Popular Australian legend : razorblades stuck on Giant waterslides. Is this true?
Benjamin Monreal
On 5 May 1996, CybernetCafe wrote:
> In the early 80's I was scared of the idea of going on waterslides as a
> kid as there was this story going around of some mean kid sticking razor
> blades to the sides of the tubes, causing some kids to get cut.
>
> was there ever such a Kid? I really wonder how the kid could get the
> blades to stick or have the time to do it, are their similar stories in
> the US? please let me know I've spent years wondering about this.
Recently in New Haven there was a somewhat similar incident. At the
bottom (landing-area) of a slide in a local park, someone had half-buried
a knife, point-up, right where your feet land. It was discovered before
anyone was hurt, though.
If anyone _had_ been hurt, he'd be deserving of several million cards...
-Ben
Benjamin Monreal Yale '99 bmon...@minerva.cis.yale.edu
"Hungry barracuda can skeletonize a .sig in ten seconds..."
CybernetCafe
CybernetCafe
Michael Adamson
On 5 May 1996, CybernetCafe wrote:
A really cruel trick is to loudly talk about this story with your friends
while waiting in the waterslide queue. Then pour in a good dose of
red food dye right behind the next person going down. The red water
overtakes them and they freak out! Not that I'd ever consider doing
anything that nasty of course......
Bo Bradham
CybernetCafe <cybe...@hilink.com.au> wrote:
>In the early 80's I was scared of the idea of going on waterslides as a
>kid as there was this story going around of some mean kid sticking razor
>blades to the sides of the tubes, causing some kids to get cut.
>
>was there ever such a Kid? I really wonder how the kid could get the
>blades to stick or have the time to do it, are their similar stories in
>the US? please let me know I've spent years wondering about this.
Just this weekend I was browsing through Brunvand's ouvre and I
saw an entry in the index of one of his books about this one.
I didnt track it down because I was looking for something else at
the time.
Look in "Curses! Broiled Again" or The Mexican Pet" or "the Baby
Train" in that order (those are the books I was reading, and I
cant remember which one it was in).
ObWaterslides: This one waterslide near my hometown had to
re-engineer one of the curves after a corpulent person failed to
negotiate it due to excessive speed and jumped into the other
lane, sustaining some injuries in the process.
Bo "or so I was told." Bradham
--
"We consider that any man who can fiddle all through one of
those Virginia Reels without losing his grip, may be depended
upon in any kind of musical emergency."
-- Mark Twain.
Michele Tepper
In article <4ml0iu$3...@panix2.panix.com>, Bo Bradham <bra...@panix.com> wrote:
>CybernetCafe <cybe...@hilink.com.au> wrote:
>>In the early 80's I was scared of the idea of going on waterslides as a
>>kid as there was this story going around of some mean kid sticking razor
>>blades to the sides of the tubes, causing some kids to get cut.
>>
>>was there ever such a Kid?
>
>saw an entry in the index of one of his books about this one.
>I didnt track it down because I was looking for something else at
>the time.
"Every year as summer begins and amusement parks open, it becomes the
season for the re-emergence of the annual legends about deadly dangers in
funhouss, tunnels of love, and carnival rides. True, accidents do
happen, and occasionally some pretty bizarre ones. But amusement-park
mishaps couldn't posible occur at the rate that folklore suggests, or
else no insurance companies would issue liability coverage, and very few
parks would survive.
Another clue that we are dealing with legends is that so many alleged
accidents at such a large number of parks all supposedly stem from the
same few hazards -- electrocution, razor blades, and, especially, snakes.
I'll pass over the stories describing the fatal ast step onto the
electrified rail of a ride, **as well as those stories about razor blades
said to be stuck with chewing gum on the water slides by vandals**, because
these stories -- common as they are -- seldom show much imagination or
variation in their details."
-- _Curses, Broiled Again!_, p 37 (emphasis
added) ISBN 0-393-30711-5
So while Brunvand doesn't actually debunk this, the dismissive treatment
suggests that you're safe on the slides this summer.
Michele "and most excellent waterslides" Tepper
--
Michele Tepper "...textuality, like Elvis, is everywhere."
mte...@panix.com -- Michael Berube
Colin Rosenthal
On 6 May 1996 10:20:04 -0400, Michele Tepper <mte...@panix.com> wrote:
>In article <4ml0iu$3...@panix2.panix.com>, Bo Bradham <bra...@panix.com> wrote:
>>CybernetCafe <cybe...@hilink.com.au> wrote:
>>>In the early 80's I was scared of the idea of going on waterslides as a
>>>kid as there was this story going around of some mean kid sticking razor
>>>blades to the sides of the tubes, causing some kids to get cut.
I once had to be taken to casualty after impaling my hand on part of a
broken-off corkscrew stuck into the side of a table-football table. It
is possible that I am the only person in the world to have gone to
hospital as a result of a table football accident.
--Colin Rosenthal | ``Don't smell the flowers -
--rose...@obs.aau.dk | They're an evil drug -
--http://www.obs.aau.dk/~rosentha | To make you lose your mind''-
--Aarhus University, Denmark | Ronnie James Dio, 1983 -
j...@os2bbs.com
In <4mom25$f...@eden.apana.org.au>, j...@eden.apana.org.au (Joanne Kilian) writes:
>In <4mh2ak$i...@news.mel.aone.net.au> CybernetCafe <cybe...@hilink.com.au> writes:
>
>>In the early 80's I was scared of the idea of going on waterslides as a
>>kid as there was this story going around of some mean kid sticking razor
>>blades to the sides of the tubes, causing some kids to get cut.
