I - well, like is probably too strong a word - but I am pro open casket. Wishes of the deceased and family applying, of course. Cathartic is probably not the word I want - but it's, I don't know, grounding for me. More real or solid or something.

My dad just calls me and tells me what he wants to order from Amazon (or any other Web site), then gives me his credit card number, and I place the order for him. It works well, and it doesn't bother me, while having to talk him through ordering on his own computer would probably make me snap.

ION, I found the magic beer at the local grocery store, and I'm happily drinking one now. It is SO damed good.

Unpacking continues apace. And that pace is GLACIAL. I moved in 15 days ago, and just today got the TV (plus DVD player, VCR, etc.) plugged in and working. For reals.

More real or solid or something.

Speaking of - I do not recommend touching the person in the casket. For any reason. Don't do it.

I was 12 and my older sister convinced me that our mom would want to be buried wearing her favorite Charlie perfume. We didn't have the spray kind, just the dab on kind, and I was the lucky dabber.

She felt not unlike a cinder block.

So again I say, don't do it.

That's the whole thing, Brenda. It is a very personal decision. There isn't a right or wrong answer. What the deceased wanted is what is right.

I just don't want anyone to see me dead because I know it is hard to erase that memory. I want people to remember the animated Laura.

So again I say, don't do it.

Nicole, I've been to viewings where various loved ones have kissed and -- not *hugged,* but grasped, or embraced -- maybe I do mean hugged -- the person in the casket. I'm not sure I would want to, but from what I remember, the people who did it seemed like being able to touch their loved one was all that was standing between them and total freakout.

So, I guess YMdefinitelyV in this instance.

My mother has threatened to haunt me for the rest of my life if I do not have her cremated.

Am I the only sucker who starts crying at the end of Love, Actually no matter how many times I see it? Man am I a sap.

Note to Self: Watching sweet, sappy movie that begins and ends in airports is not a good idea the same day that ND leaves.

Many years ago, Comedy Central had some show (I forgot what), where the promos would say, "We've got every comedian and their mother here on Comedy Central." So the promos, of course, featured various comedians and their mothers. The two would sit (or whatever) together and the comedian would tell a joke.

So one comedian says, "When I die, I want to be cremated and have my ashes scattered around my parents' living room. So my mom will have to clean up after me one last time."

You could tell the guy's mom had no idea he was gonna say that, and she was genuinely appalled. She said, "That's terrible!"

So, I guess YMdefinitelyV in this instance.

I'm sure that my age and lack of understanding that an embalmed person would feel much different than a live person, had/has quite a bit to do with my stance.

I've hugged many loved ones that had recently passed - usually while they were in a hospital bed - and that definitely helped me in my time of grief, so I get the touching thing. So perhaps I just don't recommend touching without knowing that they won't feel the way they used to before they'd been to the morgue.

As for my dead self, donate what can be donated and then cremated. 'Cause I just *know* that if I were buried, some moron would build houses over the cemetary I'm in and one day my skeleton would be popping out of the ground of someone's future pool site. That'd be my luck.

Mother has mainly threatened to haunt us if anyone even considers "Nearer My God to Thee" in the music selections.

Outside of the sobfest that is "The Body," the only thing that reliably break me up is when Harry Bailey says "To my big brother George, the richest man in town."