What's Wrong With Being Dead?

jnmeade

jnmeade

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Jim Meade
Passed. Passed over. Bought the farm. Gone west. These are some of the "up tone" ways of saying someone is dead. There are many less genteel, such as kick the bucket or pull the plug.

All ways to say one is not living without saying one is not living. Most have a connotation to them:

Passed over - as in passed over Jordan, a religious reference to going to heaven.
Bought the farm - of military pilot post-WWII origin, various meanings, not certain
Gone West - WWI military pilot origin

Dead doesn't have any of this baggage or implication with it. Dead is dead. Nicely neutral, short and sweet and not subject to being misunderstood or having unintended connotations attached.

When I die I hope they say I'm dead.
 
pushing daisies.

holy bleep this is the weirdest thread evarrrrr
 
There is a awesome monologue on this very topic by George Collin .... look it up
 
I really don't care what people call it when I'm dead.

You all will be posting about how much nicer the place is without me anyway. :D
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I really don't care what people call it when I'm dead.

You all will be posting about how much nicer the place is without me anyway. :D
Click to expand...
Would the thought of me taking your spot in the MC be enough to make you roll over in your grave?

;)
 
"Are they slow-moving, Chief?"
"Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up."

Nauga,
and his driving gloves
 
Doesn't make a difference to me. I'll be struggling to learn how to play the harp and couldn't care less what terms the living are using down below. Passed away seems to be the most popular. "Auguered in" fits among fellow pilots (if you did something really stupid), or "bought the farm" if your engine stopped working and the landing didn't go as planned.
 
I never understood the obsession with death. I like Frank Reynolds' take on this.. your body is just that.. a sack of meat and bones. It's who you are as a person that determines if and how you'll live on in the memories of others

 
Monty Python said it best "Pining for the fiords"
 
When it happens, I hope it won't be because of a kinetic energy overdose or thermal runaway.
 
Since the OP asked, “Bought the farm” originally comes from the payment of insurance to the beneficiary of a KIA in WW I. Usually enough to pay off the mortgage on the farm.

Cheers
 
What was the line form movie...

"That bloke be deader than S---t"
 
Then there's always the popular "tango uniform".
Pick your own version of the T.
 
Picking turnips with a stepladder.

Didn't the "gone west" thing arise out of the many folks that moved out west in the 1800s and their families never saw or heard of them again?
 
Pushing up daisies.
Met his/her maker.
 
Last edited:
Going over the standing part of the foresheet.

Ron Wanttaja
 
I suppose if I'm the topic of conversation in this context, I won't really care.
 
I learned Tango Uniform when I was an EMT back in college. "How did the last call go?", "She was already t1ts up when we got there"
 
My friend Randy Sparks was folk legend Burl Ives' writer and opening act for over 30 years. One day out of the blue Burl said to him, "I don't intend to pass away."

Randy paused and said, "Sir, I don't really think one has much choice in the matter ... "

"No," Burl barked. "When the time comes I don't want to 'pass away' ... I want to DIE!"

The conversation inspired Randy to write,

Bankers and preachers pass away
Cowboys and heroes die
Counting down to Judgment Day
I can’t tell you why
Some folks ride in the buckboard
And quietly disappear
Some folks grab this life by the horns
And ride it like a rodeo steer
And when you’ve figured out what it’s all about
And it’s time to say goodbye
Why whisper, why not sing and shout
Old folksingers ... die!

(c) Cherrybell Music Publishing Co.​
 
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