boppo's case, all 8 pallbearers wore their big shoes. “Oh, he’s definitely smiling right now,” said his daughter. I am too, aren't you?!

Desairology

Desairology. It's a word you hear rarely, if at all.

The art of desairology involves caring for the hair, skin and nails of the deceased in a funeral home preparation room. The specialty is performed by a desairologist who is licensed in cosmetology under state law. ~U.S. Legal Definitions

It's not defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, and in fact the Wikipedia entry was pulled, citing the belief that the word - along with the word cosmecare - was coined by Noella Charest-Papagno coincident with the 1980 publication of her book Handbook of Desairology for Cosmetologists Servicing Funeral Homes. The most high-profile desairologist is American actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg, although she prefers her current occupation of performer: "All my life. It's the only thing I really love. I've been a hairdresser and makeup person in a mortuary, a bricklayer and carpenter." It seems the word desairology fills a certain void. I could not find a one-word synonym and when I googled "hairdressing + corpse," all I came up with was this spoof article about Amy Winehouse's hair extensions having been stolen from the grave!