Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Free Tickets to a Play



Richard Stevens, “Once Over Lightly.” New Man, vol. 8, no. 3, June 1970, p. 6.

A private investigator sent a San Francisco couple two free tickets to a play with a note, saying: “I know you will enjoy this show, a friend…” The couple showed up and sat next to the investigator, without knowing he was their benefactor. At the final curtain, the investigator handed the man a subpoena and said, “It was an awfully nice experience meeting you folks…but I’ve been trying to serve you with this for two months, without luck.”

Friday, March 25, 2016

Undertaker’s Journal Sent to U.S. Soldiers Fighting in France in WWI



Katharine Duncan Morse, The Uncensored Letters of a Canteen Girl (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1920).

Bourmont, December 28 [1917]

Of late I have been moved to speculate wonderingly on the mental processes of the American public. I have been going through the stacks of magazines in the warehouse sent from the States for one cent per to provide amusement for the doughboys’ leisure moments. Among the rest I found the Upholsterer’s Monthly, The Hardware Dealer’s Journal, The Mother’s Magazine, Fancy Work and The Modern Needleworker. I showed some of these prizes to one of the boys; “Gee, but that’s the kind of snappy stuff to send a feller over the top!” was his comment. That numbers of the Undertaker’s Journal have also been discovered among the donations from home I have heard asserted on excellent authority, but as yet I have not personally come across any.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Woman Poisoned by Business Card (Taiwan)




China Post
20 March 2016


The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Criminal Investigation Bureau (刑事局) has recently denied an Internet rumor that said a woman was poisoned with the use of a drugged business card.

In a released statement, the CIB said a recent Internet rumor that has been spreading through social media networks and Line groups says a Taiwanese woman was allegedly approached at a gas station by a man.

According to a widely disseminated email, a woman was handed a business card by a man at a gas station. Shortly after she became dizzy and developed breathing difficulty.

She realized there was a strong odor coming from the card and also that his car was following her.

The woman eventually recovered but decided that there had been some kind of substance on the card that affected her.

The writer of the email then speculates that the substance may have been a drug known as Burundanga. […]