Hub 10 in the Hub Challenge: The Jigsaw Puzzle

A creepy little story called The Jigsaw Puzzle is what I selected to place on hub number 10 for the Hub Challenge.

The Jigsaw Puzzle falls into a theme with a 'lingering stalker' in the tale, but some will classify the urban legend as another 'axe-murderer' tale or 'murdering madman' legend.

Actually, this urban legend fits into a number of categories, including 'cautionary tale,' but this time, teens aren't being warned not to have sex. In this instance, for some reason, the elderly are being warned about something.

Here's how it works:

Basically, the elderly woman in the story SHOULD NOT be exercising her independence. She SHOULD BE living somewhere that is not so isolated, and she should be living with other people. Due to her independence and insistence on living alone after her husband dies, her insistence on retaining her home, the woman ends up in a "killer" situation...or - she is going to die at the hands of a killer.

Some of this legend is likely an attempt from the society who made this urban legend - to say, "Hey...a happy MATURE couple has two people...a man and a woman who grow old together. If one of these personas is NOT in place, the picture is not right." Basically, if one of a pair - if a mate dies - the remaining individual has to give up autonomy. And YES...this legend may have been told to aging people in order to get them to give up isolation and move into certain kinds of care facilities...more likely, the urban legend is told to people of all ages, to instill the idea that the 'societal norm' should be that old members of society need to turn toward living in extended care facilities (nursing homes) rather than living alone once a mate dies.

Read: The Jigsaw Puzzle on my hub

* Tip - close the blinds/curtains of your windows before you read this, particularly if you're reading after dark!

Hub 8 in the Hub Challenge: The Goatman of Maryland

Okay, I'll admit it right now - I have "Goatman-a-phobia!"

I have no trouble telling freely that I had to stay up and both read a funny story and watch silly cartoons after making the Goatman hub - for about 3 nights in a row...

I also admitted right on the hub already that the Goatman scares me...

Now that the hub challenge is over for me, I can say I'm glad I put together The Goatman of Maryland hub during a time of 'writing on demand,' for a personal challenge contest, because this allowed me to push forward quickly and get to researching on other urban legends and related information...so I was able to 'forget' about how the Goatman legend unnerves me.

The Goatman is very much related to "lovers lane" scares and falls in the heading of 'blatant cautionary tales for teens' The purpose of The Goatman Legend may be primarily to scare off teenagers from engaging in sexual activities in remote, private areas (lovers lanes), but the 'cryptid' form - the half-man/half-goat form of the Goatman is particularly unnerving for me.

I can deal with "Hook"-like additions on a crazed madman, such as is notable in a similar cautionary tale-lovers lane scare legend "The Hook," and I can deal with a very angry man in the woods, like in "Skinned Tom," another lovers-lane-caution-against-sex-tale, but when men/man turns into a cryptid/half-man creature, I start to loose my cookies and my senses start to say "run like HELL."

For this reaction, I suppose that The Goatman of Maryland does precisely what it's supposed to do...scare the heck outta me to ensure that I never go out to a wooded area around Maryland to engage in sexual activities...nope, ya won't be seein' me disrobe near the woods in Maryland at all. EVER...

So why am I sittin' over 2000 miles away from Maryland, U.S.A. with my pulse fired up?

I dunno...I wonder if there is such thing as goatman-a-phobia...

If there is, I've got it!