Forest Hills is almost as nice as Mt. Auburn, though a little less, well, classy, and a little flatter, lacking any kind of noteworthy view. Fewer famous people, too, though I understand ee cummings is there, somewhere. His stone was probably too lower-case for me to spot it. But it has a charm, and a solitude, that always attracted me.

Can't talk about cemeteries without mentioning at least briefly Green-Wood, in Brooklyn, and Woodlawn, in the Bronx, New York's contributions to garden cemetery-dom. Woodlawn is to Mt. Auburn pretty much what New York is to Boston. Bigger, gaudier, more impressive, more crowded, more diverse, less ordered, not so stately or refined. Green-Wood is clearly the second cemetery, but special in its own way. Among other things, a flock of wild parakeets somehow makes a living there, one more surprising success story from among the immigrants to the City.

Curious about whether someone's dead? Where they're buried? Check out Find a Grave.