Since you asked for anecdotes, as you made clear in the previous edition of the Weekly Visual Dump, I'm going to trust you with something that, every time I tell it, nobody believes me. Not even the protagonists themselves! Something I came to think I had invented, that I had dreamed, but no. Now I know it's not.
During the early 90s, maybe mid, I don't remember, but certainly long before the word viral took on a new meaning, there existed one of the most disgusting "memes" I can remember. It consisted of a fungus. Yes, a fungus. But not just any fungus, mind you. This was a fungus that granted wishes. No less. It only worked if you received from a friend a baby of his original fungus (which he had also received from a friend). Before accepting the baby, you had to make a wish. Then, you had to keep the fungus under the bed and take care of it until it had its first baby. You had to give away the babies, no matter what. The more babies you gave away, the more likely your wish would come true. That damned fungus was super viral and yet... very few people remember it!
I do remember having received a baby, from a school friend, who in turn had received it from his mother, who was desperate for her wish to come true. I was never interested in those superstitions, but I kept it alive anyway, to see how the hell a fungus could have "children". The thing is, yes, if you took care of it and fed it the right liquids, sooner or later the fungus would have offspring. That fascinated me, but I broke the chain and kept all the babies. Then, at some point, I forgot about it.
Years later (many, many years later), I remembered all that business and mentioned it to that friend who had given me my original little fungus. And he didn't remember! He completely denied it and told me I was crazy. None of the people I KNEW had had fungus were able to remember it. And yes, I am crazy, but not in that way. So I started investigating (read "searching on Google") and, although records are scarce even for the titan of the Internet, the thing existed. And here we go to a little game I propose in this edition: What was that fungus called? Can you discover it? What did you have to feed it? Did you have one? How many babies did it produce?
And now, the Dump, because that's what you're here for. Enjoy!
This Week's Visual Dump
