Download or read book Bodies written by Gillian Bennett and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2009-09-18 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Because they are so often told as news, contemporary legends force us to reevaluate life as we know it. They confront us with macabre, fantastic, horrific, or hilarious characters and events that seem to come straight out of myths and folktales, but are presented as present day events. The difficulty is that it is not at all easy to decide whether these often disturbing stories should be treated as reliable or dismissed as fantasy. The legends explored in this book are some of the most bizarre, gruesome, and politically sensitive stories in the contemporary legend canon. At any moment a body may be invaded by noxious creatures, deliberately infected with deadly disease, or raided to provide donor organs for sick foreigners. These are "winter's tales," the stuff of nightmares. In this book Gillian Bennett traces the cultural history of six legends, well-known in Europe and America from medieval times to the present day. Appearing in broadsides, ballads, myths, ancient and modern legends, novels, plays, films, television shows, and stories told in the oral tradition, these legends are not just silly tales which can be dismissed as trivial and untrue. They reveal much about the concerns and fears of everyday life and demonstrate the limits of knowledge and power in the modern world.
Download or read book Too Good to Be True The Colossal Book of Urban Legends written by Jan Harold Brunvand and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2011-02-07 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If you enjoy these too-good-to-be-true tales, Brunvand's new book will give you hours of pleasure."—Chicago Tribune A fabulously entertaining book from the ultimate authority on those almost believable tales that always happen to a "friend of a friend." Alligators in the sewers? A pet in the microwave? A tragic misunderstanding of the function of cruise control? No, it didn't really happen to your friend's sister's neighbor: it's an urban legend. And no matter how savvy you think you are, you are sure to find in this collection of over 200 tales at least one story you would have sworn was true. Jan Harold Brunvand has been collecting and studying this modern folklore for over twenty years. In Too Good to Be True he captures the best stories in their best retellings, along with their latest variations and examples of how the stories have changed as they move from person to person and place to place. To help you find your favorite, Brunvand has arranged the tales thematically. "Bringing Up Baby" is full of episodes of child-rearing gone wrong, including the grisly tale of the drugged out baby-sitter who mistakes the kid for a turkey. "Funny Business" showcases stories of infamous lapses in customer service, such as the story of the shockingly expensive chocolate chip cookie recipe. And "The Criminal Mind" features both brilliant --if they were real --scams, as well as the purported antics of the less mentally gifted. Whether you want to become an expert debunker or just have plenty of laughs, this book will surprise and entertain you. Illustrated throughout. "Informative and entertaining.... Brunvand has collected more than 200 of the most-repeated and best-known examples of modern folk-myth."—Tampa Tribune "[N]ot only an entertaining anthology, but an excellent introduction to the study of folklore itself."—Publishers Weekly "A fun read... . All the classics are here from the killer upstairs to the Kentucky Fried Rat."—New City "Resonant stories that express our hidden anxieties ... make us laugh, [or] arouse our fascinated horror."—San Francisco Chronicle Book Review "Informative and entertaining... . Brunvand has collected more than 200 of the most-repeated and best-known examples of modern folk-myth."—Tampa Tribune "[N]ot only an entertaining anthology, but an excellent introduction to the study of folklore itself."—Publishers Weekly
Download or read book The Hamlet Fire written by Bryant Simon and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Captivating and brilliantly conceived. . . [The Hamlet Fire] will provide readers with insights into our current national politics." —The Washington Post A "gifted writer" (Chicago Tribune) uses a long forgotten factory fire in small-town North Carolina to show how cut-rate food and labor have become the new American norm For decades, the small, quiet town of Hamlet, North Carolina, thrived thanks to the railroad. But by the 1970s, it had become a postindustrial backwater, a magnet for businesses searching for cheap labor with little or almost no official oversight. One of these businesses was Imperial Food Products. The company paid its workers a dollar above the minimum wage to stand in pools of freezing water for hours on end, scraping gobs of fat off frozen chicken breasts before they got dipped in batter and fried into golden brown nuggets and tenders. If a worker complained about the heat or the cold or missed a shift to take care of their children or went to the bathroom too often they were fired. But they kept coming back to work because Hamlet was a place where jobs were scarce. Then, on the morning of September 3, 1991, the day after Labor Day, this factory that had never been inspected burst into flame. Twenty-five people—many of whom were black women with children, living on their own—perished that day behind the plant’s locked and bolted doors. Eighty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, industrial disasters were supposed to have been a thing of the past. After spending several years talking to local residents, state officials, and survivors of the fire, award-winning historian Bryant Simon has written a vivid, potent, and disturbing social autopsy of this town, this factory, and this time that shows how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was bound for tragedy.
