Eccentric Flower:200906/Snottiness
From Eccentric Flower
Snottiness
This is sort of an addendum to the discussion I'm having with Jette on the previous entry, which you should read.
So, I haven't been to BoingBoing in weeks. Probably for the best, although it's not been deliberate avoidance.
Looked at it briefly today, got, I don't know, maybe six items down the top page, found this.
And my reaction:
If this guy is the co-founder of a project that claims to be "A Compendium of the World's Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica," and he's only just now finding out about the Centralia fire, he needs to resign his position.
OK, I'm snotty - see the title up there? - but honestly. The Centralia fire comes up on the internet about every fifteen minutes. If people wanted brain dumps, which they don't, I could give you twenty or thirty links without breaking a sweat. (But because I assume you are like me, I will assume you would prefer to look it up yourself.) It is not, in short, an uncommon bit of knowledge for the reasonably well-travelled web surfer.
This is the part where you tell me you absolutely had never heard of Centralia, PA before I just mentioned it above and you think I am having an Allegory of the Cave moment again. Go ahead. I'm ready. Garments easily accessible for rending, breast bared, got my ashes right here, and a couple of bolts of sackcloth over in the corner.
[P.S. I hope that I have established that I am not being entirely serious here. Sometimes I have trouble conveying when I am amused at my own brain.]
I've seen it a few times on various History Channel specials, though it took me a moment to link that to the name. I have never once seen it on the web when I wasn't looking for it, and I do pay attention.
-- 19:00, 16 June 2009 (BST)
I'm not sure if you're having an Allegory of the Cave moment, but I think there's a certain value in things being mentioned more than once. The BB page isn't loading for some reason, but, like ProfRobert, I assume this is about the immortal smoldering coal hole? Now that it's come up again, I'm more likely to remember the name Centralia. If it comes up yet again, I may end up with more in-depth information about it happened, or a personal story I wouldn't have seen otherwise. I mean: I already knew about the California towns that drowned behind dams for the sake of water management before I saw an exhibit of photographs and documents from one of those towns.
More so, there's something to celebrate about stories that keep coming back into the light. If I say "Accordion Guy" and "saved by the internet," you'll know exactly what I mean, right? That story is *old*, almost old enough to be old in real years and not just internet time. And yet, I just recently saw that entry linked on a group blog that will not be named. This is, I think, how folklore starts, with the stories we keep wanting to tell each other, over and over.
That got long. Better hit "Submit" now, before it gets any longer.
-- 19:05, 16 June 2009 (BST)
Aw, come on, two paragraphs isn't long. Piker :)
You make a good point - sometimes the stories persist even if the labels don't. I think saying, "Wasn't that some kind of underground coal fire?" is sufficient to count as cultural recognition, if you will, without necessarily retaining the name Centralia. My (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) point was that the guy who wrote the BB piece was supposed to be a pro at this, and therefore the standards are higher for him.
(Except, of course, he does not claim to be a pro, and his site of places is only just begun and is accumulating information from reader submissions. I actually like the idea of his project a great deal, which is why my ranting is not to be taken too seriously.)
-- 19:16, 16 June 2009 (BST)
Wow. I have never heard of this. In what context does it come up all the time on the internet?
-- 19:22, 16 June 2009 (BST)
Hee. Contexts peculiar to me, apparently!
(I wasn't joking about that part, though, it really does seem like in my usual web orbits, every couple of weeks someone is like, "Hey, did you know there's a whole town in Pennsylvania which has been abandoned because it's on a giant fire?")
-- 19:23, 16 June 2009 (BST)
My favorite Centralia photo. This is why they have closed and re-routed part of PA Hwy 61. The road has gotten so hot it's melted. Notice the smoke coming out of the crack.
-- 19:32, 16 June 2009 (BST)
Somehow the name "Centralia" sounded oddly false and what leapt to mind was, "I've sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, and by gum, it put them on the map!" I imagine Centralia scrawled in on the same map with a little tongue of flame next to it.
Okay, seriously, I hadn't heard of it. I haven't heard of Accordion Guy either. Sometimes I don't pay attention. Sorry. "I hear those things are awfully loud ..." arrrgh, now it's stuck in my head.
-- 19:39, 16 June 2009 (BST)
Jette, for your reading pleasure: The Girl Who Cried Webmaster.
Let's see if that link comes out right. C, would you consider putting a link to the markup help page on the journal/comment pages?
(on edit: And, yes, I love the sound of "Centralia" as a spurious locale. And, yes, I love starting sentences with "and, yes.")
(on further edit: C, the Centralia photo link is 403. Which one is it on the page?)
-- 19:53, 16 June 2009 (BST)
Huh, the link doesn't 403 for me. If you go to the main page, and scroll to the abandoned 61 section at the bottom, there's a horizontal row of five photos; it's second from right.
-- 20:04, 16 June 2009 (BST)
God, I could read that Accordion Guy story over and over. It warms my cold, cold heart. (I think you're right about us repeating the stuff we like until it becomes new-school folklore, too.)
-- 20:09, 16 June 2009 (BST)
Mel:
Heard of Centralia, vaguely, heard of Accordion Guy, vaguely, didn't really know who or what either one was. (I've also heard vague stuff about a town like that but wasn't sure if it was real or an urban legend.)
-- 21:34, 16 June 2009 (BST)
ProfRobert:
It was like a coal-mine fire or something like that? I've heard the name, but don't have a concrete association.
-- 18:20, 16 June 2009 (BST)