Comments on: Are you a duclod?

Are you a duclod?

croutonsupafreak — Tue, 20 Feb 2001 19:18:37 -0800

Are you a duclod? For at least a decade, mysterious letters have been sent from around the nation to students at a small midwestern college filled with facts about "duclods." From the best I can tell looking at the college newspaper webpage this is not a prank. Has anyone ever heard this term?

By: croutonsupafreak

croutonsupafreak — Tue, 20 Feb 2001 19:23:40 -0800

From the article: If you receive a duclod letter, don't panic. A search on Google reveals a bunch of weird jokes by some guy named Chamo Howards posted between early 1998 and 2000. Hmmm.

By: eth0

eth0 — Tue, 20 Feb 2001 20:23:14 -0800

Often found in proximity to garbmut. The plot thickens.

By: Neale

Neale — Tue, 20 Feb 2001 20:37:04 -0800

That garbmut page automatically wanted me to submit user details via e-mail. A warning would of been nice...

By: Capn_Stuby

Capn_Stuby — Tue, 20 Feb 2001 20:39:52 -0800

Maybe the kids at Grinnell are just losers. Notice how it's at a nobody small college in the middle of nowhere...maybe someone is trying to get the small place some attention?

By: rodii

rodii — Tue, 20 Feb 2001 20:50:04 -0800

(Don't be a jerk. There's nothing wrong with Grinnell.) ...and garbmuts (garbage mutts?) drink out of toilets, and a bolcub is a mirror-image duclod... The theme I see is that a duclod is a "dual closet dweller," i.e., a non-out bisexual and therefore the person who is likely to "spread HIV to heterosexuals." Also links to a site with a weird (joke?) anti-feminist, anti-Title 9 popup rant thing...? Garbmut leads to links on husband-battering, and to this, and to various Nostradamus (in base 7!) and 666-oriented mutterings. Seems like kind of a evangelico-Kibological sort of thing. Neat.

By: rodii

rodii — Tue, 20 Feb 2001 21:04:01 -0800

So I ended up chasing Red Kuller, he of garbmut, around some guestbooks via Google. Weird cat. But he did have this gem to offer:

We do not have to go on the way we've been going. For instance, if you like shaving cats, try shaving crayons; it's as good a way as any to practice shaving.

"Try shaving crayons." I think that's God's way of telling me to go to bed.

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Wed, 21 Feb 2001 06:54:06 -0800

Y'know it's not at all unlikely that the guy investigating this has yet to hear of "Chamo Howards". A simple Google search isn't necessarily an obvious first step to a lot of people. Maybe you should let the paper know, crouton.

By: amanda

amanda — Wed, 21 Feb 2001 09:07:12 -0800

But what if I like shaving crayons? Here, kitty, kitty, kitty....

By: gleemax

gleemax — Wed, 21 Feb 2001 11:08:46 -0800

To say nothing of the suggestiveness inherent in cat-shaving.

By: rodii

rodii — Wed, 21 Feb 2001 15:46:06 -0800

"Kottke.org--it's a good a way as any to practice shaving" Chamo Howards had an email address somewhere of somebody@curlyjo.com. ChaMO HOWARDs? Methinks it's a pseudo of someone with a thing for the Three Stooges. The weird thing was how many of those Google links led to guestbooks, and how many of those guestbooks were full of weird, evil and generally creepy stuff. Is there some jnd of guestbook subculture out there?

By: rodii

rodii — Wed, 21 Feb 2001 17:13:13 -0800

For "jnd" please read "kind". How'd that happen?

By: beukema

beukema — Sat, 03 Mar 2001 15:03:20 -0800

This is Fred Beukema, the author of the Duclod article in the S&B student paper. In the article I mention that one of the Residence Life Coordinators had done a web investigation, and I did some scouring myself. I found the Chamo Howards connection, and went to the page at www.angelfire.com/garbmut/, which is an odd little page that seems overripe with potentially malicious javascript. I even tried to e-mail good old Chamo at one of the addresses listed in his many joke posts. The address does not currently exist, and I'd be surprised if it ever really did. The whole business about jokes in the bathrooms here at Grinnell, and the letters, is true. As stated in the article, my goal was to increase awareness of the whole creepy business and see if anyone knew anything.