Location, location, location

Today's Times has a feature about the increasing number of "high net-worth" individuals who are buying elaborate family mausoleums. These grandiose testimonies to pretension beyond the grave cost from $250,000 to well over $1 million. One such monstrosity was described as a "Greek-pillared neo-Classical style structure of white granite, [with] a granite patio, a meditation room, doors of hand-cast bronze and a chandelier. The family name is carved and gilded above a lintel..."

There's nothing like building a tomb that says, "Look at me; I'm a Greek god." The god of orthodontry.

And what's with the meditation room? Where does this guy think he's going after he dies -- Marin Couny?

The story describes "Cedar Park Cemetery, a 300-acre site in Paramus, N.J., that offers burials in mausoleums where crypt space is priced the way urban real estate often is, by neighborhood and floor."

And even better, it's got a doorman. You know, to keep out the riffraff.

To better cover this trend, the Times is thinking of merging the "Real Estate" section with the "Obitiaries."