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Welcome
Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
A Taphophilia Thank You...
Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From its conception and early development, DarkestWeb was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.
Announcements
Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!
Men of Mortuaries Calendar
To purchase your 2008 calendar, learn more about the KAMMCARES Foundation, or to be featured in the 2009 calendar, please visit Men of Mortuaries.
Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
available. Please visit
Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Written by DeadGirl
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Tuesday, 02 November 2004 |
Cremation, travel an uneasy mix
By ELLEN SUNG, Staff Writer
Grieving families choosing a cremation urn consider many factors: material, cost and style. They don't usually think about X-ray readability.
Under new federal security rules, cremation urns are no longer sacrosanct when it comes to screening at the airport. Travelers trying to carry urns on board must send them through X-ray scanners, but the problem is that X-rays can't penetrate some urns to read the contents.
When that happens, security screeners take the urn, swab it for explosives and send it to the belly of the plane with the luggage -- an unhappy option for a family in mourning.
That's where Patricia Bondor of Clayton enters the picture. Bondor, co-owner of Raleigh-based Cremation.com, is on a self-appointed quest to develop flight-friendly urns.
"I feel bad when I check my baggage," Bondor said. "I hope I get my clothes. I can't imagine 'I hope I get my mom.' " Bondor, whose Web site is a virtual Yellow Pages of the funeral industry, has no financial stake in the urn evolution. But she hopes the federal Transportation Security Administration will endorse a standard design for urns, so passengers can carry the ashes of their loved ones.
Bondor met recently with TSA representatives, urn manufacturers and travel security experts to see whether there is a way to devise "TSA-approved" cremation urns.
Urn manufacturers are still deciding whether to pursue the official flight-friendly label.
It is tricky to determine which cremation urns are readable by security scanners. Wood and plastic urns usually can be scanned, but airport scanners might not be able to penetrate urns made of other material.
Bondor tried her own test at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in September, running a dozen urns filled with cremated pig bones through the X-ray scanner. An X-ray expert in England had told her the density mattered, so she wanted full urns.
Most of the urns passed. But Bondor said thicker urns might not be readable.
The issue gains urgency as more Americans choose cremation. In 2002, one in four Americans who died were cremated. By 2025, an estimated 43 percent of those who die in America will be cremated.
Last month, John Kane, 50, of Cary took a cherry wood cremation box with the remains of his wife, Yukiko, to RDU. Yukiko Kane, 56, had been a software engineer at IBM for more than 20 years; the couple had marked their silver anniversary a year earlier. John Kane was carrying her ashes home to Japan to be stowed in four resting places according to Buddhist custom.
Because the box was wood, it was easy for security screeners in Raleigh, Washington and Japan to see the contents. But if he had chosen a thick pewter urn, he likely would have had to send Yukiko's remains into baggage -- and he would have been terrified of losing them, he said.
"It had to be with me," Kane said. "And I would make a big fuss if they tried to get it off of me."
Until the standards are created, travel security authorities strongly recommend that people travel with cremated remains in a cardboard box or temporary container, then move them into a permanent urn on arrival.
Switching boxes "can be not a great thing to go through," said Scott MacKenzie, vice-president of urn manufacturer MacKenzie Vault Inc., in East Longmeadow, Mass. "They would rather travel with one urn that Mom or Dad are going to stay in."
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1787065p-8079690c.html |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.” Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)Fro
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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