Click on the SAS link to get to SAS Curriculum Pathways. Log in (nwilkes, no password) & search for QL# 140. Complete QL# 140 on your handout & turn it in before leaving class. Make sure your name is on your work.
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"Cask of Amontillado"
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Urban Legends
a modern story of obscure origin and with little or no supporting evidence that spreads spontaneously in varying forms and often has elements of humor, moralizing, or horror
a modern story of obscure origin and with little or no supporting evidence that spreads spontaneously in varying forms and often has elements of humor, moralizing, or horror
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"The Cigar Arsonist"
A CHARLOTTE, North Carolina man, having purchased a case of rare, very expensive cigars, ?insured them against (get this) fire! Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of ?fabulous cigars, and having yet to make a single premium payment on the policy, the man ?filed a claim against the insurance company.
In his claim, the man stated that he had lost the cigars "in a series of small fires." The ?insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had consumed the ?cigars in a normal fashion. The man sued - and won! In delivering his ruling, the judge stated ?that since the man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars ?were insurable and also guaranteed that the cigars would be insured against fire, without ?defining what it considered to be unacceptable fire, it was obligated to compensate the ?insured for his loss.
Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company grudgingly ?accepted the judge's ruling and paid the man $15,000 for the rare cigars he lost in the fires. ?After the man cashed his check, however, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 ?counts of arson. With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being ?used as evidence against him, the man was convicted of intentionally burning the rare cigars ?and sentenced to 24 consecutive one-year terms.
(circulated via emails)
"The Kangaroo Thief"
THESE TWO guys my friend knows work for Chase Bank. Every year they go to Australia for ?a big, bank-sponsored golf tournament. This past year, these guys and their team won the ?entire tournament and went on to drink lots of beers and celebrate while wearing their newly-?won green tournament jackets.
After drinking up a storm, they plopped into their rented car and were driving on deserted ?roads nearby when they accidentally hit a large kangaroo. Getting out of the car, they ?realized that the kangaroo had died in the accident.
Being so drunk, though, they propped up the kangaroo, its lifeless head bouncing from one ?side to the other, dressed it in one of their new green jackets, and took pictures of ?themselves with their arms around it.
After a few minutes of picture-taking, the guys were shocked when it seemed that the ?kangaroo came back to life! It turns out that the poor kangaroo wasn't dead, but it had ?passed out, and when it came back to consciousness started to box with the drunken guys! ?It actually broke one guy's jaw!! It then hopped away into the landscape.
The men couldn't drive their rented car, as the keys were in the green jacket, which was still ?on the kangaroo, so they had to walk back to the tournament. A little while later, a pack of ?kangaroos was seen in the distance, one of them wearing the green jacket.
(As told by reader "PrettyBeef")
"The Bristol Zoo Parking Attendant"
Subject: A well-planned retirement
From The London Times:
Outside the Bristol Zoo, in England, there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or ?buses. It was manned by a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars 1 ?pound (about $1.40) and coaches 5 (about $7). This parking attendant worked there solid ?for all of 25 years. Then, one day, he just didn't turn up for work.
"Oh well", said Bristol Zoo Management, "we'd better phone up the City Council and get ?them to send a new parking attendant..."
"Er... no", said the Council, "that parking lot is your responsibility."
"Er... no", said Bristol Zoo management, "the attendant was employed by the City Council, ?wasn't he?"
"Er... NO!" insisted the Council.
Sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain, is a bloke who had been taking the ?parking lot fees, estimated at 400 pounds (about $560) per day at Bristol Zoo for the last 25 ?years. Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over 3.6 million pounds ($7 million).
And no one even knows his name.
(As circulated via email)
"The Hook"
A TEENAGE boy drove his date to a dark and deserted Lovers' Lane for a make-?out session. After turning on the radio for mood music, he leaned over and began ?kissing the girl.
A short while later, the music suddenly stopped and an announcer's voice came on, ?warning in an urgent tone that a convicted murderer had just escaped from the ?state insane asylum - which happened to be located not far from Lovers' Lane - and ?that anyone who noticed a strange man lurking about with a hook in place of his ?right hand should immediately report his whereabouts to the police.
The girl became frightened and asked to be taken home. The boy, feeling bold, ?locked all the doors instead and, assuring his date they would be safe, attempted to ?kiss her again. She became frantic and pushed him away, insisting that they leave. ?Relenting, the boy peevishly jerked the car into gear and spun its wheels as he ?pulled out of the parking space.
When they arrived at the girl's house she got out of the car, and, reaching to close ?the door, began to scream uncontrollably. The boy ran to her side to see what was ?wrong and there, dangling from the door handle, was a bloody hook!
