2013: Nederland Mayor Joe Gierlach and Gail Rubin
If you’ve never heard of Frozen Dead Guy Days, it’s an icy cold, wild and wacky celebration of life – and yes, there is a real frozen dead guy at the center of it all.
In 1989, the body of Bredo Morstoel traveled from Norway to the U.S., coming to rest in Nederland, Colorado, where his grandson planned to operate a cryonics lab. Though the facility never opened, “Grandpa” Bredo remains famously deep frozen by dry ice in a storage shed. Thousands of people from around the globe come to celebrate his “on ice” existence during Frozen Dead Guy Days, now in its 13th year.
The festival, taking place March 7 to 9, includes a hearse parade, coffin races, polar plunges, great music and lots of icy fun. I’ll be there as well, conducting The Newly-Dead Game® and showing the documentary “Grandpa’s in the TUFF SHED” on Saturday and Sunday at the Black Forest Restaurant.
Frozen Dead Guy Days is the topic of this week’s A Good Goodbye Radio show. I’m interviewing festival director Amanda MacDonald.
Besides the trip to Colorado, I’m coming to Las Vegas, Nevada and Baltimore, Maryland in April and Minneapolis in June. Interested in setting up some local presentations? Let’s talk! Call me at 505.265.7215.
Top Tips from Last Week’s Show
Pet hospice was the topic on last week’s A Good Goodbye Radio show. Guest Kathryn Marocchino, a professor of death and dying at California State University in Vallejo and founder of the Nikki Hospice Foundation for Pets, provided some good tips for pet parents.
- Mobile veterinarians are embracing pet hospice in growing numbers, able to bring palliative care and euthanasia services to the home. Seek them out in your local market.
- Some pet insurance companies now cover hospice for pets, but you can’t get coverage for a pre-existing condition.
- If the animal is geriatric and in a terminal condition, it may be more stressful to pursue aggressive treatment. Consider keeping the animal out of pain and in the home environment.
- Aggressive treatment such as surgery, radiation, and even chemotherapy for an animal is almost always much more expensive than palliative care.
- As with geriatric people, when our pets have failing sight and hearing, or dementia, pet parents need to be there for their animals. Consider recruiting a team of helpers to care for that failing pet.
Listen to the podcast:
Upcoming Events, Interviews and a Humorous Quote
Click on the date for more details about each event.
January 29: “The Party No One Wants to Plan” – film clip talk to the Military Officers Association of America
February 1: Albuquerque Death Cafe at Sheila’s Sweets (mmm… caramel bacon!) 2:30 p.m. Meetup Group
February 5: A Good Goodbye Radio with Professor Sherri Burr on wills and trusts for artists, entertainers and regular folks!
February 9: A Taste of Honey Talk – Show and Tell: Jewish Funeral Superstitions and Traditions – Open to All: 1:00 to 4:30pm, $25/Earlybird before 2/1; $30 on or after 2/1 ***For Special Pricing information please contact Phyllis Wolf at 505-348-4500 or phyllisw@jccabq.org Download the brochure PDF
February 24: Exit Strategies film talk at Central New Mexico Community College Death & Dying class, open to everyone.
“Aside from disease, war, and death, how are things?” — Joseph Delteil