From: g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies   
      
   Okay, so one time? In band camp? zamzam1949@gmail.com    
   was all, like:   
   > On Monday, July 12, 1999 at 1:00:00 AM UTC-6, tm...@jump.net wrote:   
   >> I heard a story last Friday.  I've checked Deja News, snopes.com,   
   >> urbanlegends.com, and the automotive section of the big index in _The   
   >> Baby Train_, and I noticed nothing like it.  Did I actually get a new   
   >> one here?   
   >>   
   >> I heard this at a gay dinner group in Dallas, Texas.  The man said it   
   >> was from his sister in Idaho, so I think it fits the FOAF guideline   
   >> for ULs.   
   >>   
   >> A retired (elderly) couple was driving down the highway in Idaho.  As   
   >> some do, they were towing a car behind their RV.  One of the tires on   
   >> the car blew, and it started dragging the rim on the pavement.  This   
   >> caused sparks to fly off into the vegetation beside the road, and   
   >> since it was very dry it caused a long string of forest fires.  (The   
   >> teller specified "forest fires", not just small roadside fires.)   
   >> Passing cars honked at them, flashed their lights, et cetera, to warn   
   >> them, but the couple didn't notice or respond, and kept on driving and   
   >> lighting fires.  Eventually they were tracked down and Idaho tried to   
   >> bill them for the costs of fighting the fires, but there was such an   
   >> outcry they had to waive the bill.   
   >>   
   >> I love this one.  It has a juicy morsel of subtext, "old people are   
   >> stupid and unobservant", with a lovely topping of "rich people suck".   
   >> It has a cautionary moral, "pay attention while driving", with the two   
   >> flavors "pay attention to your own vehicle" and "pay attention to   
   >> other people's signals".  It has a "justice is served" moral, like   
   >> many do, but then it has a twist of "but there is no more justice   
   >> nowadays".  (I bet that other tellings have the phrase "politically   
   >> correct" used near the end.)   
   >>   
   >> This seems utterly bogus for various reasons:   
   >> - The big one for me: if it'd happened, I expect it would have been a   
   >>   major story on nationwide news.   
   >> - I've never driven an RV or twoed a car, but I would expect the drag   
   >>   would be immediately noticable.   
   >> - Surely they had to stop for gas, and I expect someone would have   
   >>   noticed a problem.   
   >> - Local authorities, upon hearing of such a problem, could have called   
   >>   ahead to arrange a roadblock.   
   >>   
   >> So, is it a new story?   
   >>   
   >> --   
   >>                    *** NEW HOME E-MAIL ADDRESS ***   
   >> Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd@jump.net;   
   >> if that fail, my work addresses are  tmcd@austin.ibm.com and    
   mcd@us.ibm.com.   
   >> tmcd@tmcd.austin.tx.us is a lie; tmcd@crl.com is old and will go away.   
      
   > I live in Idaho and that fire story is totally true - the old people   
   > were sued by the state to recover the cost of fire-fighting efforts   
   > that took months to get put out - thousands of acres of national   
   > forest land were destroyed and will not be recovered in our lifetime.   
   > 1 small 'town' was destroyed completely and never rebuilt.   
      
   I don't live in Idaho, and I remember this. It was about 20 years ago.   
      
   --   
   'Never build a dungeon you wouldn't be happy to spend the night in   
   yourself,' said the Patrician (...). 'The world would be a happier place   
   if more people remembered that.' --Guards! Guards!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)