HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Vacation Time!
Date: 13 Aug 92 23:29:11 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Reply-To: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4   

{Construction horror stories deleted to avoid spooking the horses}

>(I think the only reason my da didn't sue was because this guy was the
>only licensed contractor in that part of the county.  My
>comment was "After this, you want to use him *again*?!")

Indeed.  The reasons for using a licensed contractor instead of good ol'
Barney Swolenthum down the road are to make the permit and inspection
process go down easier and to provide you with legal redress if you end
up with "one woodpecker could destroy civilization" levels of quality.
It doesn't sound as though the Building Spectre ever saw the place, and
the client didn't take advantage of legal recourse, so neither of the
advantages was ever realized.  (There's a third advantage -- presumably
better craftsmanship -- but I'm sure the very mention has you laughing
yourself into anoxia...)

Seriously, most contractors do solid work which is approximately on 
schedule and within budget and resembles what you asked for.  (And a
lot of the lapses in all three areas can be blamed at least partly
on an uncommunicative client.) But the horror stories are... horrifying!

Joe "No IQ test is required for buying building materials" Chew
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: mkuhn@news.weeg.uiowa.edu (Martin W Kuhn)
Subject: Re: Useful quips
Keywords: kibo didn't write this
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 21:14:44 GMT

In article <1992Aug20.193914.9178@b11.b11.ingr.com> mpalmer@zaphod.b17d.ingr.com writes:
>In article <1992Aug17.232930.5239@fid.morgan.com> sethb@fid.morgan.com (Seth Breidbart) writes:
>>In article <1992Aug12.011031.18757@bert.eecs.uic.edu>
>>artn@bert.eecs.uic.edu (Ellyn Sandor) writes:
>>
... other pieces of PI deleted...

>
>Or if you don't need so many decimal places:
>
>How I wish I could recollect of circle round
>the exact relation Archimede unwound.

That's similar to one for even fewer places that I learned in 
high-school geometry:

"How I wish I could recollect pi easily today."


       -- Marty "Oh, that's right, I need a middle name in this group" Kuhn
From: jane@soave.swdc.stratus.com (Jane Beckman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Japanese snuff! sort-of...
Date: 19 Aug 92 00:49:28 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc., San Jose, CA

I was just reading a fascinating book called "Pink Samurai,
Love, Marriage, and Sex in Contemporary Japan."  Apparently,
the Japanese have a taste for snuff films!  A major appetite.
Mind you, none of this is *real* death, but they seem to
really get into seeing women get mangled and murdered in
sexual scenarios.  (It also points out that they like watching
women get mangled and murdered in most of their other flicks,
too.)

Combine it with a popular comic called "Rape Man" (mild-mannered
salaryman by day, half-clothed sexual superman when the need
calls...) and you can get some very odd ideas about the
culture over there.  And here I thought the "Samurai
Detective" movies were perverse... ;-)

--
  Jilara   [jane@swdc.stratus.com]

I've worn high-heeled pointed-toed fashionable shoes for the past 
twenty years, and you ask me about if *getting tattooed* hurt?!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo)
Subject: Re: Faces of death
Keywords: snuff
Reply-To: styri@nta.no
Organization: Bohemians and Globetrotters, Unlimited
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 14:02:32 GMT

In article <713609546snx@alfheim.actrix.gen.nz>, Bruce Clement writes:
>
> Apparently this guy called God arranged to have his son whipped
> and killed so he could write a snuff book. After 1600 years, this book
                                                   ^^^^^^^^^^
> is still in print.

Usually a.f.u would love to discuss a few days lost, but almost 400 years?

---
YuNoHoo  "how bout a snuff.gif, er even a snuff.gl?"
From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: RV cruise control in FAQ?
Date: 13 Aug 1992 00:11:33 GMT
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Distribution: na
Reply-To: TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.12.117

pw@panix.com (Paul Wallich) writes:
  +
  +I know, it was just a few months ago this one went by, but somehow
  +I forgot to archive it. Does anyone have the story or the source
  +handy? 

There are a number of cruise control stories in the section
somewhat aptly named "Cruise Control Stories" in _The Choking 
Doberman_, by Jan Harold Brunvand.


Terry "post control" Chan
--
Berkeley, California                           Internet:  TWChan@lbl.gov
"A few months ago, I was watching 'Friday Night Videos' and I saw three
 groups in a row with one member who is a client of mine."
                                               -- Sy Sperling
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: sethb@fid.morgan.com (Seth Breidbart)
Subject: Re: Cannibaderm, anyone?
Organization: Terry (hon.)
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 00:05:36 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.025204.12391@news.columbia.edu>
lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:

>BTW, NYC has just switched the Bronx into the 718 area code, and has started
>an all-business 917 area code, mostly for new business, such as beepers, etc.
>The Bronx switch is being done gradually to allow people to get used to it,
>but by next March you can't use 212 to get there anymore.  Thus 212 is now
>only for the island called Manhattan.

>cjl (in 718)

No, 212 is for the Borough called Manhattan, which is the county named
New York.  The island of Manhattan has different borders.

