Your Health ; In the News
30 Percentage of U.S. households that have no life insurance coverage.
; What an Outrage
Home Is Where You Get Hit With a Taser
If your life has been filled with joyous experiences, why spend the rest of eternity sealed in a run-of-the-mill casket? ; That’s
part of the reason a Singapore philanthropy partnered with a local
nursing home to come up with a concept known as “happy coffins.”
The Lien Foundation commissioned a community of Singapore
artists and designers to create personalized coffins for three of the
home’s residents. ; Before the wooden caskets were painted, the
three recipients discussed their lives, passions and dreams with
the artists tasked with customizing the coffins. ; One casket had
a colorful rendering of yellow sunbursts, musical notes and angels
against a white background, along with the words: “Love is the
only thing we can carry with us as we go & it makes the end easy.”
; “The traditional negative associations surrounding the coffin
were transformed into a celebratory symbol of courage, life and
beauty,” says Lien CEO Lee Poh Wah, 40. “It gets people to focus
on how the departed have lived.” —Blair S. Walker
A Happy
Final
Resting
Place
; An artist decorated this personalized coffin.
It was nearly midnight when Peter McFar- land and his wife, Pearl, returned to their
Woodacre, Calif., home after an evening out in
June 2009. Feeling the effect of a few glasses
of wine he’d had that night, McFarland, 64,
tripped down some steps on the way to the
front door. His wife called the paramedics, and
they treated him. ; But after that, things went
bad in a hurry. For reasons that are not clear, a
pair of sheriff’s deputies entered the house and
insisted that McFarland come to the hospital
with them. He repeatedly refused. Finally, an of-
ficer stunned McFarland with a Taser four
A Crafty Way to Drive a Project
We’ve all heard of grandmothers knitting sweaters for family. But three Swiss women, ages 78 to 90, took on the mother of all
knitting projects and came out with a unique product—a sweater for
the Smart car. ; The finished
project, called “Knit ’n’ Roll,”
resembles a giant roller skate. It
was initiated by the Senior De-
sign Factory, a Zurich-based or-
ganization that pairs young de-
signers and older craft workers.
The women had help—a ma-
chine partly knitted the cover
while they focused on details
like shoelaces. —Mike Tucker
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times and took him to jail. ; McFarland was
charged with disobeying police and resisting
arrest, but the charges were thrown out by a
judge. Now, McFarland is suing Marin County
and the two deputies involved in federal court.
; “Emotionally and psychologically I don’t
know if this is something he will ever get over,”
says John Scott, McFarland’s attorney. ; Scott
says he hopes McFarland’s experience sparks
dialogue on the appropriate use of Tasers.
; Marin County Sheriff’s Department officials
did not respond to calls requesting comment.
But in a statement to a local television station,
they said the decision to use force is never taken
lightly: “Deputy sheriffs undergo an extensive
amount of ongoing training to ensure those de-
cisions are both appropriate and fall within the
guidelines established by law and department
policy.” —Michelle Diament
