Commemorative lamp of doom: Three Mile Island

[Newshound]

[h3]Commemorative lamp of doom: Three Mile Island        [/h3][img]http://www.boingboing.net/images/threemileislandlamp.jpg" align="left" border="0" height="282" width="200"]

Following up on the understated elegance of the [a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/19/kitschmacabre_911_re.html"]9/11 lamp[/a], I present to you another lighting fixture of unspeakable tragedy: the 1979 Three Mile Island commemorative lamp. Spotted on eBay, with a base shaped like a nuclear reactor cooling tower. [a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/Three-Mile-Island-1979-Nuclear-Accident-Lamp_W0QQitemZ6255599932QQcategoryZ4056QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]Link[/a]

[primefactor]

This reminds me of a quote from a book I like, "Society loves confession and painful reminiscence." I will never understand the weird mixture of puritanical and ghoulish in Americans. I just spent a week with my grandmother and for the first time in years, saw those TV talk shows. It's like witnessing a public pants-wetting, it makes me cringe.

It seems like people used to watch movies and TV shows about rich and clever people to make themselves feel better; now they want to watch "reality" about people who behave badly -- who are cruel, stupid, whose lives are disintegrating -- to feel better about their own lives. Can anyone with a background in sociology or psychology shed a little light on this shift for me? I have often wondered.  And for that matter, what is the deal with people who are super-into reading about "true crime"? Is it just a cheap thrill?

[TehBorken]

I just spent a week with my grandmother and for the first time in years, saw those TV talk shows. It's like witnessing a public pants-wetting, it makes me cringe. [/div]
Ack, talk shows. Talk shows are mostly "The Blind Leading The Blank". Especially morning talk shows. When I become Planetary Dictator, most talk show hosts will be summarily executed. (Live on TV, of course!)


[div style="font-style: italic;"]And for that matter, what is the deal with people who are super-into reading about "true crime"? Is it just a cheap thrill?
I like "true crime" books. I don't know why other people read it, but I like to see how the cops put the pieces together and figure it out. It's why I don't like mysteries or 'pure' fantasy very much- it's too easy! With fantasy or a mystery a writer can make up anything and then make it all fit together however they like....it seems like cheating to me, lol.

 

[P.C.]

Ahhh, you beat me to it TehBorken.  That's why I read true crime also.

I remember many many years ago, hearing this story on the news about a nurse (in Richmond I think) who was found hog tied and stabbed to death.  They finished the short coverage of this by saying "Foul play is not suspected", and then never heard anything more.

Well, it drove me nuts for a long time, wanting an explanation for such a ludicrous statement.
I couldn't even remember her name after awhile, but it still bothered me.  Finally someone remembered me talking about this case, and gave me the book that was written about it.

[TehBorken]

Some of the puzzles that homicide detectives unravel are almost unbelievable. If they were written as fiction they'd be dismissed as "too incredible to be believed". Those are the best ones, IMHO. Plus it's just interesting to see how all the threads and clues fit together, often in some really amazing ways.