Return of the Son of Very Vaguely Creepy...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Sounds exactly like an old Green Screen Terminal. We still have several 5250 style terminals scattered around our plant and one in our computer room as the console to our AS400. Before the PC, mid-range and main frame computers had dumb terminals as desktop user interfaces. The early ones were often green or amber. The classicAS400 interface is eerie green on black.

Shagnasty: My understanding is old colonial period homes did not have built in closets in most cases.

You mentioned checking for the void via the basement. How about from the attic?
Is the void very close to the chimney?
Have you tried mapping out the rooms on graph paper to ensure that there is not some strange overlap that gives the illusion of an empty space?

Jim

22

And they always told you that they have low ceilings as well. That often isn’t true and it isn’t true in mine. This specific area is awash in colonial era houses and owning one means that you get to see lots of others just because people want you to and all kinds of experts like specialist contractors have looked at our over time. This specific sub-type of colonial house has plenty of closets in the mean part of the house. There are 7 (#8 is the one in question) and they are all 8 feet tall, 3 feet deep and 5 feet wide. The door is much smaller than the whole closet so they represent lots of space.

Here is the house. The main front part is very much original.

Here is one of the four rooms that have the typical standard closet configuration. The closests are bigger inside than the doors and go almost from the fireplace to the other wall. They are very much original and the uneven walls hint at that.

Here is my office. It is the only one missing a closet and there is definitely some type of large cavity there. I built large bookshelf so that I don’t have to think about it although making this all a secret passageway is not out of the question.

I could attack the problem three other ways. The best may be the closet directly above it. I could look down one story through the floor without much visible damage.

23

Here is the missing closet room again:

24

I don’t have any specific examples, sadly, but I will add the following.

I think many hardcore adherents to TV shows, operating systems, and various other things fall into the category of VVC. Even when I agree with the basic stance of the zealots, their attitudes make me want to kick them in the shins. It’s a form of tribalism where dissenters are looked down upon and any criticisms of the group ideology are seen as an attack on the individual members of the group. People can become genuinely enraged or depressed by encountering strongly expressed disagreement. This doesn’t apply to all fans of that show, movie, operating system, etc., but there always seems to be at least a few people who take things way, way too seriously. Whenever I meet one of these people, I can’t help but wonder how much of their entire life revolves around that one thing. Do they have other interests? If they met someone wonderful who they would otherwise love, would it be a deal-breaker if that person hated their sacred cow? Exactly what lengths would they go to in order to convince someone to believe as they do, or to punish someone who refuses to agree with them?

It’s like a mini-cult, based on something mundane.

25

I have a supermarket story.

In the Dorchester section of Boston, there was a supermarket, now a CVS, that could not keep a overnight crew.

As related to me by the manager, they kept quitting, saying nothing.

Eventualy, word was reached by managment that the turnover was caused by the building being haunted.

It seems that the floors would be polished, then the U-boats of product would be put out for the crew to stock the shelves.

The problem was the U-boats of boxes would start to follow the crew. Some nights they would go one way, other nights the other direction.

Seems the old building ws built on wood pilings, and when the tide came in…

26

A friend of the family related this tale last night… I felt it qualified:

She was at Giant Eagle (the local SuperMarket) getting groceries. This incredibly obese woman seemed to be following her. When the Family Friend got to the bread isle, this woman leaned against the shelving in what she described as a parody of trying to be sultry looking, looked at her, and said, in a quiet voice…

“I put arsenic in all the bread.”

Family Friend passed on bread, checked out and then alerted the store personell to this woman, who appeared to be either crazy, or homicidal.

27

That’s just plain creepy…nothing vague about it. I wonder if the manager called the cops?