How to Create an Urban Legend

The octo-chicken rumor is one I actually heard from a random person who believed it.

On an unrelated note, I was recently back in Seattle for a brief time, and it took less than an hour for me to get caught up in a conversation with a genuine Seattle-style crazy person. Some random guy on the street offered me a swig from his thermos, which he said was full of Wenatchee river water he had “made potable.” He went on to explain that a huge earthquake was coming, but that it wouldn’t really be an earthquake. It was more likely to be something to do with the nuclear missiles stationed on Whidbey Island.

Don’t get me wrong. Arizona and Florida both have their share of crazy people, but they’re not the same as Seattle crazy people. In Arizona, we get people who are obsessed with golf, but have moved to the one city in the United States where playing it in the summer can kill you. In Florida, you get the “God told me to build this massive pickup truck, and fill it with two cartons of every brand of cigarette” kind of crazy. Only in Seattle do you get the talkative conspiracy-theorist who’s also a naturalist, talking to you on a city street corner.

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