Mind the credibility gap!
Guess I owe a co-worker an apology.
Back in May, when Teh Internets was abuzz over the so-called "Miami zombie attack", owing to the naked Rudy Eugene -- whom the cops assumed was thwacked out on the then-legal stimulant known as "bath salts", but who in the event proved to be merely high on ganja, thus giving credence to the risible reefer scare movies of the 1930s and 1940s -- chewing off 70% of the homeless Ronald Poppo's face, a younger co-worker asked me, with some trepidation, if it was true that there was going to be an epidemic of zombies, or at least of people exhibiting zombie-like behavior. I looked at her with more than a little amused disbelief and told her no, to which she replied, "I didn't think so, but [NAME REDACTED] and [NAME REDACTED] kept saying that zombies were coming, so..."
At least she had enough common sense to realize that the wilder babblings of some of our co-workers, and some of the commenters and trolls on the net, were as kosher as a Wendy's Baconator.
However, I just learned that at least one of our co-workers, by contrast, is not that smart: she and her British-born husband are stockpiling firearms and ammunition in expectation of an imminent zombie apocalypse.
Yes, you read that a'right: zombie apocalypse.
I remember discussing the sad and sordid face-chewing affair with her when it was breaking news, and she made reference to a "zombie plague," but she did it with a half-smile that I took to be reflective of an awareness on her part that such a thing was impossible (Stephen King's Cell and George Romero's Dead series and Code Name: Trixie, a.k.a. The Crazies notwithstanding), and that she was speaking facetiously.
SHE. WASN'T.
She really and truly believes that a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE is just around the corner. December 21, perhaps..? SHOP NOW, FRIENDS, WHILE THERE'S STILL TIME!
This is the same woman who told me, prior to the election of 2008, that she didn't want a black man as president (kudos to her for not dropping the "n-bomb," I guess...); when we were discussing the political history of her native Mexico, and I made reference to the massacre of peaceful student demonstrators in Mexico City in 1968 (I've heard that the death toll is still in dispute), she replied, "They should have killed them all." In the wake of Lady Gaga's "meat dress", she declared that "they" (or perhaps this should be rendered as "They"...) shouldn't "allow" Lady Gaga to do such things, or to sing such "nasty" songs. (All this before Gaga released "Born This Way.") I've no idea who "they" or "They" were; I didn't ask.
I suspect that the fact that Rudy Eugene was black only amped up her zombiephobia.
Damn. Does she think that AMC's The Walking Dead is a documentary? I'd suggest that she check out the "Zombie Walk" next week, but I'm afraid that she'd start blasting daylight through the brainpans of the poor "zombies." Jay-ZUSSS.
Back in May, when Teh Internets was abuzz over the so-called "Miami zombie attack", owing to the naked Rudy Eugene -- whom the cops assumed was thwacked out on the then-legal stimulant known as "bath salts", but who in the event proved to be merely high on ganja, thus giving credence to the risible reefer scare movies of the 1930s and 1940s -- chewing off 70% of the homeless Ronald Poppo's face, a younger co-worker asked me, with some trepidation, if it was true that there was going to be an epidemic of zombies, or at least of people exhibiting zombie-like behavior. I looked at her with more than a little amused disbelief and told her no, to which she replied, "I didn't think so, but [NAME REDACTED] and [NAME REDACTED] kept saying that zombies were coming, so..."
At least she had enough common sense to realize that the wilder babblings of some of our co-workers, and some of the commenters and trolls on the net, were as kosher as a Wendy's Baconator.
However, I just learned that at least one of our co-workers, by contrast, is not that smart: she and her British-born husband are stockpiling firearms and ammunition in expectation of an imminent zombie apocalypse.
Yes, you read that a'right: zombie apocalypse.
I remember discussing the sad and sordid face-chewing affair with her when it was breaking news, and she made reference to a "zombie plague," but she did it with a half-smile that I took to be reflective of an awareness on her part that such a thing was impossible (Stephen King's Cell and George Romero's Dead series and Code Name: Trixie, a.k.a. The Crazies notwithstanding), and that she was speaking facetiously.
SHE. WASN'T.
She really and truly believes that a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE is just around the corner. December 21, perhaps..? SHOP NOW, FRIENDS, WHILE THERE'S STILL TIME!
This is the same woman who told me, prior to the election of 2008, that she didn't want a black man as president (kudos to her for not dropping the "n-bomb," I guess...); when we were discussing the political history of her native Mexico, and I made reference to the massacre of peaceful student demonstrators in Mexico City in 1968 (I've heard that the death toll is still in dispute), she replied, "They should have killed them all." In the wake of Lady Gaga's "meat dress", she declared that "they" (or perhaps this should be rendered as "They"...) shouldn't "allow" Lady Gaga to do such things, or to sing such "nasty" songs. (All this before Gaga released "Born This Way.") I've no idea who "they" or "They" were; I didn't ask.
I suspect that the fact that Rudy Eugene was black only amped up her zombiephobia.
Damn. Does she think that AMC's The Walking Dead is a documentary? I'd suggest that she check out the "Zombie Walk" next week, but I'm afraid that she'd start blasting daylight through the brainpans of the poor "zombies." Jay-ZUSSS.