October, U2’s second album, was released in 1981. The same year saw the publication of The Vanishing Hitchhiker, a book by the American folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand.

Its subtitle is “American Urban Legends and Their Meanings”. We here on Hog Heights love this coincidence because, of course, an Irish version might be titled Bono Bought Me A Pint. Or didn’t, as the case might be.

Brunvand’s book is brilliant, revelatory. Of course, as with most real scholarship, it was the culmination of 20 years research and analysis. It became an instant classic and, by the way, much loved by journalists and columnists who found its framework most convenient and saw the processes of urban mythology everywhere. For a while.