Download or read book Code of Federal Regulations written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 1098 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Legends written by Charles Bronson and published by Mirage Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Bronson, classified as the most dangerous prisoner in the UK penal system, reveals who's who in this A-Z guide of the underworld and beyond. It contains many characters with unusual names who influenced Bronson's life and leave little to the imagination: The Wizard, Semtex Man and Pie Man.
Download or read book The Code of Federal Regulations of the United States of America written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 1092 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Code of Federal Regulations is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government.
Download or read book Tales Rumors and Gossip written by Gail de Vos and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1996-04-15 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explore the stories and themes that capture the imagination of young people today. A sampling of tales is organized into broad subject areas, such as contaminated food, threats to children, and satanic legends, and the tales are analyzed according to function, structure, and international variants. De Vos also discusses film and literary adaptions and offers suggestions for adapting tales for the junior high and high school curriculum. Explore the stories and themes that capture the imagination of young people today. After a fascinating overview and discussion of contemporary legends (commonly referred to as modern urban legends and often told as true), de Vos examines them in their relationship to rumors and gossip, ostension (acting out the legends), the role of the media in formulation and dissemination, and related tales (e.g., literary horror tales). A sampling of tales is organized into broad subject areas, such as contaminated food, threats to children, and satanic legends, and the legends are analyzed according to function, structure, and international variants. De Vos discusses some of the literary and visual adaptations in popular culture and offers suggestions for adapting tales for the junior high and high school curriculum. A fascinating professional book, this is a great resource to use with young adults.
Download or read book Thursday Legends Bob Skinner series Book 10 written by Quintin Jardine and published by Headline. This book was released on 2008-11-13 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Old scores are settled in blood... A brutal and apparently motiveless murder leads Skinner to suspect his own friends of treachery in Thursday Legends, the gripping crime novel of retribution and ultimate justice from acclaimed writer Quintin Jardine. Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin and Peter Robinson. 'This gritty, fast-paced mystery will pin even the most squeamish readers to the page' - Publishers Weekly For Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner, the Thursday night football game at the local gym has long been an unbroken ritual. With each match the players are a little older, a little slower, but as fiercely competitive as a gang of teenagers. Until the savagely mutilated body of a former player is found, and suddenly the Thursday Legends have more to worry about than aching backs and dodgy knees. Former Head of Special Branch Alec Smith made plenty of enemies during his long career - and there is no shortage of suspects. But as Skinner's investigation gathers pace, everything keeps pointing to the Legends themselves. Is someone targeting this disparate group of colleagues and friends in some bizarre scheme of retribution? Or is the murderer one of them? Either way, the hunt for the killer is going to come uncomfortably close to home... What readers are saying about Thursday Legends: 'Superb plotting, excellent, believable three-dimensional characterisation and a detective who's just tougher, scarier and more ingenious than the rest - and a flawed family man to boot' 'From the first page till the last it is a very hard book to put down' 'Five stars'
Download or read book Monthly Weather Review written by and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 1212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Global Grapevine written by Gary Alan Fine and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far from mere idle tales, rumors are a valuable window into our anxieties and fears. Rumors let us talk as a community about some very inflammatory issues--issues that may be embarrassing or disturbing to discuss-allowing us to act as if we are talking about real events, not personal beliefs. We can air our hidden fears and desires without claiming these attitudes as our own. In The Global Grapevine, two leading authorities on rumor, folklore, and urban legend--Gary Alan Fine and Bill Ellis--shed light on what contemporary rumors can tell us about the fears and pressures of globalization. In particular, they examine four major themes that emerge over and over again: rumors about terrorism, about immigration, about international trade, and about tourism. The authors analyze how various rumors underscore American reactions to perceived global threats, show how we interpret our changing world, and highlight fears, fantasies, and cherished beliefs about our place in the world. Along the way the book examines a wide variety of rumors-that the Israelis were behind 9-11, the President knew of the attack in advance, tourists wake up in foreign countries with their kidneys stolen, foreign workers urinate in vats of beer destined to be shipped to America. These rumors, the authors argue, reflect our anxieties and fears about contact with foreign cultures-whether we believe foreign competition to be poisoning the domestic economy or that foreign immigration to be eroding American values. Rumors are the visible tip of a vast iceberg of hidden anxieties. Illuminating the most widely circulated rumors in America in recent years, The Global Grapevine offers an invaluable portrait of what these tales reveal about contemporary society.
