Today's Six Feet Under URL

...comes from the BBC, reporting on a curious funeral practice being outlawed in China.

I think I'll ask HWMBO to book one for my funeral.

There'll Always be an England, Obituary Department

From the Telegraph.

Lord Deramore

(Filed: 24/08/2006) Telegraph

The 6th Lord Deramore, who died on Sunday aged 95, was an example of that breed of mildly eccentric hereditary peer whose presence for generations embellished, informed and entertained the "unreformed" House of Lords.

( He was a writer of erotic fiction. I dare you not to look behind the cut! )

Today must be obituary day!

From the New York Times come an obituary of a modern-day Wimpy who seems to have captured one of the essentials of being American: eating hamburgers.

August 24, 2006
NY Times
Douglas Martin

Jeffrey Tennyson, 54, Hamburger Devotee, Is Dead

Jeffrey Tennyson, an artist whose obsession with hamburgers - equal parts gastronomic, folkloric and satiric - resulted in a book on burger history and a hoard of thousands of burger knickknacks, died Aug. 18 at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 54.

The cause was complications of infection with H.I.V., said his sister, Lisa Tennyson.

Mr. Tennyson's love affair with hamburgers sprouted from fond childhood memories of neon-adorned fast-food temples serviced by ponytailed carhops laden with trays of chocolate malts and juicy deluxe burger platters. He told The Washington Times in 1995 that the burger bug irrevocably bit in the early 1980's when he was living in New York and noticed a burger stand on almost every corner while taking a bus down Broadway.

"The real American icon is not apple pie," he realized. "It's the hamburger."

( Can you resist the rest? Are you hungry yet? )

Today's new product URL

I was one of the "early adopters" of The Complete New Yorker. As the New Yorker was one of my favourite magazines from my earliest years in New York until I moved to London, I felt that the Complete New Yorker, with every page of every issue since 1925 up to early 2005, was something I had to have. So I bought it, and was only slightly miffed that the price came down as people balked at the large price and the large folder containing DVDs. The search function is nifty: the index is on your computer, and once you've narrowed down what you want to see, the program instructs you which DVD to load up to see your choice.

Well, I guess that wasn't enough for the New Yorker (I miss William Shawn). They have now come out with this product which is along the same lines. I think it's probably a first. Has 20 GB remaining on it for future issues! Get yours today! Preorders can get it personally inscribed!! Oh dear, the choices one has to make. If I bought this HWMBO would kill me. But, I really want it.