ashes to ashes

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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just to finish the story i posted last week... since the old thread is closed.

the dead lady who was refused funeral because her family believed her to be alive? turned out she was dead after all. until the end the family claimed that she will wake up and walk any minute. she was buried, eventually, but only after a local brujo convinced the family the woman will be revived indeed, but after she is buried.

claudius: where is polonius?
hamlet: at supper.
claudius: at supper where?
hamlet: not where he eats, but where he is eaten.

Sepultan mujer que cre?an revivir?a -
 

bronzeallspice

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Mar 26, 2012
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dv8, thanks for posting a follow up. I was wondering what the outcome was. Or should I say if the family came to their senses.
 

bronzeallspice

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Mar 26, 2012
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Per the article, even though the body started to show signs of decomposition, the family was still reluctant to bury her!
 

bronzeallspice

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Mar 26, 2012
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Only after a witch doctor told the family that she would "come to life" after she was buried did the family consent. But when they buried her, she did not resurrect.

I think the witch doctor was clever.;)
 

bronzeallspice

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Mar 26, 2012
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For a witch doctor to stay in business, he has to be clever.

Clever in the sense to convince the family to bury her. Otherwise he was not clever to stay in business
as his phoniness was revealed when she did not come back to life.:)
 
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Aug 6, 2006
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Now everyone knows that he is the guy to call when the sane members of a family want to get a corpse moved out of the front bedroom. Most people are not hard to convince that the dead are unlikely to come back to life, especially when they are getting a bit ripe.
 

dv8

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i would like to know who's gonna sleep on that bed now. those people do not look like a family that can afford a new mattress.
 

bronzeallspice

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i would like to know who's gonna sleep on that bed now. those people do not look like a family that can afford a new mattress.

You're right. Most likely they will turn the mattress over and put on a clean sheet.
 
Aug 6, 2006
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I imagine that flipping the mattress, wrapping it in plastic, and or putting a new mattress cover on it would work for the non-squeamish. If they did buy a new one, the odds that someone will retrieve it and sleep on it are pretty high. Mattresses are just as expensive in the DR as in the US, maybe more so.

Old mattresses are a major export on freighters headed for Haiti. In Miami, if you put your old mattress out on the curb and call the county, there is a good chance that it will vanish. The tramp steamers on the Miami River tend to be loaded with old mattresses and bicycles. Some company here advertises that you should replace your mattress every eight years, and offer to cart off your old one. My guess is that it will be recycled.

I have a twenty year old futon with a memory foam pad on it. That seems to be entirely adequate for me. I guess we are fortunate that dust mites are too small to be seen.
 

AlterEgo

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Jan 9, 2009
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Speaking of mattresses, after all these decades I actually learned something new in DR this year. We had an old mattress, and were going to throw it out. You'd think we had a golden fleece the way all the Dominicans were acting. Apparently there are companies who take the old mattress and completely reupholster it very cheaply. Who knew.........? I'm not sure who actually ended up with it.

I also used to wonder why people burned old tires - they burn away the rubber and sell the steel to the guy who buys metal stuff. Nothing is wasted in DR.
 

Bronxboy

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Jul 11, 2007
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Speaking of mattresses, after all these decades I actually learned something new in DR this year. We had an old mattress, and were going to throw it out. You'd think we had a golden fleece the way all the Dominicans were acting. Apparently there are companies who take the old mattress and completely reupholster it very cheaply. Who knew.........?

A great way of acquiring bed bugs!!!!!! yuck!!!
 

dv8

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i think it may take a little more than new upholstery to revive that mattress...

(revive, hi hi hi)
 

windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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Speaking of mattresses, after all these decades I actually learned something new in DR this year. We had an old mattress, and were going to throw it out. You'd think we had a golden fleece the way all the Dominicans were acting. Apparently there are companies who take the old mattress and completely reupholster it very cheaply. Who knew.........? I'm not sure who actually ended up with it.

I also used to wonder why people burned old tires - they burn away the rubber and sell the steel to the guy who buys metal stuff. Nothing is wasted in DR.

The rubber of the tires is wasted if it is burned since it can be reclaimed and used in making asphalt.

Used re-worked mattresses sold as new is the type of story that makes it to the news once in a while and the question is asked, "How can they get away with that?" They just don't ask that in the DR.
 
Aug 6, 2006
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Recycling tires into steel and and rubber takes some very expensive equipment. Probably the best use for old tires is to use them to build houses: they fill them with dirt, reinforce the corners with rebar and concrete and cover them with adobe and cement. It is pretty labor intensive, and in the US you have zoning guidelines and stuff like that which can be obstacles. If you succeed in getting such a house built, the walls will be thick and sturdy, cool in the summer and warm in winter.
 

dv8

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i think this straying from to subject of death to recycling is rather fitting.