"The Killer in the Backseat"
ONE NIGHT a woman went out for drinks with her girlfriends. She left the bar fairly late at ?night, got in her car and onto the deserted highway. She noticed a lone pair of headlights in ?her rear-view mirror, approaching at a pace just slightly quicker than hers. As the car pulled up ?behind her she glanced and saw the turn signal on - the car was going to pass - when ?suddenly it swerved back behind her, pulled up dangerously close to her tailgate and the ?brights flashed.
Now she was getting nervous. The lights dimmed for a moment and then the brights came ?back on and the car behind her surged forward. The frightened woman struggled to keep her ?eyes on the road and fought the urge to look at the car behind her. Finally, her exit approached ?but the car continued to follow, flashing the brights periodically.
Through every stoplight and turn, it followed her until she pulled into her driveway. She figured ?her only hope was to make a mad dash into the house and call the police. As she flew from ?the car, so did the driver of the car behind her - and he screamed, "Lock the door and call the ?police! Call 911!"
When the police arrived the horrible truth was finally revealed to the woman. The man in the ?car had been trying to save her. As he pulled up behind her and his headlights illuminated her ?car, he saw the silhouette of a man with a butcher knife rising up from the back seat to stab ?her, so he flashed his brights and the figure crouched back down.
The moral of the story: Always check the back seat!
"Buried Alive"
MY GREAT-GREAT grandmother, ill for quite some time, finally passed away after lying in a ?coma for several days. My great-great grandfather was devastated beyond belief, as she was ?his one true love and they had been married over 50 years. They were married so long it ?seemed as if they knew each other's innermost thoughts.
After the doctor pronounced her dead, my great-great grandfather insisted that she was not. ?They had to literally pry him away from his wife's body so they could ready her for burial.
Now, back in those days they had backyard burial plots and did not drain the body of its ?fluids. They simply prepared a proper coffin and committed the body (in its coffin) to its ?permanent resting place. Throughout this process, my great-great grandfather protested so ?fiercely that he had to be sedated and put to bed. His wife was buried and that was that.
That night he woke to a horrific vision of his wife hysterically trying to scratch her way out of ?the coffin. He phoned the doctor immediately and begged to have his wife's body exhumed. ?The doctor refused, but my great-great grandfather had this nightmare every night for a week, ?each time frantically begging to have his wife removed from the grave.
Finally the doctor gave in and, together with local authorities, exhumed the body. The coffin ?was pried open and to everyone's horror and amazement, my great-great grandmother's nails ?were bent back and there were bloody scratch-marks on the inside of the coffin.
"The Clown Statue"
SO-AND-SO'S FRIEND, a girl in her teens, is babysitting for a family in Newport Beach, Ca. The family is ?wealthy and has a very large house - you know the sort, with a ridiculous amount of rooms. Anyways, the ?parents are going out for a late dinner/movie. The father tells the babysitter that once the children are in bed ?she should go into this specific room (he doesn't really want her wandering around the house) and watch TV ?there.
The parents take off and soon she gets the kids into bed and goes to the room to watch TV. She tries ?watching TV, but she is disturbed by a clown statue in the corner of the room. She tries to ignore it for as long ?as possible, but it starts freaking her out so much that she can't handle it.
She resorts to calling the father and asks, "Hey, the kids are in bed, but is it okay if I switch rooms? This ?clown statue is really creeping me out."
The father says seriously, "Get the kids, go next door and call 911."
She asks, "What's going on?"
He responds, "Just go next door and once you call the police, call me back."
She gets the kids, goes next door, and calls the police. When the police are on the way, she calls the father ?back and asks, "So, really, what's going on?"
He responds, "We don't HAVE a clown statue." He then further explains that the children have been ?complaining about a clown watching them as they sleep. He and his wife had just blown it off, assuming that ?they were having nightmares.
The police arrive and apprehend the "clown," who turns out to be a midget. A midget clown! I guess he was ?some homeless person dressed as a clown, who somehow got into the house and had been living there for ?several weeks. He would come into the kids' rooms at nights and watch them while they slept. As the house ?was so large, he was able to avoid detection, surviving off their food, etc. He had been in the TV room right ?before the babysitter right came in there. When she entered he didn't have enough time to hide, so he just ?froze in place and pretended to be a statue.
A CHARLOTTE, North Carolina man, having purchased a case of rare, very expensive cigars, ?insured them against (get this) fire! Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of ?fabulous cigars, and having yet to make a single premium payment on the policy, the man ?filed a claim against the insurance company.
