We all have to face death, but we didn’t know there were rules about how where the dead faced. The always fascinating Atlas Obscura, we learn that in Christian cemeteries, bodies are traditionally buried from east to west, a pagan ritual started so the dead could always face the rising sun. As they did in so many other ways, the early Catholic Church appropriated the idea, tweaking it slightly, claiming the east/west orientation was so believers would be sure to see the second coming, which they claimed would occur in the east. Or, to put it another way, so they could see the rising Son of God. Think of it as coffin feng shui. (Did the Hebrews bury their dead in the opposite direction, from west to east, just to remain consistent?) But there is a cemetery in Louisiana that inters their dead facing the “wrong way,” or north-south. No one knows definitively why St. Joseph’s in Rayne, a town between New Orleans and Lake Charles in Acadia Parish, lays their dead to rest “backwards,” although many think it occurred when the cemetery was moved to make way for the railroad in the late 1800’s.
Not that we would know (never having the need for such services), but the moral of the trial of Dr. Leon Jacob for attempted murder is that you can’t get a good hit man these days. Dr. Jacob, a surgeon in Texas, contracted with two men to kill his ex-girlfriend, Meghan Verikas, offering them Cartier watches and $20,000 in cash. She had accused the good doctor of assault, a charge which could end his career. Of course, nothing says “I’ve never assaulted that woman” better than trying to kill her. It ends up Dr. Jacob had not contracted with hitman, but an ex-Army man and a detective working undercover. Instead of killing her, the faux button men staged her abduction and told Jacob she was dead. And, in a twist he probably never saw coming, put him in handcuffs. Jacob is expected to testify after the weekend, when he is expected to claim the hit was the agents idea, and they pressured him to agree.
Scott Janssen is an Crookston, Alaska funeral director who, for many years, competed in the famed Iditarod dog sled race, gaining him the nickname of “The Musihin Mortician.” But this year’s race found him in the position of saving lives. Jim Lanier, a friend of Jannsen’s who, at 77 , you’d think would know better than to compete in the dangerous race, got stuck on an obstacle on White Mountain, a stretch of the course known for its harsh weather, 45 miles from the finish line. Jannsen, who was also competing, came across his friend, and instead of telling his “eat my slush, old man!,” stayed with him and radioed for help, saving Lanier’s life. For his actions, Jannsen was given the race’s Sportsmanship Award.
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