Carrying a coffin down all those steps as the poor pall bearers at Bush Senior's funeral. My consolation is that I'm more likely to be in the coffin than carrying one these days.

And you always come across as such a cheery sole Mr King!

Jon Meacham - what a terrific speech at Bush's funeral.

Hatred corrodes the container it is carried in - great line. Alan Simpson - another cracking speech.

Those speeches were great. I thought Simpson was very funny and loved his line about traffic, can't remember it exactly, Google Google, here it is "those who travel the high road of humility in Washington, D.C., are not bothered by heavy traffic" source. Brian Mulroney was good too - and I had the impression that his praise of Bush was also designed to draw a sharp contrast with Trump. Bush Junior did a very good job (I actually thought he gave a better eulogy than Obama at the McCain funeral). It must be hard for the relatives to do that, no matter how much experience they have in public speaking.

I thought this funeral was one of the standout moments of the year; a surprising but world changing event.

JK2006 wrote:
one of the standout moments of the year

a world changing event


A touch of hyperbole?

The funeral of a good man, and average President.


With approval ratings (Gallup, say) less than Clinton.

Significantly lower than Reagan.


Great stage management, and organisation.

Just as good as the Harry and Meghan bash.

I lurve the idea of being chopped up into pieces (when dead of course) and being left out on a mountain for the buzzards and birds to dine on.

Then I would be soaring away all over the world

I wonder if it can be arranged? They do this in Tibet but that's too far to go on the off-chance you may kick the bucket while holidaying.

hedda wrote:
I lurve the idea of being chopped up into pieces (when dead of course) and being left out on a mountain for the buzzards and birds to dine on.

Then I would be soaring away all over the world

I wonder if it can be arranged? They do this in Tibet but that's too far to go on the off-chance you may kick the bucket while holidaying.
This is known as a "sky burial". It's a practical form of burial for communities living in regions of rock and snow where earth burial is unsuitable and fuel for cremation is sparse.