| Best Urban Myth
I once heard tell of a northwest neighbourhood populated by retired circus folk, a tale "substantiated" by the requisite friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend. An exhaustive door-to-door campaign yielded no such haven. Phooey.
My "Best Urban Myth" nod goes to a story that’s not quite so fanciful, but similarly difficult to prove. Or – and this is what makes it so good – to dismiss, either.
The legend: the University of Calgary buildings are linked by subterranean pedestrian tunnels, now closed due to a series of attacks and/or murders and/or Dungeons & Dragons-related disappearances. The story has "legs," with a constant influx of breathless first-years eager to believe the hype – especially during mid-January, when near-frozen tongues wag about how unfair it is for one homicidal maniac to "spoil it" for everyone else.
There really is a labyrinth beneath the campus – I’ve seen it with my own eyes. The tunnels contain massive overhead steam-pipes, meaning (a) they’re unbearably hot, and (b) from a liability perspective, there’s no way the University would allow students to roam down there.
Still, I’ve met former students who swear they’ve strolled the mythical pedestrian tunnels. Are these dissenting voices undermining a massive U of C spin job? Or did they merely hold too many "study sessions" in the Den? More importantly, if there was a coverup, were the circus people involved? The mystery deepens.
– James Martin writes Fast Forward’s "Mr. Smutty" column. A revised & expanded second edition of his book, Calgary: Secrets of the City, will be in stores this fall.
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