![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/06\/11\/75115127-12486403-image-a-98_1693994742116.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI’m so pleased there’s a trend for communing with those in other realms.<\/p>\n
Why am I not surprised that you see dead people?<\/p>\n
I don’t ‘see’ dead people \u2013 I tune in to their frequencies.<\/p>\n
Right. Do they mostly broadcast in FM these days?<\/p>\n
They attempt communication in an easy-to-miss sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum.<\/p>\n
Sounds like the future of Radio 2.<\/p>\n
Your psychic skills are lacking, which is a shame as the dead have much to share with us.<\/p>\n
Such as\u2026<\/p>\n
Recipes, for starters.<\/p>\n
Recipes for starters?<\/p>\n
No, for ice cream.<\/p>\n
You’ve lost me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
HERE COMES THE SEANCE BIT: THE CAST OF BLITHE SPIRIT HOPING TO GET GHOSTED, 1945<\/p>\n
If you had been up to speed on #gravetok\u2026<\/p>\n
Sorry, what?<\/p>\n
The TikTok hashtag (1.2 billion views so far) for anyone passionate about graves and cemeteries. AKA taphophiles, in case you’re interested.<\/p>\n
Fascinated, obviously, but how did ice cream make its way into all this?<\/p>\n
In a recent article, The New York Times highlighted the story of the #gravetok influencer Rosie Grant, who made ice cream for a woman called Marian Montfort.<\/p>\n
And?<\/p>\n
It melted on delivery.<\/p>\n
Didn’t Montfort own a freezer?<\/p>\n
She’d been dead for 16 years and the recipe was inscribed on her gravestone \u2013 which is where Grant left the dessert.<\/p>\n
You’re telling me that over a billion people want to watch someone leaving ice cream in a graveyard?<\/p>\n
It’s not just ice cream. For the past two years 33-year-old archivist Grant has been bringing food to the final resting places of those who left recipes behind.<\/p>\n
What else has she cooked up?<\/p>\n
Fudge and chicken soup.<\/p>\n
Odd choices but I suppose it demonstrates that respect for our forebears is alive and well.<\/p>\n
Not so much in Ipswich.<\/p>\n
What’s happening in Ipswich?<\/p>\n
According to The Times, police officers are struggling to stop randy couples using fallen gravestones for acts which they coyly describe as ‘particularly disrespectful’.<\/p>\n
I’m as shocked as the Suffolk Constabulary!<\/p>\n
Then take comfort in the fact that there’s historical precedent: Frankenstein author Mary Shelley is said to have lost her virginity near the grave of her mother Mary Wollstonecraft.<\/p>\n
Thank goodness Mary Senior was safely ensconced in the afterlife at the time.<\/p>\n
Was she, though? A new study reported by The Telegraph suggests that more than half of people have been contacted by a dead relative.<\/p>\n
While having sex?<\/p>\n
The survey doesn’t say, but it does reveal that contact is most likely to happen if you are ‘moderately religious’.<\/p>\n
I think I might like to try that.<\/p>\n
Embracing the afterlife?<\/p>\n
No, being moderately religious. What are the hours?<\/p>\n
The article doesn’t specify, although one reader commented that it might equate to ‘believing in a deity three days per week or less’.<\/p>\n
Sounds as though not all The Telegraph’s readers are taking this story completely seriously.<\/p>\n
No, sadly the spiritually unattuned are everywhere. Although not in Westminster.<\/p>\n
Has the government appointed a ‘Tsar for the Beyond’?<\/p>\n
Not yet, but The Mirror has reported that Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty have donated \u00a33 million to Claremont McKenna, a Los Angeles college offering courses in ghosts.<\/p>\n
Er, why?<\/p>\n
Because Murty graduated from Claremont.<\/p>\n
With a degree in ghosts?<\/p>\n
No, in economics and French.<\/p>\n
What would she have studied if she’d read ghosts?<\/p>\n
According to The Mirror, ‘the interrelations between occult mediumship, modern media and technology’.<\/p>\n
Maybe the college should consider a module on #gravetok.<\/p>\n
Good thought. It’s refreshing to see you dropping your flippancy about the afterlife.<\/p>\n
Do you think Claremont has started work on its 2024 prospectus yet?<\/p>\n
I’m not sure. Why do you ask?<\/p>\n
Just wondering if I could get my hands on a skeleton timetable.<\/p>\n