August 4, 2002

8:28 PM

Black Blobs on Slum Streets.Perhaps this is the way the world will end, instead of a cataclysmic apocalypse, the earth will simply turn into a large ball of unidentifiable goo. Seems logical to me.
posted by jeremias (25 comments total)

It's paraffin wax.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:33 PM on August 4, 2002

Oh yeah, right. Suuure, paraffin wax. That's exactly what they want you to believe.
Think, man! Think!

Sanders said she thinks she still doesn't know the truth.

"I believe they're covering it up, I really do," she said.
posted by jeremias at 8:36 PM on August 4, 2002

Solving the mystery became a near-obsession for Bonnie Sanders and other neighborhood residents who feared the stuff was harmful. Sanders said she thinks she still doesn't know the truth.

"I believe they're covering it up, I really do," she said.

Sometimes a blob of goo is just a blob of goo.
posted by ColdChef at 8:38 PM on August 4, 2002

I live near there
posted by sahrens428 at 8:43 PM on August 4, 2002

Is got reached a Newjerseyism? Like Pittsburgh's needs done?

Perhaps candle-making is the new ghetto fad. ("Drop paraffin slabs on sidewalk to break up")

Or perhaps it's an obscure form of warchalking ...
posted by dhartung at 8:44 PM on August 4, 2002

New MeFi tagline candidate : 'Sometimes a blob of goo is just a blob of goo.'
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:48 PM on August 4, 2002

Then there is stuff like this or this...

I mean, really, should there even be a need for stuff like this?
posted by Fabulon7 at 9:10 PM on August 4, 2002

"That is not water. "
"Black blood of the Earth."
"Whatcha mean? Oil? "
"I mean, black blood of the Earth. "
posted by Stuart_R at 9:19 PM on August 4, 2002

strangely, the cover for the times-picayune has a story about unidentifiable, impossible-to-get-up black spots on bourbon street...perhaps it's a new bioterrorist act... http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/newsstory/quarter04.html (paragraph 2) ?
posted by sighofrelief at 9:20 PM on August 4, 2002

Relax, folks -- it's a promotional stunt for M Night Shamalangadingdong's next project, Blobs. A remake/rewrite of a certain 50's classic with a goopey New Agey spiritual spin. Think The Thing meets Cocoon.
posted by cps at 9:29 PM on August 4, 2002

It reminds me of the great windshield pitting scare.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:39 PM on August 4, 2002

Thanks, Crash. Thats a great link.
posted by vacapinta at 10:52 PM on August 4, 2002

A remake/rewrite of a certain 50's classic with a goopey New Agey spiritual spin.

If it was, wouldn't those blobs sneak, and leap, and slide, and glide across the floor, right through the door, and all around the wall?
posted by soundofsuburbia at 12:52 AM on August 5, 2002

A remake/rewrite of a certain 50's classic with a goopey New Agey spiritual spin

I thought they already did that.
posted by owillis at 12:54 AM on August 5, 2002

...and in Waikiki...
posted by Dunvegan at 1:03 AM on August 5, 2002

And so, the Universe ends, not with a bang, not with a whimper...but with a YUKKKKK!

As slime we came into this world, and as slime may we leave it. Amen.

Y'all come to my house...no sidewalks or paved roads for miles....sanctuary! blob-free zone! Small fee and deed to your house required.
posted by fred1st at 1:58 AM on August 5, 2002

If it was, wouldn't those blobs sneak, and leap, and slide, and glide across the floor, right through the door, and all around the wall?

Saw that when very young and got quite scared--the oozing through the projector window in the theater was canonic--anyway, my brother and sister tortured me for a couple of weeks after singing that little ditty to me. Even at that age, I wasn't buying Steve McQueen as a teenager.
posted by y2karl at 2:15 AM on August 5, 2002

OMG! How - how - did they ever get a reporter out to cover that?

Can you say "SLOW NEWS DAY"?
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:07 AM on August 5, 2002

So did the blob end up eating that little girl or not?
posted by juicyraoul at 4:52 AM on August 5, 2002

I love it that the people are reporting more asthma now that they've seen the blobs. Of course, the asthma couldn't possibly be from living in the middle of a downtrodden part of the city, with cars driving by polluting your environment, with dust and dirt everywhere. No, it's of course caused by little black blobs.
Riiiiiight.
posted by aacheson at 6:37 AM on August 5, 2002

... and make no mistake, Camden really is a filthy little city...
posted by ph00dz at 6:53 AM on August 5, 2002

I would like to welcome our new blob overlords.

And yes, Camden is hell on earth. I used to commute through it every day from Philly to Pennsauken. Camden was once considered by USA Today to be the worst city in the US to live in, in terms of crime, corruption, pollution, education, etc.
posted by adampsyche at 6:56 AM on August 5, 2002

And mysterious blobs.
posted by aacheson at 9:23 AM on August 5, 2002

I'm more curious about the mysterious lo-fi humming eminating from Kokomo, Indiana. Many local articles here (registration req.).

There are those who feel it's a cause of health problems, as well as complaints of cover-ups.
posted by MJoachim at 10:10 AM on August 5, 2002

Wait, did you guys really read that Sanders alleged that there was a cover-up? You weren't joking when you quoted that? Because now it's gone from the article. (No trace of it at web.archive.org either, naturally.) We've got to warn the public.
posted by whir at 4:58 PM on August 5, 2002