The Family Plot Blog
Why You Want a Physicist to Speak at Your Funeral
You Want a Physicist to Speak at Your Funeral A physicist can provide non-religious perspective on a death. For those who want a funeral or memorial service without any mention of religion, you may find this reading to be helpful. It comes from a transcript of a speech given by writer and performer Aaron Freeman on NPR News' "All Things Considered." You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving...
‘Patient’ is a Compelling, Honest Look at End-of-Life
One of the most compelling interviews I've done on A Good Goodbye Radio was the February 2014 conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Piehler. His New York Times essay about making his own casket while facing Stage 4 prostate cancer, titled “Ashes to Ashes, but First a Nice Pine Box” was incredibly powerful. The process of hand-building his casket with a woodworker friend revealed important lessons about life, love and death. Patient: A Surgeon's Journey...
Crazy Festival Gets Quirky Media Coverage
Frozen Dead Guy Days is a most unusual festival, and it generates international media coverage. The Daily Mirror in the United Kingdom featured the festival in this Weird News story, 'Enjoying being alive by celebrating death' at the Frozen Dead Guy festival. It was especially gratifying to see a mention of The Newly-Dead Game®, which first debuted at Frozen Dead Guy Days in 2011: Some of the activities are designed to test essential skills,...
Time to Be Cool at Frozen Dead Guy Days!
This weekend, the wild and wacky Frozen Dead Guy Days festival takes place in Nederland, Colorado. Yes, there is a real frozen dead guy at the center of it all, kept in a dry ice-filled crypt in a shed in this tiny mountain town west of Boulder. The festival includes a parade of hearses, coffin races on a snowy obstacle course, costumed polar plunging, frozen turkey bowling and salmon tossing, lots of live music, alcohol, and much more -...
Five Ways to Make Your Death More Eco-Friendly
As baby boomers start facing their own mortality, the idea of eco-friendly funerals is becoming more widespread. Have you seen the statistics about the staggering amount of resources used in conventional burial? According to National Geographic, “American funerals are responsible each year for the felling of 30 million board feet of casket wood (some of which comes from tropical hardwoods), 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete for...
March 25: ABQ Death Cafe
Mark your calendars to attend the next Albuquerque Death Cafe, scheduled for Saturday, March 25, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Gail Rubin’s home. The objective of the Death Cafe is “To increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.” It’s an interesting, unstructured conversation – open and free-flowing with no specific agenda and respectful of all points of view. It’s an opportunity to discuss...
The One Who Dies With The Most Toys… Still Dies
New T-Shirt from A Good Goodbye States The Obvious If you love T-shirts with snappy sayings, snap up the latest T-shirt from A Good Goodbye. Declare the obvious with this existential statement: "The One Who Dies With The Most Toys... Still Dies." Available in Medium, Large, Extra-Large, and XXL in always-in-fashion black with white text, these T-shirts come in comfy, long-wearing 50/50 cotton/polyester. Each shirt comes with a brochure of handy...
Why Not Join the Lively Woodworkers in Coffin Clubs?
According to a story in The New York Times, D.I.Y. coffin clubs bring people together to build their own burial containers, which they playfully call "underground furniture." People aged from their 70s to their 90s get together weekly to do woodworking and make their own coffins, the six-sided boxes that are wider at the shoulders and narrower at the feet. A casket is a rectangular box. The coffins can be used as aboveground furniture, such as...
Radio Interview This Saturday: What You Need to Know
Got burning questions about cremation? Perhaps green burial sounds more appealing (if you were going to die - NOT!). Do your loved ones know what you might want, whenever that last day may come? If you've got questions about funeral planning, advance medical directives, upbeat ways to start "the talk" and other end-of-life issues, get your questions answered by The Doyenne of Death® Gail Rubin on the Jeffrey Candelaria Radio Show on Talk Radio...
Feb. 25: Gail Rubin on Jeffrey Candelaria’s KKOB-AM Show
Got questions about funeral planning, advance medical directives, cremation, and other end-of-life issues? Get your questions answered by listening live this Saturday afternoon, February 25 to the Jeffrey Candelaria Radio Show on Talk Radio 770 KKOB AM, 94.5 FM. Listen live online! Gail Rubin, CT, The Doyenne of Death®, will be his guest in the studio from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. You can join the conversation live by calling the studio line at...
