The Neptune Society wants to make your holiday warm and bright, but they're not thinking of chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Correspondent Robert wasn't filled with holiday cheer when he opened his mailbox to find a solicitation from the cremation company well-known for aggressive sales come-ons: 

NeptuneSocietymailing1

 

A free cremation? It's like winning the Showcase Showdown on the Price is Right! Except not. 

What Neptune really wants, of course, is to sell you an over-priced prepaid cremation. You can usually find it less expensively if you do a little price comparison in your area. And based on the number of complaints we've received about Neptune their cremation may not be a good value at any price. Read more here. 

P.S. to Neptune—Get better stocking stuffers. 

The Jewish Chronicle
December 17, 2012

Rabbi Daniel E. Wasserman announced Monday a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Commonwealth’s Board of Funeral Directors, Bureau of Enforcement and Investigation of the Department of State and Board of Professional and Occupational Affairs today in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He was represented in the matter by Stephen M. Pincus, a partner in Stember Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, Pittsburgh; the complaint was filed by previous counsel Efrem M. Grail, Patrick Yingling and Jeremy Feinstein of Reed Smith LLP in Pittsburgh.

“This is an important victory for religious freedom in Pennsylvania,” said Rabbi Wasserman in a prepared statement.

Read the full article in The Jewish Chronicle

Thanks to Last Rights of Central Pennsylvania for alerting us to this article.

Order of the Good Death Blog
December 16, 2012

I had planned to release a new Ask a Mortician this week, but given what happened in Connecticut and China, I thought it better to release a video about talking to your children about death.  This is especially important when there is a violent death that makes them feel threatened.

See the video (3:50) at Order of the Good Death Blog

The Family Plot Blog
December 14, 2012

The Loved One debuted in 1965, two years after Jessica Mitford’s exposé book "The American Way of Death" rocked the funeral industry. Despite its black-and-white vintage, The Loved One satirizes the funeral business, including pet funerals, as well as the movie industry and the military-industrial complex. It shows funeral trends that have continued to this day.

Read the full article and see videos at The Family Plot Blog