"And he said, 'Yeah, yeah, but there's one catch: You have to keep my dogs with me.' " Hunt laughs as he tells the story. "I said, 'Well, how many dogs are we talking about, Grover?' And he said, 'Just three — maybe four.' "
"Sounds good to me!"
Posted on 07/08/2006 10:13:17 AM PDT by Grendel9
WASHINGTON — In a dim hallway in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, anthropologist David Hunt opens a dingy green cabinet and pulls out a drawer full of human bones.
"This," he says, "is Grover Krantz."
The bones are arranged carefully. In the front right corner is Krantz's skull, propped on his lower jaw. Next to that are the long bones of his legs and arms. Plastic bags hold the smaller bones of his ribs, hands and feet. They're gray and smell a little musty.
Behind the skull is an old film canister. Hunt picks it up.
"Grover kept a lot of stuff," he says. "These are his baby teeth."
JoAllyn Archambault, the director of the museum's American Indian program, comes down the hall.
"Oh, hi, Grover!" Archambault says. She smiles. "I've known Grover since I was 18 years old."
The folks at the Museum of Natural History work with thousands of skeletons — dinosaur skeletons, mammal skeletons, human skeletons. But only one skeleton in the collection came from a human being who was a friend of many Smithsonian scientists. They studied with Grover Krantz, drank with him, laughed with him.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Bump
A little grave yard humor eh?
At least his bones are of some use.
(He used to say he had the widest skull he had ever measured, now his claim can be tested.)
He's lost some weight.
JMO
It's all about taboo, I guess. I told my wife that I want to be cremated because the thought of decay sickens me. She reassured me that I wouldn't notice. I told her my feelings were empathy toward the living not toward my senses.
Therefore, viewing an associate in a decayed state would give me the willies. I saw a program on Discovery Channel about Filipinos living in a graveyard among the dead. It was unnerving. The caretakers living among corpses said they had to conquer the taboo factor, as well as the disease issues when they took the job. One guy said he neglected to eat for a few days after exhuming his first resident.
Yes, a bit boney.
The programs on TV are all phonied up, and I don't watch them. But you would be surprised what real bone experts can do.
Grover Krantz was one of the best osteologists around. Its not surprising he donated his bones to one of the best collections in the world.
Interesting man. I read was of his books on Sasquatch a few years ago and found it full of enlightening scientific analysis.
Thanks for the ping....
Both of my parents told me, that they wanted to be cremated, rather than being buried, and they expected me to respect their wishes, which I did...
But my mom, very early in her Alzheimers disease, requested that her body be sent to a medical school, hopefully that something might be learned about her disease, by having students autopsy her....and she expected me to honor her wishes...
So, I made arrangements ahead of time, with the University of Washington...she died at home, and since she was under current care with her private doctor, all the necessary paper work had been, and so her body could be released immediately to wherever it was supposed to go....
I called the University of Washington, and they had all their paperwork in order...two young gentlemen, drove down from Seattle to our home in Olympia, and took charge of my mothers body...
When her body had been autopsied, they called me, to know, if I wanted her cremated up there, and her ashes mixed with others who also made a gift of their deceased body, or did I want her cremated separately, and they would send her ashes wherever I wanted...I had her cremated separately, and had her ashes sent to a local funeral home, where I was able to retrieve them, and dispose of them, as she had wished...
We always laughed, mom never went to college during her life, but in death, she did indeed go to college, and hopefully, something was learned from her autopsy, which was a great wish of hers...
Bump.
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