clearly, much of this is driven by the desire to quickly address breaking news stories, under funding and understaffing. still i was reminded of something a prof once told me long ago in a course on "American Ideology and Identity, 1950s-1960s" (Kewl course, huh?). he said that urban legends were our way of dealing with new technology. we didn't understand the technology and so urban legends could be passed off as true because we didn't really know how things worked. his examples at the time were:
1. the spooky campfire story known and loved by all preteens about babysitting and getting murderous prank phone calls only to find out from a trace the call was coming from inside the house. acccccccchhhhh. i remember being flipped out by that one!
2. the elderly woman who sticks her cat in microwave to "dry" it
3. the elderly man who put containers beneath electrical outlets to catch the "juice". heh.
so, does anyone know where this notion comes from regarding the connection between urban legends and technological development/lack of our full knowledge of their workings?
i checked out the urban legends site a while ago on this issue and hit a dead end. any thoughts?
thanks
kelley
and p.s., phillion, you shouldn't complain because it seems to me a good portion of your posts are complaints about others email habits. leave pugliese alone damn it or i'll have my momma beat up yours! hell, i am a momma. that means i'll beat you up directly coz pugliese is the disco king and i'll be damned if i'm going to save my last dance for a guy who's been beat up and emotionally scarred by the likes of carrol, that nutter mark jones and lou proyect!! i want MY hustle partner to be unimpaired by such torture! and i'll bet he never once has ever entertained the thought of fscking his cat while listening to his collection of isaac hayes' tunez.
rotflmao.
WAKE UP PEOPLE. We need some action on this list.