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| Introduction | |
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| Respecting the Dead | |
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| Artifacts for the Afterlife | |
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| Living Death for Wives and Servants | |
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| Universal Treatment of the Dying | |
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| Displaying the Deceased | |
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| The Vigil and Other Customs | |
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| The Funeral: A Good Send-off | |
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| Wailing and Other Demonstrations | |
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| Mourning, Noon, and Night | |
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| Prayer: A Power Tool | |
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| Heaven, Hell, or Reincarnation? | |
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| Dead Boring Underworlds | |
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| Soul: Food for Thought | |
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| Reincarnation: Back to the Beginning | |
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| The Underworld Gets Upgraded | |
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| For Heaven's Sake | |
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| Is the Hereafter Sexist? | |
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| What the Hell! | |
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| Is Heaven Elitist? | |
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| Dead Reckoning: The Judgment of Sin | |
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| Eternity Is a Long, Long Time | |
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| What Do You Do With the Remains? | |
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| Grave Concerns | |
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| The Physiology of Death | |
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| Burials and Bones | |
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| Hang-ups About Cremation | |
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| Mummification: Breaking the Dust-to-Dust Circuit | |
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| Miracle Busting | |
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| Early Modern Pickling | |
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| The World's Most Famous Embalmees | |
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| Cryonics: A Cool Way of Preservation | |
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| Day-to-Day Embalming | |
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| Funky Exits | |
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| Burial Grounds, Coffins, and Monuments | |
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| The One-Upmanship of Death | |
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| Rise and Fall of the Churchyard | |
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| "Garden Cemeteries" and Beyond | |
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| Buried Under What Marker? | |
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| Rest in (Disturbed) Peace | |
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| Where Are the Famous Buried? | |
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| Buried in What Container? | |
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| The Eco Argument | |
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| Rise of the Undertaker--The "Dismal Trader" | |
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| R.I.P.-off? | |
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| The Funeral Service | |
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| When You've Got to Go ... | |
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| When Will It Happen? | |
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| How Will It Happen? | |
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| Done to Death | |
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| Heretics, Deviants, Witches | |
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| Man's (Ingenious) Inhumanity to Man | |
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| Kill Thy Neighbor | |
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| Oops, Accident! | |
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| Cause of Death: Stupidity | |
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| Odds Against Death by Mishap | |
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| Suicide: The Self-Destruct Button | |
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| Microbes: Natural-Born Killers | |
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| Death and the "Little Death" | |
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| How Do You Know You're Dead? | |
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| Dead Nervous (or) Nervous of the Dead | |
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| Precautions Against Death | |
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| Welcome Home to the Dead | |
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| Ghosts, Ghouls--and the Undead | |
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| Attractions of Death | |
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| Is There Anyone There? | |
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| Rest in Pieces | |
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| Grave Robbing: The Oldest Profession? | |
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| Body Snatching: A Nice Little Earner | |
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| Buried Alive | |
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| NDEs: Back to the Future? | |
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| Not so Grim Reminders | |
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| Quipping Death into Shape | |
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| Words, Words, Words | |
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| Last Words ... Maybe | |
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| Goodwill, Ill Will | |
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| Obits: The Smallest Biographies | |
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| The Epitaph: Final, Final Words | |
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| Afterword | |
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| Index | |