>
>knew it was fiction, but the thought made me squirm.
If that makes you squirm, think of this one: you're sliding down a
bannister and it turns into a razor blade.
------------------------------ "If you once forfeit the confidence of
John Varela j...@os2bbs.com your fellow citizens, you can never regain
------------------------------ their respect and esteem." -- A. Lincoln
Marika.XX...@trab.se
In article <4mom25$f...@eden.apana.org.au>, j...@eden.apana.org.au (Joanne Kilian) writes:
>In <4mh2ak$i...@news.mel.aone.net.au> CybernetCafe <cybe...@hilink.com.au> writes:
>
>>In the early 80's I was scared of the idea of going on waterslides as a
>>kid as there was this story going around of some mean kid sticking razor
>>blades to the sides of the tubes, causing some kids to get cut.
>
>I do remember this one myself - I'm from Melbourne. Intellectually I
>knew it was fiction, but the thought made me squirm.
>
Well, there have been trouble here in Sweden with people putting
things like old rusty bicycles, sharpened woodpoles and sharp
metal in the water by bath-bridges (or what you call them:-).
--
-------------- ~ Marika Johnsson ~ -----------------
Marika.XX...@trab.se
------------------------------------------------------
j...@os2bbs.com
>Well, there have been trouble here in Sweden with people putting
>things like old rusty bicycles, sharpened woodpoles and sharp
>metal in the water by bath-bridges (or what you call them:-).
That sounds a lot like the urban legends in the US about razor blades in
candy and fruit given to children at Hallowe'en. Is there substantiation
for this "trouble" or is it just a story that goes around?
Michael R. MacAskill
In article
<Pine.OSF.3.91.96050...@eduserv.its.unimelb.EDU.AU>,
Michael Adamson <s_m...@eduserv.its.unimelb.EDU.AU> wrote:
> On 5 May 1996, CybernetCafe wrote:
>
> > In the early 80's I was scared of the idea of going on waterslides as a
> > kid as there was this story going around of some mean kid sticking razor
> > blades to the sides of the tubes, causing some kids to get cut.
> >
> > was there ever such a Kid? I really wonder how the kid could get the
> > blades to stick or have the time to do it, are their similar stories in
> > the US? please let me know I've spent years wondering about this.
> >
That story was certainly going around the new-fangled hydroslides in
Christchurch, NZ, 16-odd years ago. Not so far removed from Australia,
but its geographical distribution starts to make it look like a UL...
Cheers,
Mike.
Marika.XX...@trab.se
I have no first hand experience but by my (hopfully reliable) memory
recall a) a newspaperarticle interwiewing a person that cleaned up
such things in the water about a year ago . And b) beeing told about it
by friend of mine who comes from a town by the sea where there were
such problems. My guess is that incidents
are not very common but do happen. Summer are approaching even here in the
north of Europe and there may be new articles about it. Should I find a
reliable source I'll post here.
--
-------------- ~ Marika Johnsson ~ -----------------
Marika.XX...@trab.se
pager: 0740 - 19 22 29
------------------------------------------------------
Dave Blake
In article <4mtmd4$2...@news1.mnsinc.com>, John Valera writes
>
>That sounds a lot like the urban legends in the US about razor blades in
>candy and fruit given to children at Hallowe'en. Is there substantiation
>for this "trouble" or is it just a story that goes around?
>
From the AFU FAQ;- <<<<<<<<note NOT a smiley
F. Halloween sadists randomly give poisoned candy to children.
T. A Texas child was poisoned by his father on Halloween in 1974.
[Above two are in "Halloween Sadists" in CBA]
However, there was a rumour (complete with FOAF accounts) in the UK
around the late seventies, that the National Front (read Nazi's) were
supposed to be placing razor blades behind their stickers and posters so
the anyone attempting to rip them down would cut their fingers rather
badly.
Dave "Smileys? who mentioned Smileys?" Blake
London, England
Joachim Lous
Quoth Dave Blake:
: However, there was a rumour (complete with FOAF accounts) in the UK
: around the late seventies, that the National Front (read Nazi's) were
: supposed to be placing razor blades behind their stickers and posters so
: the anyone attempting to rip them down would cut their fingers rather
: badly.
Ah yes, it all comes back to me now:
It was 'common knowledge' in Norway that activists, or sometimes more
specifically the communists (in the 70s, when AKP-ml was big) would mix
ground glass in the glue when they put up their posters.
I also saw this listed as a useful trick in a semi-serious guide to
political activism (in _Gateavisa_ I think).
-Joachim "So they invented killfiles instead" Lous
David Navarro
j...@os2bbs.com wrote:
>
> In <4mom25$f...@eden.apana.org.au>, j...@eden.apana.org.au (Joanne Kilian) writes:
> >In <4mh2ak$i...@news.mel.aone.net.au> CybernetCafe <cybe...@hilink.com.au> writes:
> >
> >>kid as there was this story going around of some mean kid sticking razor
> >>blades to the sides of the tubes, causing some kids to get cut.
> >
> >knew it was fiction, but the thought made me squirm.
>
> bannister and it turns into a razor blade.
>
I think I remember Stephen King mentioning that, too...
...Yeeeehaaa...Uh,oh...ziiiippppp.....Arrrggghhhh!....Thud,thud.
--
-Daven-
-The opinions expressed above are generated randomly, and are
not necessarily those of DreamWorks SKG. If anything interesting
happens to crop up, the copyright remains with me, thanks.