In 1992 I got my first email account (@tuba.aix.calpoly.edu) and like everyone at the time, whenever I’d open up Pine at one of the university provided terminals, I’d have an inbox full of jokes someone forwarded to me.
I loved the jokes, but I was always annoyed by the endless scroll to get down to the joke as you had to pass by all the email headers from previous recipients.
I figured just a little effort was needed to strip out all that text and just bring the joke itself to the forefront. I started sending these tidied up jokes to a list of friends. I gave myself the regal title of “The Grand Pubah” and dubbed my group “The Tribe of Woolgatherers”.
This mailing list went on for years. There were corresponding websites collecting humor by topic (see The Tribe of Woolgatherers). There was even in-person events where I would meet up with regional groups of Woolgatherers to ride roller coasters.
While it was quite popular, sadly, I’ve not kept it up. But I am still thinking about dusting off the old WoolFest concept and doing a 34th anniversary one, but time will tell. (Note: I also asked myself how many of those Woolgatherers probably gave up riding roller coasters due to age or infirmities, sigh.)
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