X-Message-Number: 18944
From: 
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2002 04:36:32 EDT
Subject: Crossing Jordan?

In a message dated 4/18/02 2:01:28 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
 writes:

> Crossing Jordan is a fiction show in which Jordan Cavenagh, played by Jill 
>  Hennesy, is a coroner.  It is generally a pretty well done, thought 
> provoking 
>  show, with likable and believable characters one can care about.  And 
>  interesting moral dilemma themes occasionally.  

I hope Rudy won't take this personally, but Crossing Jordan is about as well 
done and thought provoking as Bonanza. I was about to say Perry Mason, but 
that would be an insult to the folks produced Perry Mason and who at least 
created an ensemble of characters you might actually want to care about, and 
who had enough class to put a bust of Voltaire by entrance to Mason's office. 

Crossing Jordan is to the world of forensic pathology, coroners and medical 
examiners what a cheap romance novel is to Pride and Prejudice. In other 
words, vapid, ignorant, technical window dressing on deu ex machina fantasy. 
Hennesey should have stayed on Law and Order. There! I've said it!

And that's sad because the real world of the coroner and ME is really 
incredibly bizarre, challenging and interesting on just about any level you 
care to present it. Sanitized or gruesome, it's a fascinating field full of 
surprises. And its not like they don't have skeletons in their closets and 
really unbelievable stories "ripped from the headlines" that they can tell. 
Take this AP story from just a few days ago:

Riverside Press Enterprise
17 April 2002
Associated Press 

Coroner Takes Steps in Wake of Scandal

LOS ANGELES        The County coroner will begin cremating decomposing bodies 
that have been stacked for years in a facility where rats chewed on a dozen 
corpses, officials said Tuesday. In February the Coroner's office discovered 
that rats had chewed on bodies placed on a dozen shelves in a cold storage 
crypt inside a garage...The rats managed to chew through body bags...They 
made their home in boxes of cremated remains also stored in the room... 
Employees who saw the damage said the rats gnawed away toes, chewed limbs to 
the bone and ate away potions of groins and faces. "They even burrowed inside 
the (body) cavity," said Greg Meyers, whose job includes draining fluids from 
the decomposing corpses and rewrapping them. In a letter to Craig R. Harvey 
(chief coroner investigator and chief of operations for the LA County 
Coroner's Office) and other officials Meyers urged embalming or other 
preservation of the bodies, calling them "a health hazard to the staff." 

"These bodies are fermenting in their own decomposing body fluids and or mold 
and mildew permeates " the corpses he said. Meyer said the message was 
ignored. 

At a news conference, he and other workers said they are worried that the 
surrounding community might be at risk of illnesses carried by rats that may 
have eaten diseased corpses.

"I just think that's a gross exaggeration," Harvey said. We're doing our best 
once we found out about the problem. I think we've taken the best effort 
possible to stop it from recurring and to deal with the aftermath."

Rather than refrigerate the corpses indefinitely, the agency has decided to 
dispose of them. The bodies are either unidentified or their relatives cannot 
afford a burial. Stung by the scandal, the agency is setting a six month 
limit for holding onto bodies rather than allowing them to literally stack up 
indefinitely

After six months the bodies will now be cremated and the ashes stored for 
three years at the Los Angeles County mortuary before being interred in a 
common grave, said Craig R. Harvey, chief coroner investigator.


The oldest of the bodies     including one dating to 1996     could be disposed
of within two weeks, Harvey said. A 1995 skeleton is destined for use as a 
teaching tool at California State University, Fullerton.

To slow decomposition, the coroner's office is also studying whether to 
embalm bodies for long-term storage, Harvey said. Currently, the agency only 
refrigerates corpses. It stopped embalming them about a dozen years ago 
because of the cost ($100 per corpse).

End AP of excerpts
--------------------
The LA County Coroner's office is one of the three largest in the US. It is 
in my opinion, based on first hand experience, a filthy, badly run, 
disgusting hell hole of a place ruled by miscreants at the mercy of politics 
at its seamy worst. The above story has so many comic lines in it that I can 
hardly resist ROFL. I especially like the idea that rats living in 
decomposing human remains who died of who knows what, in a community 
permeated with TB, pose a threat to health of people living nearby "is a 
gross exaggeration." That's matched only by the quote that they are studying 
whether embalming "might" be a useful adjunct to refrigeration for years of 
storage at well above freezing! Jeez, maybe they can learn something from the 
cryonics "nuts." Maybe they should spend a few more dollars a year and *drop 
the temperature by 20 degrees C or so!*

Now, THAT'S entertainment.

If you want to see intelligent drama watch HBO or Showtime. If your tastes 
incline towards issues postmortem handled with deft wit and anchored at least 
partially to reality, try HBO's original series Six Feet Under. 

American Beauty's Alan Ball surpasses his fine film effort on a weekly basis 
with the Saga of the Fisher family and the mortuary they live in and operate. 
There's even the reality of Service Corporation International (SCI) in the 
guise of Kroner Services International (KSI) trying to drive the Fisher's out 
of business and gobble up them up using exactly the tactics the real SCI has 
used over the past decade so successfully against family operated funeral 
homes.

Reality TV that's thought provoking, well done, and with likable characters? 
The Fishers and their friends win hands down over crossing Jordan any day.

How real are they? Well, just a few weeks ago I was sitting in a mortuary 
with an Alcor ACT and we had both just come from the prep room where the 
embalmer was finishing up trocaring a body and aspirating the cavities. As we 
were waiting in the very Fisheresque reception area of the Funeral home Dave, 
the Alcor ACT said, "Have you ever heard of a TV show called Six Feet Under?" 
"Dave," I replied, "you may not know it yet, but you've just started *living* 
that show." He didn't disagree.

Now, that's reality TV. 

Mike Darwin

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