Sarah Maslin Nir reports in The New York Times that last week Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law allowing eating in funeral homes. New York joins 46 other states allowing light refreshments and non-alcoholic drinks at funeral homes. Joshua Slocum, the executive director of Funeral Consumers Alliance, claims the laws trace back to the Victorian era, when people believed dead bodies could spread disease through the ether. “In reality, it is ridiculous to be afraid of getting sick from an inert body that is not talking, not breathing and not sneezing,” Slocum said. Read the full story in The New York Times.