They've got an electronic gizmo now to replace real buglers at veteran's funerals:
It looks like a bugle. It sounds like a bugle — hauntingly enough to move a funeral mourner to compliment Glenn Hasheider on his rendition of taps last week at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery near St. Louis.But what Mr. Hasheider did not have the heart to tell the mourner was this:
It's not a bugle, exactly.
It is a bugle discreetly fitted with a battery-operated conical insert that plays the 24 notes of taps at the flick of a switch. It is all digital, with no human talent or breath required. All you do is hold it up, turn it on and try to look like a bugler.
Apparently there's a shortage of buglers, especially given the rapid demise of WWII vets, etc. So...I guess it's better than playing taps on a boombox (the other option mentioned in the article), but I still don't like it. When my grandpa died it was the bugler playing taps that really got to me, and I just can't believe that an electronic replacement could have had the same effect. There are times when you need the imperfections of a human performance.
*sigh*
Posted by Jason at September 16, 2003 11:40 AM