Comments on: New Kevin Underhill book on odd laws

By: MattS

MattS — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:02:28 +0000

Slugger,

Most of the discussions I have seen for the origin of “Sasquatch” place it as a Native American word, I believe from one of the Pacific north west tribes.

By: Titus

Titus — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 20:30:20 +0000

The pinball thing isn’t as bizarre as it sounds, actually, at least in historical context. When they were introduced, there was a widespread impression that pinball machines were (1) a form of gambling, akin to slot machines and (2) accordingly a species of fraudulent racket. They were subject to widespread restrictions and outright prohibitions.

Whether pinball operators were actually tied to crime rackets or the machines themselves promoted vice, it was eventually more or less demonstrated that they were at least in part games of skill and the opposition mostly evaporated.

I thought I had seen the topic discussed either in this space or at Lowering the Bar before.

By: Slugger

Slugger — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 19:50:56 +0000

I live nearby. The Sasquatch ordinance was passed tongue-in-cheek. There a great deal of searching for Sasquatch tramping about in the woods at the time. Sasquatch might be an anglicization of ” quatsch” from the German.

By: wfjag

wfjag — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 16:05:14 +0000

South Carolina Code § 16-17-740, which makes it a crime to “sell or possess a novelty device commonly known as a ‘cigarette load’ which may cause a cigarette or cigar to blow up or explore after being lit.”

A cigarette with a bang is bad enough, but a lit cigarette that then goes “explor[ing]” is almost too frightening to contemplate. Where would it go, and what would it do when it got there?

By: Malcolm Smith

Malcolm Smith — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 12:12:57 +0000

It would be interesting to dig into the background of these laws, and see what discussion was made in the legislature when they were promulgated. But from what I heard, the reason for the Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance was simple and reasonable. Every year people get shot by hunters mistaking them for something else. With the sasquatch getting a lot of publicity in the 1960s, the last thing the lawmakers wanted was some hyped-up hunter blasting away at something that looked like a big hairy man. It might really have been a big hairy man.