Thursday, June 3, 2010

Morbidia meets the grim eater

I REALLY REALLY want this week's Thursday News of the Absurd Will Someone Write Me This Book Inspirational Moment (ThNoftheAWSWTBIM) to exist for reals and for trues.

From YahooNews and Reuters:

Funeral home steps in the stop the "grim eater"

Apparently, a funeral home in New Zealand had to step in after noticing a man who attended up to four funerals a week, despite obviously not knowing the deceased. Why? The guy carried a backpack full of Tupperware; when mourners weren't looking, he'd steal the funeral food and bring it home.

This is awesome. Genius. You gotta love someone who says, "You know who deserves to be ripped off? People with recently dead relatives! Heh heh. Mourning suckahs."

But I don't want him to be a bad guy. Here's what I want:

Elaine is a "normal" high school student who dresses all in black, permanently in mourning over the stupid problems caused by stupid people in the world. She's so full of angst and drama that her parents (who are good parents but who don't take her seriously) have started calling her "Morbidia." One day, she wanders into a funeral. Nobody bothers her, nobody looks at her strangely, and everyone is dressed in black. So Morbidia starts going to funerals whenever she can.

But after a while, Morbidia notices this other kid, the one with the backpack. He's often there too, and Morbidia can tell he doesn't know the dead people either. She sees him pretending to pay his respects and then filling his Tupperware. Morbidia is fascinated.

And so they meet, Morbidia and the Grim Eater. And what follows is a quirky, darkly humorous, bizarrely romantic story (like Six Feet Under* in a YA).

It must be written. No! I am already writing two books. One of you has to do it.

Crap. Now I'm obsessed. Save me.

*Oh, how I (who watch next to no television) miss Six Feet Under and my six free months of HBO. Sigh. Peter Krause, where have ye gone?

3 comments:

Anne M Leone said...

Sounds fab--I would read that book! =) Sounds a bit like Harold and Maud, too.

There was a big scandal in the UK a while ago around this type of thing. Apparently there was a club of men who were crashing funerals. They went to some very small, big-name funerals and people were quite angry when it was revealed.

Diane T said...

Sounds like you've got the groovy idea all ready, you don't need us.

Peter Krause is on NBC now in the excellent series "Parenthood." Not as much fun as 6FU, but better than being Krause-less. Or check out "Sports Night" DVDs from the library to get your fix, he was excellent in that short-lived but great show.

Jacqui said...

Diane, I used to love Sports Night. Will definitely check out Parenthood.

Anne, crashing them not to get food seems somehow worse than stealing!