Death Education is a Lot Like Sex Education
Fans of The Doyenne of Death know that my motto is "Just as talking about sex won't make you pregnant, talking about funerals won't make you dead." I'm so glad to see an expert on medical care discussing end-of-life issues with a similar light touch on a serious subject. Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter, who practices critical care and palliative medicine at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA, wrote this New York Times opinion piece, "First, Sex Ed. Then...
An Honest Obituary for an Evil Man
One of the life lessons death teaches us is that we are remembered by how we treat other people. This obituary featured on the website of the Carnes Funeral Home in South Houston is going viral. It is notable for its honest appraisal of a life lived as a warning to others. As Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar, "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones." Leslie Ray "Popeye" Charping was born in Galveston,...
March 10-12: Frozen Dead Guy Days!
More than 20,000 people will attend the 16th annual Frozen Dead Guy Days (FDGD) festival in Nederland, Colorado, 17 miles west of Boulder, March 10-12, 2017. Reader’s Digest and readers of USA Today named FDGD one of the top five winter festivals in the country. This quirky celebration of all things dead and frozen receives national media coverage every year. The event features coffin races, a parade of hearses, costumed polar plunging, frozen...
Advocates Lobby for New Mexico End-of-Life Options Bill
The New Mexico State Legislature is currently in session, and today supporters of physician aid in dying for terminally ill patients converged on the Roundhouse in Santa Fe in support of House Bill 171, the End-of-Life Options Act. The bill was introduced by State Rep. Deborah Armstrong (D-Albuquerque) and Rep. Bill McCamley (D-Las Cruces). Rep. Armstrong said, "The End-of-Life Options Act would allow mentally capable, terminally ill adults in...
Consumers Need to Focus On Funerals
If you've been avoiding the topic of pre-need funeral planning, you need to know about this week's NPR investigative story focused on how difficult it can be to get a handle on funeral costs. The two-part series ran on All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Click here to access the stories through The Family Plot Blog. It’s not that funeral establishments don’t want you to know what they charge for their services. My recent story, Eight...
What Funeral Homes Don’t Want You To Know
National Public Radio (NPR) News just ran a two-part investigative series on All Things Considered and Morning Edition about how hard it can be to get a firm handle on funeral costs. As an advocate for pre-need funeral planning, my advice is to listen to these stories and educate yourself about local funeral home costs BEFORE you need to use their services for the death of a family member. It's not that funeral homes don't want you to know what...
Eight Things Funeral Directors Want You To Know
Let’s face it – funerals are the parties no one wants to plan. And most people only interact with funeral directors at funerals, when they are appropriately solicitous, supportive, and somber. Because so many people avoid discussing death, few realize funeral directors are some of the kindest, funniest people you will ever meet. If you were simply chatting with a funeral director over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, what would he or she...
March 18: Conference Keynote Living With & Beyond Cancer
Gail Rubin, CT, is the kickoff keynote speaker at the 6th Annual Conference of Living With & Beyond Cancer. Her talk is titled "A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die." Rubin is a breast cancer survivor who uses humor and funny films to teach about preparing for end-of-life issues, whether you've had cancer or not. The conference takes place on Saturday, March 18th, 2017, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Central...
Celebrating the History of African-American Funeral Traditions
In honor of February’s Black History Month, enjoy this fascinating background about African-American funeral traditions and how they evolved. Funeral director and funeral home owner Allen Dave presented this information about African-American funeral service traditions at the 2016 International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) University. For 25 years, Dave ran a successful wedding event planning business. He became a funeral...
Feb. 19: Next ABQ Death Cafe
Mark your calendars to attend the next Albuquerque Death Cafe on Sunday, February 19, 2017 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Gail Rubin's home. Send a note to Gail [at] AGoodGoodbye.com to RSVP and get directions. Refreshments will be provided. The event is free and donations are welcome. The objective of the Death Cafe is "To increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives." It's all about an...
Introducing the “Dump-A-Drawer” Way to Declutter
Overwhelmed by clutter every time you open a drawer, a cabinet or a closet? Try Gail Rubin's "Dump-A-Drawer" approach to decluttering! Frustrated that I couldn't find a specific item in my desk drawer due to an abundance of clutter, this approach helped clear the frustration in a jiffy. Step 1: Remove the drawer with its contents inside. Step 2: Dump the contents of the drawer into a cardboard box. Step 3: Pick out the items that you actually...