Download or read book The Legend of John Wilkes Booth written by C. Wyatt Evans and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Legend of John Wilkes Booth is a story of how collective memories and popular histories collide with, clash, and sometimes overcome mainstream accounts of the past. It offers an alternate venue for studying the workings of Civil War memory in American culture and demonstrates how (and why) culture produced at the grassroots level can challenge the official version of events."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book An Annotated Bibliography of Inuit Art written by Richard C. Crandall and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-07-25 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeological digs have turned up sculptures in Inuit lands that are thousands of years old, but "Inuit art" as it is known today only dates back to the beginning of the 1900s. Early art was traditionally produced from soft materials such as whalebone, and tools and objects were also fashioned out of stone, bone, and ivory because these materials were readily available. The Inuit people are known not just for their sculpture but for their graphic art as well, the most prominent forms being lithographs and stonecuts. This work affords easy access to information to those interested in any type of Inuit art. There are annotated entries on over 3,761 articles, books, catalogues, government documents, and other publications.
Download or read book Federal Register written by and published by . This book was released on 2012-10 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Legends of the American Desert written by Alex Shoumatoff and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2013-07-17 with total page 750 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For his brilliant reportage ranging from the forested recesses of the Amazon to the manicured lawns of Westchester County, New York, Alex Shoumatoff has won acclaim as one of our most perceptive guides to the oddest corners of the earth. Now, with this book, he takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey into the most complex and myth-laden region of the American landscape and imagination. In this amazing narrative, Shoumatoff records his quest to capture the vast multiplicity of the American Southwest. Beginning with his first trip after college across the desert in a station wagon, some twenty-five years ago, he surveys the boundless variety of people and experiences constituting the place--the idea--that has become America's symbol and last redoubt of the "Other. From the Biosphere to the Mormons, from the deadly world of narcotraffickers to the secret lives of the covertly Jewish conversos, Shoumatoff explores the many alternative states of being who have staked their claim in the Southwest, making it a haven for every brand of refugee, fugitive, and utopian. And as he ventures across time and space, blending many genres--history, anthropology, natural science, to name only a few--he brings us a wealth of information on chile addiction, the diffusion of horses, the formation of the deserts and mountain ranges, the struggles of the Navajo to preserve their culture, and countless other aspects of this place we think we know. Full of profound sympathy and unique insights, Legends of the American Desert is a superbly rich epic of fact and reflection destined to take its place among such classics of regional portraiture as Ian Frazier's Great Plains. Alex Shoumatoff has created an exuberant celebration of a singularly American reality.
Download or read book Doctor Strange Epic Collection written by Roy Thomas and published by Marvel Entertainment. This book was released on 2021-09-01 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The return of the vampires! Doctor Strange once wiped bloodsuckers from the face of the Earth - but now they rise again, beginning with one very close to Stephen! Brother Voodoo has the answer for the problem: zombies?! And what is Zom - besides big trouble in a tiny form? Dormammu unleashes his Mindless Ones on New York City, captures Clea and renders Doctor Strange powerless! Does this mean Baron Mordo will be the new Sorcerer Supreme? A possessed Topaz needs help finding the special ingredients to exorcise her demon, and her shopping list includes the fur of Werewolf by Night and the flame of Ghost Rider! And as Thanos exerts his grip on the Marvel Universe, Strange plays a crucial role in the Infinity Gauntlet saga! Collects DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME #14-33 and GHOST RIDER (1990) #12.
Download or read book Contemporary Legend written by Gillian Bennett and published by Scholarly Title. This book was released on 1993 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book lists works on "almost all major legends circulating in the 1990s in the United States, England, Western Europe" (p. xi) and includes brief descriptions of each.
Download or read book Weekly Climate Bulletin written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: