Remember this story from 2002:
Le Lavandou, France – The mayor of this small resort town on the Riviera issued a decree making it illegal for anyone not owning a burial plot to die within town limits. The local cemetery is running short of room.
“I know it’s absurd but it’s no less absurd than the court order which banned us from building a new cemetery,” Mayor Gil Bernardi said.
The idea is apparently spreading:
Municipal regulations normally ban anything from smoking in public places to parking in certain zones.
But officials in the Brazilian town of Biritiba Mirim, 70km (45 miles) east of Sao Paulo, have gone far beyond that.They plan to prohibit residents from dying because the local cemetery has reached full capacity.
Mayor Roberto Pereira says the bill is meant as a protest against federal regulations that bar new or expanded cemeteries in preservation areas.
Which reminds me of one of my favorite blogs, Will Warren’s Unremitting Verse, who wrote a poem about the original story:
If you want to skip a jailing
when your body takes to ailing
And the doctor starts to shake his head and sigh,Just don’t find yourself a-dwellin’
in the town that makes a felon
Out of any citoyen who tries to die.If your chest hurts something awful,
go and do it where it’s lawful:
The boneyard’s full in fair Le Lavandou.All the signs they’re now requiring
say “Merci for not expiring!”—
Find somewhere else to bid your last adieu.When your breathing turns to wheezing,
Mayor Gil you’ll be displeasing,
And he’ll cut you with his fearsome Gallic scowl:“Not in this town—it’s illicit.
Could we make it more explicit?
Get up, get out, allez,” he’ll fairly growl.When you’re nearly nonexistent,
Mayor Gil is most insistent:
“Just hit the road—you might try St. Tropez.”If you’re soon to be deceasing,
say bonjour to French policing
When you pick Le Lavandou to pass away.
A lot of good blogs have come and gone in just a few short years.
Mike S
There’s a Greek island called Delos that had that law for over 2500 years.
I visited it back in 1997 and was just blown away. The island is one big museum with ruins everywhere. I you ever travel to Greece and go down the Cyclades I highly recommend a stop there. You are only allowed to tour it during the day so you have to stay on Mykonos whcih may upset some of our winger friends because it is a gay destination. But have no fear, the competition for the women who visit the island is scarce so getting laid is quite easy.
Bob In Pacifica
Don’t they cremate in France?
Mike S
Just cars.
Joey
Heh, nice one.
Steve S
They could always turn the bodies into diamonds…
lifegem.com/
Their motto ought to be… “Why give Grandma’s wedding diamond to your bride to be… when you can give Grandma herself.”
Bob Munck
What if all the people in Biritiba Mirim just don’t die anymore?
I myself am trying to convince my wife to take my body to Lifegem and have it made into carbon nanotubes, to be used in the Space Elevator.
Krista
Steve S – that’s really, really disturbing. It’s right up there with getting your dead pet stuffed.
Phillip J. Birmingham
I hear the penalty is life in prison!
Hah! I kill me!
Lines
And now we have Pajamas Media, what does that tell you?