[« Thought for the Day:] [The headline says it all.... »]
06/16/2004: I always had a soft spot in my heart....
for the late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, because he was also a baseball fan. But I'm also a bit charmed by this little trivia tidbit (from Slate's "Explainer" column: What's A Catafalque? President Reagan's Next-To-Last Resting Place, which gives us a few facts concerning "Lincoln's catafalque", the next-to-last resting place of a number of illustrious Americans, Lincoln being only the first):
Stored under glass, the catafalque is brought out exclusively to hold the caskets of extremely illustrious Americans, usually in the Capitol Rotunda. (Though not always; according to the office of the Architect of the Capitol, the last time Lincoln's catafalque appeared in public, in 1999, it was in the Supreme Court building, supporting the casket of former Justice Harry Blackmun—just before his ashes were driven to Arlington Cemetery in a Volkswagen Beetle.)That does it for me. Assuming there's anyone who even cares anymore when I die (I've given up the idea anyone will mourn my death; I'm merely shooting for someone noticing that I'm gone), I want my ashes to be conveyed to whereever (I've had a cottoning to having my ashes strewn in the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis so they will float by the city) by a VW Beetle. Preferably a beige '69 Bug, which is the same model year as the first car I ever owned.
Len on 06.16.04 @ 07:11 AM CST
