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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18944