The Dead Bug Funeral Kit

As anybody who's ever played Cowboys and Indians can tell you, death and dying are very much part of the fun. Of course, it's the pretending that keeps the game fun.

The Dead Bug Funeral Kit gives us a way to play with things like death and dying that aren't totally pretend. Like the death of a pet bug.

Clearly, the idea of having a pet bug, let alone burying one, is one that would occur only to the young and the chosen few. It's a bit silly. And paying $25 (plus shipping) for a Dead Bug Funeral Kit is therefore even sillier.

The kit takes itself very seriously, presenting the minor mourner with a "compleat" set of attractively tasteful funereal accoutrements: Buggy Book of Eulogies with Ribbon Bookmark, Casket, Grave Marker, White Clay Flower, Burial Scroll, and Pouch of Grass Seed - all packaged in a somberly suitable metal box.

It's this very completeness and attention to detail that makes the Dead Bug Funeral Kit so much fun - fun enough to let us play, in a hauntingly real way, with things as serious as death and grieving.