Having failed many times to clarify a childhood memory with Google, I am appealing to the sachems of the Dope.
On the TV series “That’s Incredible” (the one with John Davidson, Kathie Lee Crosby, and Fran Tarkenton) there was a feature about a house where black ooze started appearing everywhere–furniture, mirrors, counters, the whole bit. At the time, no one could figure out what the stuff was or where it was coming from, but the family moved out to avoid breathing the stuff.
Does anyone know how this came out? Was it chemical waste, something innocuous, or what?
On the ten-year-old thread Philster cites, Inky postulates that the goo was slime mold fungus. I’ve seen my share of slime mold (probably one of the most fascinating creatures around) and if memory serves, I don’t think it looks much like the ‘That’s Incredible!’ culprit.
I agree with the not looking like any slime mold, my memory is a thick almost foamy consistency. I put it down as a hoax immediately though. It was just too much a ghost story and the black ooze was coming from everywhere so it wasn’t affected by gravity or moisture or light or other environmental factors. My ~8 year old self just didn’t believe it for a minute.
They may now, but everything was live in these shots. It didn’t look like anything remarkable–basically the mildew that tends to eat your shower grout if you don’t do anything about it–but it was EVERYWHERE.
The Dope Trope strikes again. (No matter how narrow or obscure the topic, either someone on the Dope is an expert on the subject, or has a close association with an expert.)
I wonder who here is on a first-name basis with Kevin Bacon.
I was with the njdep and investigated this case when it was discovered. I am in the process of writing a book on the subject because so many years later aspects of the incident still bother me. Write me at eicnj@aol.com and I will give you some insite.