Seth  "in 212" Breidbart	sethb@fid.morgan.com

The exact distinction between them would make for a good UL.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lmh@world.std.com (Larry M Headlund)
Subject: UL's in Literature List
Followup-To:  alt.folklore.urban
Summary:  proposal for addendum to FAQ
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 22:58:57 GMT

	I would like to propose an expansion to the existing FAQ file.  After
all,  it's so short now.
	The concept is based on a regular posting to alt.magic which lists
magic scenes in films.  What the one for AFU would contain would be references
to UL's in literature,  movies and television.  
	Some examples:

LITERATURE:
_The Onion Dome_ by Joesph Wambaugh: 
	Plot revolves around snuff film.

_Gerald's Game_ by Stephen King: 
	Plot based on woman tied up for sex game, husband  disabled UL.

_You Only Live Twice_ by Ian Fleming
	Mention of Sumo wrestlers can retract testicles at will. 


FILMS:
_Diamond's are Forever_
	Oblique visual reference to "Moon landings faked on movie lot"


Perhaps we could asterix items which are possible sources of the UL?

ObUL:  	Snuff films are a plot to cost the net hundreds,  if not thousands of
   	dollars. 



-- 
Larry Headlund  lmh@world.std.com    Eikonal Systems (617) 482-3345 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: rogers@rosencrantz.osf.org (Andrew Rogers)
Subject: Re: Useful quips
Organization: HICAM/OSD
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 13:57:05 GMT

And here's one I recall from about 10 years ago, when professional programmers
were still attempting to write useful programs in Pascal:

	Let's Construct The Very Perfect Function

for the order of declarations: label, const, type, var, procedure/function.

AWR
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,comp.dcom.modems
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Modem tax back
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 18:55:08 GMT

In article <1992Aug15.173950.22661@ssc.wa.com> tad@ssc.wa.com (Tad Cook) writes:
>In article <1992Aug15.025341.492@seanews.akita.com> billmcc@seanews.akita.com (Bill McCormick) writes:
>>In article <1992Aug12.211954.19466@ssc.wa.com> tad@ssc.wa.com (Tad Cook) writes:
>>>Oh, great!  Then the rural users pay thousands of dollars per
>>>month for the "true cost" of providing service into low desity
>>>areas, and the telcos just fight over providing the lowest cost
>>>service to big customers in the city.  Some telephone service!
>>
>>Yep.  They should.  There are costs to living in rural areas, like
>>extended lines for power and phone.
>>
>>There are costs to living in urban areas, like parking and rent.
>>
>>If it costs more to provide service to someone, they should pay more.
>>Especially now when there are reasonable alternatives like cellular
>>service.
>
>What the deconstructivists are asking for here would probably
>mean that telephone service would be provided very cheaply
>to large corporations that are in large urban areas and
>can buy the service in bulk, and that anywhere else telephone
>service would be a luxury, unaffordable for the masses.

Just an alternate example to add to the pile:

Why is it that rural (well, sub-urban anyway) cable companies are charging
less to their subscribers than the equivalent situation in the city?  
Presumably there is less cable to be run in the city because there is a
larger concentration of customers, thus less miles of wire per customer
or equivalent unit.  Also it's a larger customer base in the city, so
how is that making this "network" any better for anyone.  Or is it just
that it's easier to rip-off a more concentrated and larger customer base
for even more money than a smaller operation.

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: tabn3@isuvax.iastate.edu (Daniel I. Matt)
Subject: Re: Faces of death
Reply-To: tabn3@isuvax.iastate.edu
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 06:41:44 GMT

In article <1992Aug14.121124.1395@nntp.nta.no>, styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo) writes:
>There's some old movie with a snuff plot. I think it was "teen girl runs
>from home, ends up in porno business. Girl's father looks for his daughter
>all over the place, including a snuff porn movie theatre." Don't remember
>if there was a happy ending. (Guess I turned off the TV.)

   Yeah, I just saw this on either HBO or Cinemax late at night a couple of
weeks ago.  However, I missed the ending because I fell asleep (not that it was
boring; I just got pretty tired).  It had George C. Scott in it as the father.
I forget the name of it though.

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
?      Daniel I. Matt       |    Now I lay me down to sleep,                  ?
?   Iowa State University   |    I pray the funk will make me freak,          ?
?                           |    If I should die before I waked,              ?
?    INTERNET ADDRESSES:    |    Allow me Lord to rock out naked!             ?
?     dmatt@iastate.edu     |                                                 ?
?  tabn3@isuvax.iastate.edu |    "Sir Psycho Sexy" -- Red Hot Chili Peppers   ? 
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: berger@atropa (Mike Berger)
Subject: Re: Cannibaderm, anyone?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 19:07:34 GMT

amconn01@ulkyvx.louisville.edu writes:
>A friend of mine recently returned from Chicago said that she heard that some
>enterprising pharmacology students at a midwestern university had made,
>entirely for recreational purposes, transdermal slow-release patches for
>marijuana (a la Nicoderm). Has anyone else heard about this? Sounds like a UL.
*----
Cute, but definitely a UL.  Marijuana has to be heated to activate the
psychoactive components, and they are not particularly stable at room
temperature (or higher).  So it isn't very feasible.  Also, the 
cannabinols and cannabidiols aren't water soluble - how would you
get them absorbed into the skin?
--
	Mike Berger
	Department of Statistics, University of Illinois
	AT&TNET     217-244-6067
	Internet    berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu
From: jane@soave.swdc.stratus.com (Jane Beckman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Imponderables
Date: 21 Aug 92 00:55:13 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc., San Jose, CA

