060402A Laughing at Death

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LAUGHING AT DEATH

Program 06-04-02-A

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What would you want for your last meal? How about some gas chamber chicken smothered in gallows gravy with a side of body bag baked beans? Those are just some of the entrees Brian Price can cook up. And he should know, he's prepared over 200 last meal requests for Death Row inmates. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, Price and his cookbook, "Meals to Die For."

SEGMENT 1:

Charlotte Hays is co-author of "Being Dead Is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral." She tells Jim Fleming what mourners really want to eat and why she's not in favor of long eulogies. Also, Marilyn Johnson tells Anne Strainchamps why obituaries are the best stories in the paper. She's the author of "The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries."

SEGMENT 2:

Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi explores one of the Cold War's most controversial figures in her book "The Worlds of Herman Kahn: The Intuitive science of Thermonuclear War." Kahn wrote about surviving a nuclear attack. Tabrizi talks with Steve Paulson about Kahn's grotesque approach to dealing with the unthinkable. Also, Jim Fleming provides an essay on the recent death of his mother.

SEGMENT 3:

Brian Price tells Anne Strainchamps how he came to prepare the last meals for some 200 inmates on Death Row in Texas prisons. He's given his book the appropriately dark title "Meals to Die For." The recipes themselves have names like "Gas Chamber Chicken with Firing Squad French Fries." Price tells Anne he doesn't mean this to be funny. He brings passion, pity and prayer to every meal he prepares.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 06-04-02-A.

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Books:

Marilyn Johnson, The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries (Harper Collins)
Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi, The Worlds of Herman Kahn: The Intuitive Science of Thermonuclear War (Harvard University Press)
Gayden Metcalfe, Charlotte Hays, Being Dead Is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral (Hyperion)
Brian D. Price, Meals to Die For (Dyna-Paige Corporation)

Websites:

Music:

Magnificent Seventh's Brass Band. "When the Saints Go Marching In" and
"Down By the Riverside" off of their CD "Authentic New Orleans Jazz
Funeral" on Mardi Gras Records.
B52's. "Dead Beat Club" off of their CD "Cosmic Thing" on Reprise Records.
Yo La Tango. "Nuclear War" - Single on Matador Records.
Mstislav Rostropovish. "Cello-Suiten 4," "Cello-Suiten 5" and
"Cello-Suiten 7" off of his CD "J.S. Bach Cello-Suiten" on EMI Records.
The Tiger Lillies. "Divine" off of their CD "Two Penny Opera" on Misery Guts Music.

Distribution dates:

week of 03/18/2007 - hour 1
week of 04/02/2006 - hour 1

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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