The Pocket Book of Death

The Pocket Book of Death
Rob DenBleyker

Kris Wilson

Morgan Reilly

Dave McElfatrick

Tempest Tempest

A laugh-out-loud miscellany of everything you ever wanted to know about death. From bizarre funeral practices and macabre urban myths to lucrative jobs in the death business. Accompanied by cartoons from the creators of the hit webcomic, ‘Cyanide & Happiness.’There’s just something about the end that makes us want to run screaming back to the beginning…Did you know that three American states still use the firing squad as a means of execution? Or that you can see Galileo’s preserved middle finger in Florence? How about the new trend of having your loved one’s ashes turned into a diamond? Loaded with funny and fascinating facts, The Pocket Book of Death is a jaw-dropping miscellany of macabre word origins, hysterical famous last words, bizarre death rituals, the last meals of death row inmates and more. This is a side of death you’ve never seen before.Is your job killing you? Maybe it’s time to find the perfect career in the death business. Browse through the list to find the most lucrative jobs in the industry. A little paranoid perhaps? Then discover some of the deadliest jobs in the world or the tiniest animals that can kill you.Accompanied by side-splitting cartoons from the creators of the hugely popular webcomic, ‘Cyanide & Happiness’, The Pocket Book of Death is so packed with info that it leaves no stone unturned…er, tombstone that is.

Copyright (#ulink_ad1cbc33-0096-594d-b0a5-e56f375cae5f)

HarperCollinsPublishers

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First published by Barnes & Noble 2008 by arrangement with HarperCollinsPublishers

Copyright © 2008 Morgan Reilly and Joanna Tempest

Morgan Reilly and Joanna Tempest assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or here in after invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN 9780007332366

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2014 ISBN: 9780007524716

Version: 2014-10-02

Contents

Cover (#u402fc1fd-948b-5b52-8824-1624bcc508a6)

Title Page (#u5c36be97-890e-52f7-bf34-5d70b623957f)

Copyright (#ulink_0967caf7-b7f6-5702-9677-79322e3de8c7)

Introduction (#ulink_a3da609b-de12-5da5-9225-2ce796454b80)

History of Death (#ulink_5cda3c17-32a0-5054-a511-f90a48c1e54c)

The Morbid Facts (#ulink_d0b76137-f7d4-5781-8b51-9fb4f45fc917)

Deadly Words (#litres_trial_promo)

Unsettling Death (#litres_trial_promo)

The Science of Death (#litres_trial_promo)

Unexpected Death Rituals (#litres_trial_promo)

Random Death (#litres_trial_promo)

Making Dough off the Dead (#litres_trial_promo)

Something Fishy Going On: Celebrity Deaths (#litres_trial_promo)

Killer Animals with a Napoleonic Complex (#litres_trial_promo)

Urban Myths about Death (#litres_trial_promo)

Cutting Edge Death (#litres_trial_promo)

Last Words to Laugh by & Amusing Epitaphs (#litres_trial_promo)

Bizarre Browsing (#litres_trial_promo)

Selected Bibliography (#litres_trial_promo)

Recommended Websites (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Authors (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Illustrators (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Introduction (#ulink_0ff58564-a5b1-532d-b3e6-b7bd0d889c9c)

What is it about death and dying that holds so many of us captivated? Researchers and psychologists can hand us dozens of explanations – fear of the unknown, the universality of death, compassion, empathy, sympathy, or maybe it’s just plain old morbid fascination.

It’s certainly prevalent in our modern art. After all, famed British artist Damien Hirst is one of the highest-paid living artists. His Natural History series which features dead animals preserved in formaldehyde (and occasionally sliced and diced) have sold for millions of dollars a piece.

And besides becoming an art exhibit, death has also become a massive tourist attraction. One of Moscow’s hottest tourist spots is the preserved body of Lenin in Red Square. Mao Zedong’s preserved corpse can be seen in Beijing. And let’s not forget Italy. You can get a glimpse of Galileo’s middle finger at the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence. We kid you not.

Or maybe we are fascinated by that raw freedom in death. With no more people left to impress, it’s like a sudden release from all those social and cultural barriers. In 2002, a man in Germany named Karl-Friedrich Lentze sent a letter to officials requesting permission to be buried with his blow-up sex doll, as stipulated in his will. German officials performed a thorough investigation of the inflatable companion and deemed the components of said doll would not harm the environment, so Mr Lentze was given the go-ahead to spend eternity in the arms of his libidinous latex lover. And why not? He certainly wouldn’t be around to hear the gasps of shock or the family criticisms.