The Ong’s Hat story might be the first attempt at altered reality storytelling
Technology made the world much smaller in the early 1990s. New connections gave people opportunities to share large chunks of information, perhaps even new worlds. Users soon consumed data they never seen before. Some even encountered new experiences. In a couple corners of the internet, the Ong’s Hat narrative blended reality, virtual worlds, and fiction to pull the audience into its experience.
Welcome to the Paranoid Style Podcast! It’s spooooky October! Every episode this month will have a spooky theme and this week we’ve jammed six of the creepiest conspiracies we could find into one episode. From the Dead Internet to the little bitty 2012 Black Hole of CERN, we visit Ong’s Hat and Chipotle and discuss the Ice Bucket Challenge and whether or not Willy Wonka is the Ted Bundy of confectioners. There may not be much to these theories but with a sketchy framing device and enough bad puns, anything is possible!
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Opening theme music provided by Tony Molina. You can hear more of his music at https://tonymolina650.bandcamp.com/
The gang talks to Bishop Ron Feyl-Enright about what’s really happening when people experience visions of the Virgin Mary. Also, a report on a mysterious ghost town in the middle of New Jersey called Ong’s Hat. Plus, ten technical questions for Coco, finding out what’s inside America’s National Quiet Zone, Raven cooks the brain of UFO Mechanic, Al Renaldo and the free MMMX swag giveaway continues. Special Guest: Lois Lane .
Note for the impatient: The Ong’s Hat material comes in about 1 hour 30 minutes in.
Hats are neat. Where would a high-class Kentucky woman be on derby day with out her hat? How many fly ball would outfielders have missed without their trusty baseball caps blocking the sun? How would we have opened a gateway to other dimensions if not for Ong’s Hat? I reiterate, hats are neat.
On this episode we’re talking about Ong’s Hat, one of the early Internet’s oddest legends. Who’d have though all you need to travel to other dimensions are a couple of Ivy League dropouts, a dash of eastern spiritualism and an egg? I’d have guessed you’d need at least an alien or two.
LINK: https://anchor.fm/the-shepard
Bibliography of papers on math & physics methods of hunting lions in the Sahara Desert.
The fascinating history of identity and document spoofing by esteemed mathematicians with a wonderful sense of humor. I cited this in the book, Ong’s Hat: The Beginning.
“The material was written up by R. P. Boas and F. Smithies [Smithies 2002, personal communication] and appeared in [Pétard 1938]. Part of JWT’s assistance was in keeping the nonexistence of the nominal author, H. Pétard and of Pondiczery quiet when the Monthly enquired about the paper’s author. The full identification of Pondiczery was Ersatz Stanislas Pondiczery at the Royal Institute of Poldavia. The hope was that someday a document could be signed ESP RIP [Aspray & Tucker 1985]).“
…Albert Tucker: Was it that group that used the pseudonym “Pondiczery”?
Tukey: Yes, but with a somewhat broader reference.
Aspray: For what purpose?
Tukey: Well, the hope was that at some point Ersatz Stanislaus Pondiczery at the Royal Institute of Poldavia was going to be able to sign something ESP RIP. Then there’s the wedding invitation done by the Bourbakis. It was for the marriage of Betty Bourbaki and Pondiczery. It was a formal wedding invitation with a long Latin sentence, most of which was mathematical jokes, three quarters of which you could probably decipher. Pondiczery even wrote a paper under a pseudonym, namely “The Mathematical Theory of Big Game Hunting” by H. Pétard, which appeared in the Monthly. There were also a few other papers by Pondiczery.
Tukey: Somebody with a high principle. Pondiczery’s official residence was in Ong’s Hat, New Jersey3, which is a wide place in the road going southeast from Pemberton, but it does appear on some road maps. There is a gas station that has a sign out about Ong’s Hat.
Aspray: But no sign for Pondiczery?
Tukey: No sign for Pondiczery. Spelled c-z-e-r-y, by the way. Not like the area of India, Pondicherry, which is spelled c-h. Anyway, this was a good group, and it enjoyed its existence. I learned a lot from dinner table conversations.
READ MORE HERE: https://www.gwern.net/notes/Lions
