Death Be Not Proud (At a Discount)

What does it say about us, Mark Morford asks, that wandering the aisles at Costco in Palm Desert, CA, we come upon not only drums of olive oil and eighty-packs of frozen cream puffs, but over there, right next to the tires and the lawn furniture and right behind the 10-foot plasma TV: discount caskets.

The caskets are available in six styles, including one called “Non-Threatening” and another “Non-Emotional,”  with a full range of finishes and linings, for overnight delivery.  “You want life and death and commerce and capitalism and convenience all rolled into a little ball of gloomy consumer joy?" he writes. " Here is your Nirvana,”

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