Laure Murat, The Man Who Thought He Was Napoleon, trans. Deke Dusinberre (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014), 236n23. Apocryphal typo: “All lunatics must be guillotined.”
“All in a Day’s Work,” Reader’s Digest, July/August 2021, pp. 36-7. The generosity of Al Capone.
“Sick Sick World,” Sick #107, vol. 15, no. 6, December 1975, p. 35. Shoplifting a suitcase.
A proto-crop circle made an appearance in a comic book over 60 years ago. In “The Hidden Hex!” (World of Fantasy #7, May 1957), a series of calamities – floods, fires, tornadoes – follow the removal of protective hex signs from a newcomer’s property in Pennsylvania Dutch country. Problems cease only after the foreman secretly fashions a hex sign in the owner’s field. The geometric design is a striking precursor to crop circles that appeared many years later.
A variant of this tale, “Hex Marks the Spot,” appeared in Eerie #25, January 1970. In this story, a farmer’s skeptical wife forces her husband to remove the hex signs from their house and barn, after which the barn burns down and a demon comes to their house to kill them. Fortunately, the farmer had the foresight to create a hex sign in his wheat field, and the demon is thwarted by this crude but effective crop circle.
In the last 30 years there has been a handful of studies on the effects of long-term exposure to chalk dust on school teachers (see Zsuzsánna Ágnes Szász et al, “Chalk-induced Lung Fibrosis — Case Report.” Journal of Interdisciplinary Medicine 2017; 2(4):357-61, and its accompanying references). It’s likely that with the increased use of whiteboards, respiratory tract diseases will be less of an occupational hazard for teachers.
I’ve come across a couple of references in humor magazines to brown-nosing schoolkids getting sick from inhaling chalk dust after much clapping of erasers. Did kids in the real world ever worry about “white lung”?
George W. S. Trow & Anne Beatts, "Doctor Warns of New Diseases," National Lampoon, September, 1971, p. 27.
White lung happens when a little boy or a little girl is a little too eager to help teacher. Little boys and little girls who volunteer to help teacher in the hope of winning favors usually end up clapping blackboard erasers. If little boys and little girls clap blackboard erasers too often, they will get dread white lung due to chalk-dust inhalation[.]
Dennis Snee, "Former Eraser Cleaner Claims Chalk Dust Damages,” MAD magazine #246, March 1984, p. 31.
ATLANTA, Ga. (UPI) – In the third such suit filed recently, high school senior Matthew Binkowitz claimed today in municipal court that his experience cleaning erasers in elementary and junior high school caused him to develop a chronic respiratory ailment.
"I used to pound the things every day till my hands got tired," Binkowitz said, "but it wasn't until a year ago that I realized breathing in all that chalk dust was bad for my health."
Robert Triptow, Class Photo (Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2015), 32.
Charles Schulz, Peanuts, 17 & 19 February 1969.
