People get very creative whem it comes to inventing ways of saying someone is dead. In a particularly memorable Monty Python sketch, one Mr. Praline (John Cleese) complains that the parrot he had just bought is dead and in his frustrated attempt to convince the owner (Michael Palin) of this, trots out a laundry list of euphemisms for death:
“’He’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! He’s expired and gone to meet his maker! He’s a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed him to the perch he’d be pushing up the daisies! HIs metabolic processes are now History! He’s off the twig! He’s kicked the bucket, he’s shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!”
Had Mr Praline so desired, he could have added a few more colorful descriptions chosen from this list of euphemisms for dying that go far, far beyond the oh-so-mundane “passed away”…
At room temperature
Basted the formaldehyde turkey
Became a root inspector
Bought a pine condo
Definitely done dancing
Eating dandelions by the roots
Fallen off his perch
Gone into the fertilizer business
Got stamped “Return To Sender.”
Immortally challenged
In the horizontal phone booth
Juggling halos
Kicked the oxygen habit
Living-Impaired
Met the repo man
On a permanent vacation
Picking turnips with a step ladder
Popped his clogs
Riding the Perma-Pine
Smelling the flowers from below
Swallowed his birth certificate
Taken out of production
Taking an all expenses paid trip aboard Stygian Cruise Lines.
Taking a dirt nap
Taking the great cat nap
Tending towards a state of chemical equilibrium
Wearing wooden pajamas
Winning one for the reaper