A major collector of these modern folk tales is Jan Harold Brunvand in three riveting books, The Vanishing Hitchhiker (1981), The Choking Doberman (1984) and The Mexican Pet (1988). He collects, tells, compares versions, tests factuality, and interprets. How many can you recognize just from his titles? . . . “The Death Car,” “The Killer in the Back Seat,” “The Kentucky Fried Rat,”
“Alligators in the Sewers,” “The Solid Cement Cadillac,” “The Economical Car,” “Cruise Control,” “The Bump in the Rug,” “The Stuck Couple,” “Superglue Revenge,” “The Image on Glass,” and scores more. Many have to do with new technologies, many have to do with racism (the doberman is choking on black fingers) and fear of foreigners . . . .
