# The Official " Identify from a vague desciption" thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 20, 2002, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690 "2002-09-20T00:52:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Morgainelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Morgainelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgainelf)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/101 "2002-10-24T17:55:10Z")
Damn, **Legomancer** , I know I’ve read that anthology. I think it was a library rental, and I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. I’ll do a little bit of digging, though. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/102 "2002-10-24T20:25:58Z")
Angelicate, _Squirm_ was MSTed, so it should be pretty easy to find. It may even still be playing on the SciFi Channel; I think it was in the last couple of seasons. ---
**Author:** ![TwungTister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TwungTister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwungTister)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/103 "2002-10-28T17:31:10Z")
Children’s book about an imaginary place with imaginary people who had pet “fuzzies”. These are like chicks or like Warm Fuzzies. When they think there is a shortage, they hoard the fuzzies, which makes the fuzzies sicken and die. This causes a shortage – it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The way I remember it, they didn’t exactly fix the problem at the end, but they had some idea what it was, so they may have had time to save the animals. I remember it being white with bright colors, unless I am confusing it with the Mr-books, such as Mr. Fuzzy, Mr. Clumsy, Mr. Fussy etc. Oh, it was published somewhere in the 1970’s. A poem - even harder It is a poem describing a peaceful forest, a wisp of smoke, then a raging wildfire that consumes a farm. It builds suspense and excitement about the fire, and then pits it all against the tiny home. Nearly all the lines begin with “And…” What I can remember: “…and the fire rose like an asp in the dust…” “…and the smoke swirled up instead of the mist…” “And very low and weak and small, The farm crouched there in the path of it all.” ``` It was written in the 1970's, and used in a 1980-81 elementary school textbook. ``` This will not be enough for any 'net searches. Sincerely, if you can help at all, thanks! I’ve been wondering about these two for years! ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/104 "2002-10-29T00:34:56Z")
There are two songs that were, until this week, in heavy rotation on the store Muzak at Staples. They’re both in that weird easy-listening not-rock-not-pop-not-country genre that can hold Chris Isaac and Lyle Lovett. They’re both by male singers. One of them features a line that sounds like it has to be “I’m a cat.” Over and over. “Iiiiiii’m a cat.” “Baby I’m a cat.” The other one… _here’s_ a vague description… the chorus ends in a line that sounds kinda like “I’m a hootenanny” or something about Annie or any. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/105 "2002-11-16T07:02:11Z")
I saw a trailer for a horror movie when I saw **The Ring**. The trailer starts off saying how they called some woman a number of centuries “the tooth fairy” and things were fine until the villiagers killed her for murdering children. Then I think they showed a light house. Then a bunch of people running away from the scary ghost/witch whatever that avoided the light. What movie is this? ---
**Author:** ![li\_l\_Dickie\_Dirtz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@li\_l\_Dickie\_Dirtz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/li_l_Dickie_Dirtz)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/106 "2002-11-17T19:53:50Z")
[Darkness Falls](http://www.apple.com/trailers/columbia/darkness_falls/) ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/107 "2002-11-18T02:55:26Z")
Okay, guys, this isn’t about movies or books, but it’s been bugging me for years: In probably the mid-to-late 60s, there were frozen dinners for kids (predecessors of Kid Cuisine). All I remember is the cartoon spokesperson was a cowboy, and each frozen dinner came with a packet of chocolate powder to put in your milk. WTF was this? ---
**Author:** ![JRootabega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@JRootabega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRootabega)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/108 "2002-11-18T04:48:09Z")
**The movie** was from the 50’s or 60’s and was probably colorized. A man is hiding in a janitor’s closet of a closed museum. He throws a boomerang out a few times to set off the alarms. The guards get tired of all these “false” alarms and shut off the system, allowing the man to steal a statue or something. **The book** I’ve posted about before, but I think the thread got lost in one of the SDMB disasters. It was a young adult horror anthology, and many of the stories creeped me out a lot. It was called something like **The Haunted Planet** , and I think the cover had some green skeleton guy with long hair grinning evilly. One of the stories was about a house with some Frankenstein-like monster inside. A kid is being stalked through the house when he suddenly receives help from the ghosts of all the children that the monster has killed before. He finally gets out, _but leaves the door open_ so now the monster can get out. Another was about an commercial airplane that is escorted into an eternal limbo by these ghost fighter jets, and only the boy listening to his Walkman would ever know about it. The final story I remember is about a boy who likes to shoot or otherwise kill herons, or just one heron, and he ends up being stabbed to death by a heron. ---
**Author:** ![samboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@samboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samboy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/109 "2002-11-18T12:20:16Z")
**Mystery Dog** - Is the book you are talking about called _Space Demons_ by Gillian Rubinstein? I think it won a couple of international children’s literature awards, which put it on the curriculum of primary/middle schools everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/110 "2002-11-18T13:24:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by norinew \* > \*\*Okay, guys, this isn’t about movies or books, but it’s been bugging me for years: In probably the mid-to-late 60s, there were frozen dinners for kids (predecessors of Kid Cuisine). All I remember is the cartoon spokesperson was a cowboy, and each frozen dinner came with a packet of chocolate powder to put in your milk. WTF was this? \*\* I think that was kid’s dinners by Libbys. The spokes-cartoon was Libby The Kid. “That’s Billy the Kid spelled sideways…sort of” was his slogan/catch phrase. Check out [http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/kids154.jpg](http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/kids154.