Eric Karns

In the opening sequence of PBS’ latest Frontline episode, an undertaker by the name of Thomas Lynch eloquently expressed what I felt is a very sad, recent cultural trend in America. He said:

I think we’re among the first couple generations for whom the presence of the dead at their funerals has become optional, and I see that as probably not good news for the culture at large.

Up until a couple generations ago, humans were the species that dealt with death, the idea of the thing, by dealing with their dead, the thing itself, so that the way we processed mortality was by processing mortals from one place to the other, one station to the next in this little pilgrimage between as they were to how they are to what we hope they’ll be. And this movement, emotionally, is mirrored by a physical movement. The bearing of it is so very, very important.

Sometime in the mid-60s, probably having a lot to do with Jessica Mitford’s book [The American Way of Death] and a lot to do with other social factors, there was sort of the triumphalist American sense that we didn’t have to deal with any discomforts. We saw people start organizing these commemorative events to which everyone was invited but the dead guy. The finger food was good, the talk was uplifting, the music was life-affirming; someone, usually the reverend clergy, could be counted on to declare closure, usually just before the Merlot ran out, and everyone was there but the one who had died.

And we come away from these memorial events, these celebrations of life, with the increasing sense that something is missing. And something is. What is missing is the corpse: the thing itself, not the idea of the thing.

It sort of makes you wonder if this trend isn’t partly to blame for the escalating violence and disregard for life in this country over the past 30 years or so. You can watch the entire Frontline episode online here.

At first I thought this MUST be a joke (especially since it’s 1 day before Halloween)… but this is the ACTUAL leading story on CNN right now.

Recent Zogby Poll: A majority of likely voters – 52% – would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53% believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election, a new Zogby America telephone poll shows.

Where are these 52% ‘likely voters’ and WHAT are they smoking?

Your oldest pair of still-in-use underwear…?

Last night I had the absolute weirdest dream. For some reason our family had to relocate my grandmother to an old, dilapidated retirement home in the city. I would visit my grandma all the time to the point where I started to hangout with the people who ran it… who just so happened to be some sort of Latino mafia. I know this because they were very violent and had an straight-off-the-boat Irish assasin after them with homemade bombs. Somehow I managed to thwart an assassination attempt by accidentally knocking over the mafia don, thus saving him from the shrapnel. It was at this point that I unwittingly became a ‘made man’ and was now a part of the mafia.

Now, early on in the dream I had been looking for a good pair of golf shoes at the Sports Authority but hadn’t found any that I liked. And as the dream went on, it became clear that all I had to do was find the perfect pair of golf shoes and somehow that would get me out of the mafia. So, I would periodically stop by the Sports Authority for the shoes but their supply was getting lower and lower. I knew it was the mafia keeping the shelves from being full in order to keep me in under their control.

My dad would stop by the retirement home from time to time in his grey pickup (circa 1990) and check-in with me to see if I’d made it out yet. But for some reason he was not fully aware of how desperate the situation was. I was also questioned by the FBI but couldn’t seem to tip them off at the right times. As my paranoia got worse at the prospect of the mafia finding out about my tips to the FBI I decided to start packin heat (as it were). Which only increased my paranoia.

By the time my alarm woke me up, I was in the process of helping my grandma find the perfect vampiress halloween costume and that was when the dream came to an abrupt end. Tune in to tonight’s episode to find out if I was able to find fully stocked Sports Authority shelves, find the shoes I’ve been waiting for and successfully remove my grandmother from the terrible retirement home.

In 1999 the Daily Show came to my hometown and did a funny skit about a local artist who made lint sculptures. I remember my friend telling me about it at the time, but I had no idea what the Daily Show was back then. The funny thing is, the church they feature was one I attended sometimes and played the piano at once; and who’s pastor was my buddy’s dad. They actually interview my friend’s dad for a second in this piece too. Pretty funny.

(If the video doesn’t fit CLICK HERE for the original.)

Ruez can’t resist snuggin me even while I work. He’s becoming increasingly jealous of the new fish tank.

Apparently there is now a blood test which can predict if you will eventually be stricken with Alzheimer’s disease. For those of us with a family history of the disease this scientific progress could be considered a good thing. But seeing as how there is no cure for the disease I wonder if I would like to know my future or not. Would you like to know what diseases you might develop even though there’s nothing you can do to prevent it?

I would, however love to eventually have a genetic genealogy test. It would be very interesting to see where your ancestors come from. This is something that has always fascinated me and a recent mini-series on the subject (which found that the president of the NAACP as well as the producer, Quincy Jones had significant European roots) reinvigorated my interest in the subject.

Click this wicked photo of my buddies in South Korea to view larger. Greg shot this last week while visiting SKSAM (South Korean Secret Agent Man), aka TJ somewhere in Seoul. Wish I could’ve been there!!!

See that little doormat? That used to be mine… that is until the neighbor across the hall switched mats. I don’t usually notice things like that. But last night when I got home I could just sense something was amiss as I was unlocking my door. Now I’m not saying that I’m partial to either mat, in fact I didn’t even buy mine, it was just there when I moved in… but the thought that someone else’s shoes are now wiping themselves off on MY mat just - makes - me - sick. LOL. I might just go buy 2 new ones tonight and take both the old ones to really mess with ‘em.