The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

I just finished reading my second Mary Roach book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. It's definitely one of those books that you probably will only read once; however, Roach illustrates how compelling the human body can be postmortem. As a past and present science geek/nerd, I have seen my share of cadavers (a statement my mother tells me is nothing to gloat nor talk about), but it was engrossing to go through Roach's forensic investigations in this book. Roach still has the talent to take a subject that would make readers cringe one moment and then laughing in the next.

Below are some excerpts from the book:

• The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you.
• Death. It doesn't have to be boring.
• Cadavers are our superheroes: They brave fire without flinching, withstand falls from tall buildings and head-on car crashes into walls. Their heads can be removed with no deleterious effect. They can be in six places at once.

Here are some anatomy jokes to go along with the humor premise (these were not in the book):

Q: Why is anatomy so hard?

A: Because the professor is really sternum.

Q: Why is the eye like the moon?

A: They're both in orbit.

Q: What are the epic poems about the pelvic region?

A: The Illiac and the Oddysey

Q: What punctuation mark can be found in the body?

A: The colon.

Q: What part of the digestive tract was named after a famous psychologist in the 1800s?

A: Sigmoid Freud.

Q: What is the main act in an anatomical circus?

A: The man on the flying trapezius.

Q: Why was the endocrine student so upset?

A: He failed a teste.

Q: Which arteries have gender?

A: The male and femoral arteries.

Q: What is anatomists favorite musical instrument?

A: The organ.

Jokes are from: http://boomsblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/anatomy-jokes-final-cut.html