# "Instant Disaster" Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2003, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920 "2003-01-31T18:43:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/61 "2003-10-25T14:32:09Z")
On the Coconut Grove fire, there are STILL some older building with only doors that open _inward_; whenever I find one my skin crawls. Do you know of any contemperaneous books about Jack the Ripper, or is that too far out side your purview? BTW, I am wildly impressed with the songs; but I’m musically illiterate, what’s the music? ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/62 "2003-10-25T14:37:41Z")
I am also wildly impressed with cornflake’s great-aunt. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@Lady\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Ice)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/63 "2003-10-25T20:20:17Z")
Not to many people have heard of the [Bath School Disaster](http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~bauerle/disaster.htm). Nobody has mentioned it yet. Neither one of the books I’ve read (The Bath School Disaster & Mayday) seem to be available at Amazon. The link is pretty extensive though. I haven’t read all the way through it yet, but I do know that the first book is used on the site. With a death toll of 45 people, considering what has happened recently (Oklahoma City & WTC), it doesn’t seem large. However, it was considered the largest act of terrorism on U.S. soil until Oklahoma City. And take into consideration that all but a few of the victims were children. The whole thing is a pretty messed up story. You have to read it to believe it. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/64 "2003-10-25T20:43:17Z")
I actually have heard of that, **Lady Ice** , but don’t know much about it–thanks for the link. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@Lady\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Ice)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/65 "2003-10-25T22:29:33Z")
Not a problem **Eve**. I don’t come from Bath, but pretty close. My grandmother can remember going over and seeing it afterwards. It’s a big part of the history around here. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/66 "2003-10-25T23:29:30Z")
I added it to my Bookmarks, to read later. I only know about it because I have one of those _20th Century Headlines_ books and saw that and thought, “Jesus, this is _horrible_–howcum I’ve never _heard_ about this?!” I just took out of the library the new Triangle Shirtwaist Fire book, and _And the Dead Shall Rise_, about the Mary Phagan/Leo Frank case. ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/67 "2003-10-26T00:06:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*Oh the fact’ry made molasses, in Boston’s old North Side. > Well, they thought they had a yummy treat, the city’s joy and pride. > But the Lord’s almighty hand loosed the flood so sweet and brown— > It was a sticky day for Boston when molasses came to town. > > It was sad (so sad!) It was sad (so sad!) > Oh, the sweet, sweet flood still lingers— > Some lost husbands, wives, and little children dipped their fingers > It was a sticky day for Boston when molasses came to town. > > Well it was January fifteenth, and temps were just at zero— > When the 90-foot tank ruptured and the world it all turned brown! > The town was flooded just like Rome was ruined by old Nero; > It was a sticky day for Boston when molasses came to town. \*\* …Their Horns was black and shiny, and their hot breath he could feel… Ghost herd up in the sky! hahahahah 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/68 "2003-10-26T00:49:51Z")
Oh, thank you, **Forbin** –I’d completely forgotten that! ---
**Author:** ![SpectBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@SpectBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpectBrain)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/69 "2003-10-26T16:39:40Z")
This is one of my favorite “Oh sh\*t” stories. Fortunately no one was injured by this. The Japanese built a gigantic neutrino detector deep underground. The detector is a very large pool of water surrounded by just over 11,000 photomultiplier tubes. A photomultiplier tube resembles a very large lightbulb, a large glass envelope in which a vacuum is drawn. Also they are very expensive. One PMT broke and started a chain reaction. Within a few seconds over half of the PMT’s were destroyed. The story is [here](http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v416/n6877/full/416118a_r.html). ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_B.Phart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Capt\_B.Phart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_B.Phart)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/70 "2003-10-26T20:03:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Governor Quinn \* > \*\*BTW, **Eve** , have you ever read the books of poems written about the Titanic? How about MacGonagall’s “Poems on the Tay Bridge”? \*\* [McGonagall at his finest](http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/poems/pgdisaster.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satisfying_Andy_Licious)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/71 "2003-10-31T07:51:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*Now, you all remember the plague, and you all remember the fire– > Let’s now sing about the Great Beer Flood that turned London into a mire! > > Beer, beer, ‘orrible beer! Filled us with foam and with fear! > Drink till you’re made of it, don’t be afraid of it– > Or we will all drown in beer! > Streets they all ran with it, so down a can of it, > Even your dog, cat and deer! > London will drown in it, so, laddie, down with it! > Save us from swimmin’ in beer! \*\* Bravo, **Eve,** bravo! I liked this (and the previous one) so much that, driving to work, I came up with this. I hope you don’t mind my poor imitation: Beer, beer, 'orrible beer! Filled us with foam and with fear! Drink till you’re high and the gutters are dry. There’s not half enough skittles for the beer. Beer, beer, 'orrible beer! Lord save us from woes such as this! Well drink it all down, and then we’ll turn 'round, And we’ll re-flood the town with our (Can’t seem to come up with a closing rhyme.) > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sauron \* > \*\*James Thurber wrote about the horrible “flood” that hit Columbus, Ohio, in … 1913, maybe? Memory fails me at the moment. \*\* That would be “The Day the Dam Broke” from “My Life and Hard Times.” Except that … … it was just a rumor that spurred a panic among the citizenry. If you’re ever in Columbus, Ohio, you can visit the Thurber house where much of these (obviously fictionalized) events took place. ---
**Author:** ![Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satisfying_Andy_Licious)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920/72 "2003-10-31T07:53:48Z")
And of course **Alto** already posted about the Thurber story. Sorry, but when the board is slow I don’t always try to load the entire thread. That’ll learn me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-disaster-books/151920.md?page=3)