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Gravity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gravity/32/14322_2.png) [@Gravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gravity)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/111 "2002-11-18T13:33:12Z")
Here’s my mystery book: In the cyberpunk genre, I read it in '91, so it was from before then. It was about a couple of gay hackers. The lead character’s name was Lynx, or something like that. His boyfriend dies. The book ends with him aiming an airplaine at the windows of a CEO’s office in a skyscraper. This has been bugging me on and off since then. I can’t remember the title or the author at all, and I really liked the book. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/112 "2002-11-18T13:40:06Z")
lost4life, yes, yes! I remembered him saying that something was something spelled sideways, but thought that was too vague, even for this thread 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ShadowWarrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7993a0/32.png) [@ShadowWarrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowWarrior)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/113 "2002-11-18T14:37:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Legomancer \* > \*\*I’m looking to find a horror story anthology for my sister. The first line of the first story is: > > “Today I put ground glass in my wife’s eyes. She didn’t say anything. She never does.” > > Anyone recognize this? \*\* grrrr - yes, I recognise this, but I haven’t the faintest idea where from. Google reveals a couple of sites, but they are both broken links… now I need to find out for myself… ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/114 "2002-11-18T14:48:29Z")
I love this thread! Sorry I can’t help with anyone else’s vague descriptions but I have one of my own. Young Adult book–I read it several times but I can’t remember the name of it. It’s about 2 brothers and a girl who find something that is really a portal to another dimension. All I remember from it is a room (a library?) filled with dead, stuffed animals and some sort of snake creature that comes through the portal and begins to eat itself, tail first, until it disappears. Also something about a sink. How’s that for vague? I can’t believe I read the book that many times and can’t even remember the name of it. Urrggh… ---
**Author:** ![JRootabega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@JRootabega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRootabega)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/115 "2002-11-18T16:32:10Z")
Greywolf, that sounds like William Sleator’s **Singularity** to me. Does one of the brothers lock himself in the shack so he can age several years and be older than his brother? ---
**Author:** ![Jorel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f19dbf/32.png) [@Jorel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jorel)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/116 "2002-11-18T16:37:37Z")
I was trying to find the thread that had alternative term for “fag hag” and I couldn’t find it…any info is appreciated… (I am also it seems, quite lame at using the search engine) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/117 "2002-11-18T16:58:30Z")
I remember a novel that I read in the 80’s about a college professor, who, for some reason, has to go undercover in a gay community (might have been greenwich Village) to find a gay serial killer. He’s like working as a bartender in a gay bar and he gradually becomes drawn into the community and the “lifestyle.” (he is ostensibly straight at the beginning of the novel). I remember a lot of the story and characters, but cannot remember the title or the author. (I remember a character with the nickname “Eric the Red” for instance). It was a really good book, and i’ve been trying to figure out what it was called and who wrote it for years. Can anybody help? ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/118 "2002-11-18T18:03:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JRootabega \* > \*\*Greywolf, that sounds like William Sleator’s **Singularity** to me. Does one of the brothers lock himself in the shack so he can age several years and be older than his brother? \*\* YES!!! That is soo it!! Thank you!! Funny, I saw another of William Sleator’s books mentioned here: “House of Stairs”, which I read a few times also and never even connected it with this book. Thanks! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mystery\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@Mystery\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mystery_Dog)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/119 "2002-11-18T18:26:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samboy \* > \*\ ***Mystery Dog** - > Is the book you are talking about called _Space Demons_ by Gillian Rubinstein? I think it won a couple of international children’s literature awards, which put it on the curriculum of primary/middle schools everywhere. \*\* No, that can’t be it. I just looked it up, and found out that _Space Demons_ was published in 1986. The book I’m looking for is one that was in my school library in 1985 or earlier. I can be sure of this because I stopped going to that school in 1985. Thanks for the suggestion, though. ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690/120 "2002-11-18T20:04:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JRootabega \* > \*\ ***The movie** was from the 50’s or 60’s and was probably colorized. A man is hiding in a janitor’s closet of a closed museum. He throws a boomerang out a few times to set off the alarms. The guards get tired of all these “false” alarms and shut off the system, allowing the man to steal a statue or something. > > \ > > \*\* Yes! After all this time, I finally get to answer one of these! The movie is [_How to Steal a Million_](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0060522) starring Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-identify-from-a-vague-desciption-thread/128690.md?page=7)