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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A599619

Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions

A Classic Goo story.

This is good. It is the perfect combination of tragedy and comedy. While no doubt it was sad that all those people died, there is something inherently funny about a wave of molasses engulfing a city.

There is one sentence that reads as if you left out the word "not":

"claiming that the acident was caused by a structural weakness but that bomb-throwing anarchists were responsible for the mess"

This should surely be "was not caused by a structural weakness".

There are one or two minor misprints:

Massachusettes --> Massachusetts
municiple --> municipal
ambulences --> ambulances

The phrase "plunged off of the broken tracks" should be changed to "plunged off the broken tracks" as we are using British English in the guide.

Thank you changes being made now

done

Reading through it again, I have a question. You suggest that the molasses was cooled by the cold winter air as it moved through the streets, causing it to become more viscous and slower. This suggests that the molasses started out hotter than the surrounding air. But at the end, you suggest the reason it exploded was because the surrounding air temperature rose suddenly from 2 deg F to 40 deg F, which would suggest that the molasses was at ambient temperature.

Was there any other source of heat involved? Was the molasses being heated in the tank to keep it from freezing? Does molasses generate heat if it ferments?

Thank you for pointing that out to me. I believe that the molasses began to congeal later on as the temperature began to drop. It slowed down simply because it just lost its initial momentum as most things tend to do. The slowing down actually had nothing to do with the congealing. The congealing didn't actually come until later on. Perhaps I should correct that part so as not to confuse others.

Thankyou Phreako for writing on such a great subject.
This article should be included because, amongst other reasons, no one believes me when I tell them about it.
You could mention the story that molasses is still supposed to ooze from pavement cracks on hot days... (is this true? A nice postscript nontheless.)

I didn't believe the story the first time somebody told it too me either

It does have something Pythonesque about it, certainly.
And when I first heard it was about the same time that 'Treacle People' was on TV, which didn't help.

But it is actually true

It just took me a little while to beleive it though.
I think maybe it is the tale about still being able to smell molasses on hot days and about it seeping through the cracks in the pavement that make it seem like another urban legend.
You know how there is always something like that in urban legends.
Thats why I never like to include that part when I tell people because its not really true and it makes it less beleivable

Fair enough. It does seem like a story told by old Boston-dwellers to keep their grandchildren quiet.

I hope the whole molasses flood thing never just becomes an urban legend that nobody believes because unlike the urban legends, this actually happened.

wow! never heard this one before. didnt believe it at first, gotta admit. I'm a massachusetts native, too. 1919...well heck, thats right after the last time the red sox won a world series...

All I can say on this entry is:



I bet identifying fingerprints of burglars was considerably easier for a while

A cracking story

Great entry. I heard this story when I went to school in Boston. Although it was a horrible tragedy as well, the absurdity of it makes me smile. I really don't see a problem with this getting into the Guide.

I'd give the if it was within my power - I was riveted from beginning to end One thing I'd work on though is overuse of the phrase "sticky goo". Maybe you could find a few variations such as "glutinous mass of molasses" or "gooey mess"

good idea
Thanks

Indeed a great story about a tragedy. A manmade version of Herculaneum after the Vesuvius outbreak.
It should have been a certain winner in "Funniest Home movies", if any should have been made.

Like "stickey goo" the word "molasses" itself seems a bit overused, especially in "The path of destruction", but I cannot see immediatly how to replace it.