Examples of new terms that accumulated over the years: Instead of Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven, it was "THE EVOLUTIONARY LEVEL ABOVE HUMAN" or "NEXT LEVEL," REDEFINED "EVOLUTION" that had nothing to do with Darwin's usage, saying instead that the Next Level was a next step up the evolutionary ladder from the Human Evolutionary Kingdom which was above the Animal Kingdom which was above the Plant Kingdom which was above the Mineral Kingdom...
A new member of the Next Level was a "YOUNGER MEMBER." They called reproductive organs, "PLUMBING." Clouds of light, chariots of fire, whirlwinds were "SPACECRAFTS." A woman's bra they called a "SLINGSHOT." A fart was a "POOFOOFUS" (that we needed to only release in the "BATH CHAMBER." We rested in the "REST CHAMBER." They talked about the changeover recorded as happening as a "twinkling of an eye" as a "METAMORPHOSIS" compared to that of the Caterpillar to a Butterfly. We did not eat, we "CONSUMED" and it wasn't food, it was "FUEL." The brain was a "COMPUTER." Meals were "EXPERIMENTS." A recipe was a "FORMULA." The houses we lived in were "CRAFTS" as if they were spacecrafts, but they did nothing to make anything look that way. A job was an "OUT OF CRAFT TASK." The kitchen was the "Nutri Lab." The laundry was the "Fiber Lab." The workshop was the "IMPRO LAB," impro standing for Improvements. The administrative team worked in "COM CENTER," where "com" stood for "communications." They said they came from "Headquarters" in deep space. A toilet was a "COMMODE." Feces was "SOLID WASTE" and urine, "LIQUID WASTE." The auto repair shop and the hospital were referred to as the "HORSE-PISTOL" as both our automobiles and VEHICLES were also considered to function and serve us as horses can be taught/trained to. Assigned watching the heavens at night was called "Night-watch." Our internal bakery was called the "YEAST LAB."
In 1986, the California Department of Fish and Game published a pamphlet, "Outdoor Alert," offering advice for this situation.
The key takeaway was to say loudly, "I DIDN'T MEAN TO DO THIS, AND I'M LEAVING RIGHT NOW." Then to leave slowly and carefully.
Now that marijuana is legal in most U.S. states, the situation is unlikely to happen, but I'm sure the same response would be appropriate any time one accidentally stumbles upon illegal activity.
Some details from the 1986 case of Tom Morgan v. Randy Maresh:
Plaintiff alleges that the defendant has willfully and maliciously inflicted severe mental stress and humiliation on the plaintiff by conduct outrageous in the extreme by continually, intentionally and repeatedly 'passing gas' directed toward the defendant.
That for reasons unknown to plaintiff, defendant was hostile toward plaintiff and expressed his hostility by the conduct described herein.
That defendant would continually and repeatedly seek out plaintiff on the premises of Albertsons (the supermarket), while plaintiff was engaged in his employee duties. That defendant, after locating plaintiff, would position himself in the proximity of plaintiff so as to direct his 'gas' toward plaintiff, humiliating plaintiff and inflicting severe mental stress upon plaintiff.
As a direct and proximate result of said outrageous conduct, plaintiff suffered, and continues to suffer, emotional distress and humiliation...
Wherefore, plaintiff prays for judgment against defendant in the sum of $50,000 for general damages and for $50,000 punitive damages and for his costs and disbursements incurred herein.
Arizona biologist M. Cale Morris created an artificial leg (a boot on the end of an aluminum pole) to test the response of rattlesnakes to being stepped on.
He stepped on a total of 175 rattlesnakes and concluded that, despite popular belief, they're not very aggressive. The majority of the stepped-on rattlesnakes tried to crawl away without biting the fake leg.
In 1972, the French Ministry of Education tried an unusual program to promote reading. It gave every newlywed couple five free books. Couples could choose one of the following two sets:
Balzac's Pere Goriot
Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma
Chateaubriand's Memoires D'Outre Tombe
Flaubert's Madame Bovary
De Lafayette's Princess De Cleves
Short stories by Voltaire
Hugo's Les Miserables
Balzac's Les Chouans
Fromentin's Dominique
Stendhal's Le Rouge et la Noir
I can't find any follow-up about whether the program was deemed to be a success.
I assume any effort to do something similar in the U.S. would get mired down in controversy over what books to pick.
Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction books such as Elephants on Acid.
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.
Chuck Shepherd
Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre.
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