IJMC - A Deluge of Ashes

I can already tell, I am going to be sick of using the word "deluge" in 
the titles. However, I still will continue...although for this post, I 
will let dear ole Uncle Flip put in his two bits...               -dave



Sometimes, real life is just more fun than fiction...
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California company lets you go out with a bang
August 2, 1999

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -- A local cremation company is making it possible
for people to go out in a blaze of glory. 

The Neptune Society of Northern California, a for-profit company that has
previously scattered the ashes of the deceased at sea or given them to
survivors to take home, now offers private memorial fireworks shows. 

The pyrotechnic displays are available for about $3,200, not including the
cost of cremation. 

Families can choose a musical theme to accompany the 3-1/2- minute shows,
in which ashes are packed inside fireworks shells that are fired from a
barge in San Francisco Bay. 

"It is really kind of special," Trisha Britt, a spokesman for the company,
said by telephone Monday. 

The first such ceremony in the Bay area was held July 17 for John
Kotowski, a rocket scientist who died last summer after helping to design
the procedure used for gathering samples from the lunar surface. 

Kotowski's family took the Neptune Society's 55-foot yacht to the middle
of the bay and watched his ashes fly into the air and explode to the
strains of Rossini's "William Tell" overture. 

The fireworks can take place either on land or sea, Britt said, adding,
"We're getting lots of calls." 

Other obsequies, however, have been even farther out. In 1997 Texas-based
Celestis used a jetliner and rocket to put the ashes of 1960s LSD guru
Timothy Leary and "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry into temporary
orbit. 

And last week, when the U.S. Lunar Prospector spacecraft crashed into the
moon, it was carrying the ashes of astronomer Gene Shoemaker, who had
always longed to go there.