In his claim, the man stated that he had lost the cigars "in a series of small fires." The ?insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had consumed the ?cigars in a normal fashion. The man sued - and won! In delivering his ruling, the judge stated ?that since the man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars ?were insurable and also guaranteed that the cigars would be insured against fire, without ?defining what it considered to be unacceptable fire, it was obligated to compensate the ?insured for his loss.
Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company grudgingly ?accepted the judge's ruling and paid the man $15,000 for the rare cigars he lost in the fires. ?After the man cashed his check, however, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 ?counts of arson. With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being ?used as evidence against him, the man was convicted of intentionally burning the rare cigars ?and sentenced to 24 consecutive one-year terms.
(circulated via emails)
"The Kangaroo Thief"
THESE TWO guys my friend knows work for Chase Bank. Every year they go to Australia for ?a big, bank-sponsored golf tournament. This past year, these guys and their team won the ?entire tournament and went on to drink lots of beers and celebrate while wearing their newly-?won green tournament jackets.
After drinking up a storm, they plopped into their rented car and were driving on deserted ?roads nearby when they accidentally hit a large kangaroo. Getting out of the car, they ?realized that the kangaroo had died in the accident.
Being so drunk, though, they propped up the kangaroo, its lifeless head bouncing from one ?side to the other, dressed it in one of their new green jackets, and took pictures of ?themselves with their arms around it.
After a few minutes of picture-taking, the guys were shocked when it seemed that the ?kangaroo came back to life! It turns out that the poor kangaroo wasn't dead, but it had ?passed out, and when it came back to consciousness started to box with the drunken guys! ?It actually broke one guy's jaw!! It then hopped away into the landscape.
The men couldn't drive their rented car, as the keys were in the green jacket, which was still ?on the kangaroo, so they had to walk back to the tournament. A little while later, a pack of ?kangaroos was seen in the distance, one of them wearing the green jacket.
(As told by reader "PrettyBeef")
"The Bristol Zoo Parking Attendant"
Subject: A well-planned retirement
From The London Times:
Outside the Bristol Zoo, in England, there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or ?buses. It was manned by a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars 1 ?pound (about $1.40) and coaches 5 (about $7). This parking attendant worked there solid ?for all of 25 years. Then, one day, he just didn't turn up for work.
"Oh well", said Bristol Zoo Management, "we'd better phone up the City Council and get ?them to send a new parking attendant..."
"Er... no", said the Council, "that parking lot is your responsibility."
"Er... no", said Bristol Zoo management, "the attendant was employed by the City Council, ?wasn't he?"
"Er... NO!" insisted the Council.
Sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain, is a bloke who had been taking the ?parking lot fees, estimated at 400 pounds (about $560) per day at Bristol Zoo for the last 25 ?years. Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over 3.6 million pounds ($7 million).
And no one even knows his name.
(As circulated via email)
"The Hook"
A TEENAGE boy drove his date to a dark and deserted Lovers' Lane for a make-?out session. After turning on the radio for mood music, he leaned over and began ?kissing the girl.
A short while later, the music suddenly stopped and an announcer's voice came on, ?warning in an urgent tone that a convicted murderer had just escaped from the ?state insane asylum - which happened to be located not far from Lovers' Lane - and ?that anyone who noticed a strange man lurking about with a hook in place of his ?right hand should immediately report his whereabouts to the police.
The girl became frightened and asked to be taken home. The boy, feeling bold, ?locked all the doors instead and, assuring his date they would be safe, attempted to ?kiss her again. She became frantic and pushed him away, insisting that they leave. ?Relenting, the boy peevishly jerked the car into gear and spun its wheels as he ?pulled out of the parking space.
When they arrived at the girl's house she got out of the car, and, reaching to close ?the door, began to scream uncontrollably. The boy ran to her side to see what was ?wrong and there, dangling from the door handle, was a bloody hook!
"The Killer in the Backseat"
ONE NIGHT a woman went out for drinks with her girlfriends. She left the bar fairly late at ?night, got in her car and onto the deserted highway. She noticed a lone pair of headlights in ?her rear-view mirror, approaching at a pace just slightly quicker than hers. As the car pulled up ?behind her she glanced and saw the turn signal on - the car was going to pass - when ?suddenly it swerved back behind her, pulled up dangerously close to her tailgate and the ?brights flashed.
Now she was getting nervous. The lights dimmed for a moment and then the brights came ?back on and the car behind her surged forward. The frightened woman struggled to keep her ?eyes on the road and fought the urge to look at the car behind her. Finally, her exit approached ?but the car continued to follow, flashing the brights periodically.
