When the dog bites, when the bee stings

My mother has graciously agreed to be a guarantor on our new apartment. On the advice of a cousin, however, she is trying to insert a strange clause in the landlord's crippling "I prostrate myself to the laws of NY" agreement. Mum wants to make sure that if I die, she will not be responsible to pay out the rest of my lease.

If this sounds callous, I promise you it's not. It's just the only situation my mom can imagine where she'd get totally screwed by vouching for me (although I suspect there are a few other doozies.)

Unfortunately my new landlord, David D. Davidson, doesn't want to play ball. Though he'd give her a grace period after my death ("I'm not crazy!"), he would expect her to cough up eventually. I'm not sure who's going to budge on the 'Jesse's Death' clause, the competitors are both quite stubborn.

On a semi-related note, if I die, please don't commemorate me with a maudlin MySpace bulletin. Cheers.