Not that we're obsessed with death today or anything, but what a relief to know that the Direct Marketing Association has set up a registry so that dead people can be taken off its various marketing lists. For $1—supposedly used for credit card verification purposes—relatives of the deceased can get them put on the Deceased Do Not Contact list, which is a strange name for it, actually. Doesn’t that name imply that the DMA could actually contact the dead, but won’t if someone steps in? We’re also wondering, if, like the federal Do Not Call List it is patterned after, the dead people list has any loopholes. Since chimney sweeps or gutter cleaners are still allowed to call up the living who registered for Do Not Call, are there certain service industries that are still allowed to call upon the dead?

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor