Drawing Dead

Last week we were discussing that story from the Aussie Millions of the woman having to leave a preliminary event early as she was about to give birth, and her husband being allowed to take over her stack. This week comes a story of a dead man playing poker at his own wake.

No shinola, it must be added (again).

You might have seen this item, currently being passed around and turning up on a few different sites. According to the story, a fellow named Henry Rosario Martinez of Barceloneta, Puerto Rico died last week at the age of 31. His family and friends then arranged to celebrate his life by playing poker at the funeral home, a game the deceased apparently enjoyed.

The unexpected twist, though, was the family having the funeral home prepare the body as though for an open-casket wake (embalming and dressing the corpse), then seating it at the table as well. There’s a short news clip from Noticias SIN reporting on the event, if you’re curious.

It sounds like some sort of odd one-off curiosity, although from reading around this sort of death-related theater-slash-rite isn’t that unheard of. There have been several other examples over last few years, enough for the practice to have picked up a name -- muerto para’o or “dead man standing.” Surfing around turns up various stories of the dead being posed sitting on a motorcycle, in a boxing ring, and even dressed as the Green Lantern.

Seem to be no end of puns for this one. Dead button. Dead man’s hand. Dead money. Will go with drawing dead, I guess.

All clichés, of course. Or, what George Orwell (who is dead) once described metaphors like these that are -- technically, he said -- dead.

Image: Ace of Spades Death Card iron or sew on Patch AKPT1071, Amazon.