Thursday, June 26, 2008

Phantom Women

Bizarro is brought to you today by Necropolis Beauty Products. "You'll think you've died and gone to heaven."

I'm not sure where this idea came from, and it probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I love it to death. I find the idea that someone would go to the trouble to act out the old urban legend about the hitchhiking girl in a wet prom dress hysterical. Seems like this activity could catch on with goth girls.

For those who haven't heard the story: a girl of the type described above is picked up on a country road late at night, preferably near a body of water, and gives the driver the address of her home. When the driver arrives, she has vanished from the car. He goes to the door to investigate and the old woman who answers tells him her daughter drowned thirty years ago on prom night as a result of a car crash or whatever. The story is usually told as though it actually happened to a "friend of a friend" and includes local landmarks to make it scarier.

I love urban legends, except when someone tells me one that they believe to be true. It is uncomfortable to be given the choice of either acting impressed by a preposterous story (which makes me feel like a complete idiot) or telling them the story is false, effectively calling them an idiot.

I usually just smile and say I've suddenly remembered I forgot to feed my weasel before I left the house and am afraid he'll chew his way out of the attic.

4 comments:

doug nicodemus said...

i find the idea that most people would believe that you DO actually own a weasel to be exciting.

Penny Mitchell said...

You got the "complete idiot" and "idiot" photos backwards.

Anonymous said...

About 15 years ago, on a lone two-lane country road in the rice growing area of California, I was driving about 70 mph and it was just after midnight. All of the sudden I noticed a women dressed in black standing just in the other lane flagging me down. I slammed on the brakes and skidded past her. She then runs up to truck (a pick-up) and asks for a ride home and she was soaking wet, she was wearing a formal dress but not a prom dress. My first impression was someone was going to jump out of the bushes but there were none to jump out of. So I said sure. When I asked where her car was she said it was in the ditch, underwater. So I asked if anyone else was in the car, and thankfully there were none. I drove her home and asked if she wanted me to talk to anyone and she declined. However, I watched her go into the house and I started counting, I made it to 15 when her husband came running out. I gave an approximate location for the car and left. On my way home, I drove by the location and slowly looked for the car or any indication that a car was in a ditch and could not see any. She was one lucky woman.

Lloyd said...

I figure you should just screw it and tell them the truth. I do it on e-mail when someone sends me one of those stupid pass-a-long scare the crud out of you e-mails to send to every person you know. Usually you can find on Snopes etc... an explanatory link to send to them and everybody else on the original e-mail. That way you can not only tell them they are idiots but everybody that they sent the e-mail to as well. Love that feeling!! (Not really but I have done it just to stop the gullable from cluttering my inbox.)