49 lines
2.1 KiB
Standard ML
49 lines
2.1 KiB
Standard ML
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From: nelson@reed.edu (Nelson Minar)
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Subject: Craig Shergold strikes in Kennewick, WA, USA
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Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1992 22:31:19 GMT
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This particular Craig Shergold story has a nice bit of pathos in it..
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>From The Oregonian, Wednesday January 8, 1992, page C8 (off AP):
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"Class collects 57,555 cards - all in vain"
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Kennewick, Wash - a class of eight graders collected 57,555 business
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cards to help a seriously ill British boy set a world record.
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It was a mistake.
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It turns out 12-year-old Craig Shergold of Carshalton, Great
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Britain, was collecting get-well cards, not business cards. Craig set
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the record and has since recovered from his illness.
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Too bad the students in Sharon Davies' class at Finley High School
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never got the message.
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"I think it's stupid. We collect all these business cards, and it
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turns out nobody wants them," student Kyle Humphrey said.
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The eighth-graders collected five giant garbage bags worth of cards,
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no two alike.
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There are ones in Braille, on microfilm and in Norwegian. Some look
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like envelopes, others like chemical waste drums. They're printed on
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paper, wood, and metal.
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Their collection started with a chain letter sent to Bill Davies'
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fax machine at the Boise Cascade Container Corp. plant in Wallula.
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The letter said Shergold had cancer and that he wanted to be
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included in the Guinness Book of World Records for "the largest number
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of business cards" ever collected by one person.
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Davies mentioned it to his school-teacher wife, and her students
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started their three-month project.
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Shergold did make it into the record book for receiving 33 million
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greeting cards.
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Meanwhile, the class is stuck with 57,555 business cards, whcih
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unfortunately isn't one for the books, according to Guinness editor
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Mark Young.
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"It's a terrific effort on their part, but all in vain I'm afraid,"
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he said.
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--------
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This is one of the funnier Shergold stories I've read, both for the
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mutation from get-well cards to business cards, and for the sheer
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pathos in the quotes "'I think it's stupid'" and "'terrific effort ...
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all in vain'".
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--
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__
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nelson@reed.edu \/ Do what thou wilt. It's not just a good idea, it's the law
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