h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*finally managed to log in to h2g2 and stay logged in through an entire post*

That's the books... the ones that say Hitler was evil and not just misunderstood. I'll admit that my world history class in high school was lacking(everything). So, I've kind of made a point of filling in the vast gaps in my education, myself. Some of those gaps were so wide I almost fell into them.

Would you like to join the Halloween party?
F45817?thread=329261

ah.. wwII is still a bit a sensitive area.. Trying to explain H***** is/was misunderstood can bring you to court. Even today h's henchmen are brought to court (age >> 80).
And then there is American history (freedom war, civil war, others) almost totally ignored over here. Asian history (???) none of it.

While in Azerbaijan (.. arrr ..) I bought a series of Russian history books (only pictures and maps). Very interesting. There was some detailed description of the Dutch freedom war (1568-1648). In the maps they drew the polders that were created late 19th century (Netherlands looked very different in the early 17th century).

And will I join a party .. (party?? ) is the Pope Catholic?

My father referred to H****r as the EVIL B*****D. Dad passed through one of those w**k camps the day after it was liberated. He never forgot it and even years(decades) later it made him ill to talk about it.

Our American history classes spent too much time on the beginning and hardly ever got past the 1920s with any kind of detail.

The Pope was Catholic last time I checked...see you at the party.

Party time!! and .. ??

Or (there's an image)...

I feel like right now

?
Feeling particularly bloodthirsty?

tried volunteering at the local bloodbank they turned me down

for trying.

how was I supposed to know I had to fill one bag with blood.. I was trying to drink them empty

Have you read anything by Anne Rice?
I wasn't fond of "Interview with a Vampire". The original "Dracula" by Bram Stoker was more interesting.

Anne Rice, Vampire Chronicles.. I think it's ten volumes by now??
Well.. they are not real.. ish scary.. true.. but very few books really are.. Bram Stokers Dracula is mainly interesting because of the social ideas, conventions it holds.

(* and of course because my old enemy dr van Helsing appears in it ( )*)

(* oh ... and I wasn't really at the blood bank.. I'd be turned down for the next 6 months or so.. antibiotics and minor surgery *)

Ah, it was a bit of role playing.

They refuse for antibiotics? I didn't realize.

Anne Rice is not my favorite author. Around Halloween New Orleans gets a bit of publicity for being her hometown. I made it through the "Witching Hour" and "Interview with a Vampire". Gave both books away and said that was enough of that for me.

I found an unabridged copy of "Dracula" for 50 cents, and couldn't resist.

Currently looking for some scary stories on the internet...

The blood banks refuse for lots of reasons.. recent (6 months) piercing, antibiotics for a few months, surgery (any) for half a year or more, any sort of medicine last few days, and then there's the HIV test. (* Actually the cheapest way to get an HIV test.. and with an orange *)

I found very few "real" scary stories.. on the internet or elsewhere.. EA Poe is .. a bit .. scary (sometimes)..

I prefer Poe to Steven King. Found some ghost stories pertaining to Louisiana...This was one of the better sites:
http://www.prairieghosts.com/hauntla.html

=>
! What a brilliant site! amazing! I spent > 2 hours reading and probably will spend the rest of the evening (time zone..) reading the rest of the site!
Great! I never realised there were ghosts in America; most of our ghosts are old or very old ( ~15 .. 17th century ) and of course most of them are in England or Scotland. In the Netherlands are vey few (probably less than one thousand, not counting ghost dogs, horses, ...) Best known is a count of Holland (taken hostage and murdered in one of his castles in 1296, the castle is completely preserved, his ghost was described by a 17th century writer staying at that castle, he wrote a brilliant letter about the affair (describing the pale ghost of the wounded count moaning..)... no one saw the ghost afterwards.. ) Then there's a few unhappy women in (16~17 century) houses all over the country, a few cemetries...

Ghost story (well..) I heard first hand was told by a caretaker of a graveyard. He lived in (one of four) hoses built at the edge of the graveyard and was woken up one night by.. the police. A car with 4 (four) policemen was sent to the graveyard because people had seen strange lights moving around the graveyard. So the caretaker says to the police "ok.. just go and see.. you know where it is.. ". The policemen wanted to drive with the car, caretaker inside, doors and windows locked, across the g.y. Coming to the "lights" they found a recently placed marble stone reflecting the moonlight... no unhappy ghost.. one of the police had ed his pants when the caretaker yelled "look there...... a cat ".

...
There are a lot of places that are reported to be haunted. One of the most interesting haunted places is Gettysburg Pennsylvania. Still looking for a non commercial site about Gettysburg.

In a nutshell: Gettysburg was the site of one of the most decisive and bloodiest battles of the American Civil War. The battle lasted for three days, casualties were high on both sides.

A park now stands on a large portion of the former battlefield. This is one of the favorite battle grounds for the re enactors. One day a park official was touring the site in preparation for an upcoming event. When he returned to the office he was praising a group of re enactors who had "put on a good show" with their authentic seeming drilling and accurate costumes. Then he was informed that not only was there no re enactment that weekend, no guests has entered the park that day.

there's a bit in the same website:
http://www.prairieghosts.com/gettysburg.html

I enjoyed reading that
and the website has a lot more! a good and probably complete overview of all "activities"(...) in a large area.

I didn't realize Gettysburg was considered part of the prairie.

There was a documentary done about three years ago titled Haunted Gettysburg. The story about Devil's Den was in that documentary. As well as a few more. One story was that of two students at Gettysburg College returning to their dormitory after a night class. The two stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the floor they needed. The elevator went down to the basement, and then down again...to what was supposed to be an unused storage room. Instead it was a horrifying scene of a Union Army field hospital...archaic instruments, amputations without anything stronger than a sip of whiskey...and a doctor pleading with them to help him by holding a patient down.

The two students fled. They returned with a security guard within the hour. The room was dusty and stacked full of boxes and luggage.

... amazing isn't it.. and who knows just what may be lurking in your cellar &