Grant Q wrote:
>I am assuming they are
>the same people who can be seen at Grocery store check
>out lines purchasing the latest "Elvis Sighting"
>tabloid.


Hey, I resemble that remark!  In fact I am not at all ashamed to say that I
found a wonderful use for the Weekling Whirled Nudes in some education
programs I did a few years back.  Working with teens can be a strange and
exhilerating experience but give them something like a story of the giant
shrunken head found encased in the Titanic's iceberg on the bottom of the
Atlantic Ocean and it presents a million "teachable moments" and other
learning opportunities.  The kids  had a great time and never figured out
that they were learning to observe and reason.
        As for adventures into the realm of artifact ID, I have done a few of the
programs where people bring in their artifacts and find out what they are -
some have bottle caps, others have farm machinery parts, but invariably
someone would drag in a massive hunk of Onondaga limestone to show us.
Usually it was not to ask us about it but to show it off with a "see, my
artifact is bigger than your artifact" type of dialog.  I finally ended
bringing along a selection of my favorite lookalikes with the real things
to show what a picture in a book could not.
        If the patron were understanding and in good spirits about discovering
that they actuall had a weird rock, we could tell them that they should
save it and tell their grandchildren that they had a rare piece of
"leaveright" - next time they should _leaver 'er right_ where they found
it.  In the field that comes across as ID as a "Sex Stone" (i.e. another
F***ing Rock).
        At Binghamton U. such calls were diverted to me as I could answer politely
and without breaking out into laughter.  We definitely got more such calls
around the time of the full moon.  One persn brought in two rocks which fit
together perfectly and when I told him it was a rock that had broken in
half he slinked away with his pride between his cheeks.
        One of my favorite displays of "artifacts" was seen in the library at
Castleton State College in Vermont - it consisted of dozens of slabs of
weathered limestone, pulled from various fields and fences in the region,
but these select stones had all sorts of ancient writings on them!  The
exhibit was from a famous collection, but it was liberally supplied with
remarks about how such stones are also found naturally throughout the area
and that the marks are natural weathering patterns.  Believers came through
in droves and left with a great  reverence for having seen the real thing
and just a little more disdain for the professional community.

        Its a no-win situation.

Dan W.

        Here's my contribution to the 21st century:

The much increased frequency of births since the day that PT Barnum said
that "there is a sucker born every minute" tells me that I am not crazy
when I feel that there are so many more suckers around today than there
were years ago.  We must be up to a couple hundred suckers born every
minute nowadays!

(actually if anyone has any insight into figures to fill out this query I
would live to see them = 1 sucker born per minute in 1845 (?) = x suckers
born per minute in 2001)