The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
Misc
 merkin history tales




From: tindall@mercury.interpath.net (Bruce Tindall)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: River (not Phoenix) ULs (was Re: Info re. UL)
Date: 26 Sep 1994 22:58:09 -0400

>So Vicki "educate, don't annihilate" Robinson says,
>: Wow, Terry. That's a pretty broad request. [...]

This reminded me of the stories told to me the other night by one of the co-authors of _'Merka: A Frequently-Shilled History_. He bought me a VERY primo dinner, so the least I can do is to pass his wisdom on to you.

[1] Early in the 20th Century a 'Merkin publishing company published a sleepy, boring, but significant series of books on 'Merkin rivers: the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Hudson, the Rio Grande, the Columbia, etc. Someone in Accounting noticed that one of the books was wildly outselling all the rest, and it wasn't even one of the ones about a major river. It was about a small river in the Appalachian mountains. But the title apparently caught the attention of many book buyers; it was about The French Broad.

[2] Circa the 1850s, North Carolina congressman Zebulon B. Vance was engaged in a Congressional debate over whether Federal money should be expended on doing something (like dredging) to the French Broad River. Vance was opposed to the expenditure, and said, "Hell, Mr. Speaker, it's just a narrow little creek. I could piss halfway across it." The presiding officer, offended by the foul language, banged his gavel and spluttered, "Out of order! The gentleman is out of order!" To which Vance replied, "Of course I'm out of order. If I wasn't out of order I could piss ALL the way across it!"

B "alles in Ordnung" T


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