Through every stoplight and turn, it followed her until she pulled into her driveway. She figured ?her only hope was to make a mad dash into the house and call the police. As she flew from ?the car, so did the driver of the car behind her - and he screamed, "Lock the door and call the ?police! Call 911!"
When the police arrived the horrible truth was finally revealed to the woman. The man in the ?car had been trying to save her. As he pulled up behind her and his headlights illuminated her ?car, he saw the silhouette of a man with a butcher knife rising up from the back seat to stab ?her, so he flashed his brights and the figure crouched back down.
The moral of the story: Always check the back seat!
"Buried Alive"
MY GREAT-GREAT grandmother, ill for quite some time, finally passed away after lying in a ?coma for several days. My great-great grandfather was devastated beyond belief, as she was ?his one true love and they had been married over 50 years. They were married so long it ?seemed as if they knew each other's innermost thoughts.
After the doctor pronounced her dead, my great-great grandfather insisted that she was not. ?They had to literally pry him away from his wife's body so they could ready her for burial.
Now, back in those days they had backyard burial plots and did not drain the body of its ?fluids. They simply prepared a proper coffin and committed the body (in its coffin) to its ?permanent resting place. Throughout this process, my great-great grandfather protested so ?fiercely that he had to be sedated and put to bed. His wife was buried and that was that.
That night he woke to a horrific vision of his wife hysterically trying to scratch her way out of ?the coffin. He phoned the doctor immediately and begged to have his wife's body exhumed. ?The doctor refused, but my great-great grandfather had this nightmare every night for a week, ?each time frantically begging to have his wife removed from the grave.
Finally the doctor gave in and, together with local authorities, exhumed the body. The coffin ?was pried open and to everyone's horror and amazement, my great-great grandmother's nails ?were bent back and there were bloody scratch-marks on the inside of the coffin.
"The Clown Statue"
SO-AND-SO'S FRIEND, a girl in her teens, is babysitting for a family in Newport Beach, Ca. The family is ?wealthy and has a very large house - you know the sort, with a ridiculous amount of rooms. Anyways, the ?parents are going out for a late dinner/movie. The father tells the babysitter that once the children are in bed ?she should go into this specific room (he doesn't really want her wandering around the house) and watch TV ?there.
The parents take off and soon she gets the kids into bed and goes to the room to watch TV. She tries ?watching TV, but she is disturbed by a clown statue in the corner of the room. She tries to ignore it for as long ?as possible, but it starts freaking her out so much that she can't handle it.
She resorts to calling the father and asks, "Hey, the kids are in bed, but is it okay if I switch rooms? This ?clown statue is really creeping me out."
The father says seriously, "Get the kids, go next door and call 911."
She asks, "What's going on?"
He responds, "Just go next door and once you call the police, call me back."
She gets the kids, goes next door, and calls the police. When the police are on the way, she calls the father ?back and asks, "So, really, what's going on?"
He responds, "We don't HAVE a clown statue." He then further explains that the children have been ?complaining about a clown watching them as they sleep. He and his wife had just blown it off, assuming that ?they were having nightmares.
The police arrive and apprehend the "clown," who turns out to be a midget. A midget clown! I guess he was ?some homeless person dressed as a clown, who somehow got into the house and had been living there for ?several weeks. He would come into the kids' rooms at nights and watch them while they slept. As the house ?was so large, he was able to avoid detection, surviving off their food, etc. He had been in the TV room right ?before the babysitter right came in there. When she entered he didn't have enough time to hide, so he just ?froze in place and pretended to be a statue.
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stephen_king_questions.doc | |
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stephen_king_-_09._-_night_shift_-_i_am_the_doorway.pdf | |
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stephen_king_-_17._man_who_would_not_shake_hands.pdf | |
File Size: | 37 kb |
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stephen_king_-_07._uncle_s_otto_truck.pdf | |
File Size: | 34 kb |
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Read the article from the NY Times link & answer the following:
a. According to the author, how has the horror genre changed since 1945 and “The Picture of Dorian Gray”? b. Kehr refers to William Castle as a “schlockmeister”. What is schlock”? What separates “schlock” from horror greatness? c. According to the article, “‘Psycho,’ of course, was the great game-changer of the horror genre. Hitchcock’s masterpiece did away with any residual, romantic notions of the supernatural.” How exactly did “Psycho” change the rules of the genre? d. What seems to attract this critic to films in this genre? e. What characteristics of the horror genre are contained in this article? f. Write a one paragraph summary of this article. |