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Posts tagged as “death”

A Very October Reading List

In numerous cultures, it is believed, even celebrated, that with the arrival of autumn, the veil between the living world and what lies beyond grows thin—from Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, in Mexico and Spain; to Fed Gede, or Festival of the Ancestors, in Haiti; to Yu Lan, or the Hungry Ghost Festival, in China; to Halloween in the United States. While each holiday is nuanced and unique, October welcomes traditions around the globe that center on mortality. As spirits, ancestors, ghosts, and ghouls parade into our earthly realm, we offer a reading list that will invite you to consider death and dying from a wide variety of vantage points. Is the Cemetery Dead? by David Charles Sloane In modern society, we have professionalized our care for the dying and deceased in hospitals and hospices, churches and funeral homes, cemeteries and mausoleums to aid dazed and disoriented mourners. But these formal institutions can be alienating and cold, leaving people craving a more humane mourning and burial process. Is the Cemetery Dead? gets to the heart of the tragedy of death, chronicling how Americans are inventing new or adapting old traditions, burial places, and memorials. In illustrative prose, […]

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Bea Arthur Dead at 86

Bea Arthur, the tall deep voiced actress who played “Maude” in a sitcom of the same name and appeared in “The Golden Girls” television sitcom has died of cancer in her Los Angeles home.  More…

Suicide Bombers Kill 60 In Iraq

Two suicide bombers wearing vests stuffed with explosives detonated their bombs in separate attacks in Baghdad and north of Baghdad killing a total of sixty people police said.   More… 

Acting Freddie Mac CFO Dead In Apparent Suicide

WASHINGTON – Reports indicate that 41-year-old, David Kellerman, acting Chief Financial Officer for Freddie Mac – the government sponsored creator of mortgage-backed securities, was found dead in his N0rth Virginia home, the victim of and apparent suicide.  More…