In article <fmfyb7#@rpi.edu> kasprj@rpi.edu writes:
>In article <1992Aug18.152428.28723@unislc.uucp>, dw@unislc.uucp (Dan Wright) writes:
>
>|> Here are some questions which the book said it had no answer to:
>|> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>[among others...]
>|>   -- Why does looking at the sun cause some people to sneeze?
> 
> I've heard a reasonable explanation for this: bright light will cause 
>the tear ducts to release a little bit of moisture, as a protective
>measure. Some of the moisture from the eyes goes into the nasal sinuses,
>which irritates them and produces the sneeze. This also explains why
>I sneeze when I get a piece of dust on one of my contact lenses... 
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>     __  Live from Capitaland, heart of the Empire State...
> ___/  | Jim Kasprzak, computer operator @ RPI, Troy, NY, USA
>/____ *| Pro-Environment. Pro-Education. Pro-Family. Pro-Choice. 
>     \_| Pro-Change. Pro-America. Pro-Clinton.
>      ====  e-mail: kasprj@rpi.edu or kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu 

I've heard that it's actually a bit of bleed-over signalling
from an overload on the optic nerve, whose course lies next to
the olefactory nerve ("On Old Olympus" ;-) ).  An overload on
the olefactory nerve will cause you to sneeze.  Apparently,
the closeness of the routing is genetic---thus, sun-sneezers
(like my father and my niece) tend to run in families, and
it's not just the sun---any *really BRIGHT* light will work.
In plain terms, you get a short-circuit from extra stimulus.

The olefactory nerve also runs next to the occular-motor
nerve, which I believe is the one affected when you get dust in
your contact lense.   
--
  Jilara   [jane@swdc.stratus.com]

I've worn high-heeled pointed-toed fashionable shoes for the past 
twenty years, and you ask me about if *getting tattooed* hurt?!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: heathh@cco.caltech.edu (Heath Ian Hunnicutt)
Subject: Re: Co-ed Dorms!
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 18:31:44 GMT

>ObUL:  At some schools, "co-ed dorm" means that men and women LIVE IN
>THE SAME BUILDING!
More like ObFACT.  I live just such a truly co-ed dorm.  In fact, all
of Caltech's dorms are co-ed in this manner.

>Paul "Ask about Purdue's co-ed dorms..." Joslin	
>joslin@c0223.ae.ge.com

Heath "Ask about Caltech's co-ed rooms..." Hunnicutt
heathh@cco.caltech.edu


-- 
On Saturday, April 18, 1992, this .sig became self-aware.
From: beowulf@wam.umd.edu (amealuh)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: full-body paint
Date: 12 Aug 92 22:34:11 GMT
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park

not exactly folklore, more of an amusing note - 

y'know how demi moore had herself done up in full body paint
for the cover of vanity faire?

SPY magazine did their own, with madonna, except they did it
all in white and printed it as a "paint-by-numbers".

<grin>


-- 
		I don't love you anymore since you ate my dog.
beowulf@wam.umd.edu					    beowulf@eng.umd.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Penicillin Priorities
Summary: In an 18th Century operating room everyone could hear you scream
Date: 19 Aug 92 00:51:36 GMT
Reply-To: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4

{Of rubbing garlic on a musket ball in Revolutionary times to cause 
non-dying, logistics-draining casualties}

>c)  the act of rubbing the garlic onto the ball (using dirty hands, maybe
>    including some grime & bacteria during the process) made the wound that
>    much more septic, causing infection and producing the desired result

>Incredible though it may seem to us, I wouldn't swear that people back
then had come up with a germ theory of disease, or had even causally 
associated grime and infection.  The classic example is doctors going 
straight from the morgue to the delivery room without stopping to wash,
hands, thereby causing "pupereal fever" -- one more little bit to help
make childbirth a leading cause of premature death.

Lister and Semmelweis, the people my foggy memory associates with the 
dawn of germ theory and antisepsis, hadn't yet been born in 1776.  As
for military aid, I suspect that amputation, splinting, evacuation,
and convalescence were about as good as it got -- for more flavor of
a distasteful era, remember that Florence Nightingale did her thing in
the Crimean War, circa 1830s. 

I'm not even so sure whether anaesthesia was more sophisticated than a
bottle of whiskey and something to bite down on.  All this put a damper 
on surgery -- "field conditions" would be too kind; try "barnyard 
conditions." Medicine in general had less to do with science than with 
(what else?) folklore.  You were probably better off curling up under 
the porch like a sick dog than going to the doctors of that era.

These gruesomely fascinating tales are told well in Jurgen Thorwald's 
books. Try first "The Century of the Surgeon," then "The Triumph of 
Surgery." 

Incidentally, a good place to ask about many of the ObULs in this thread
(garlic on bullets, the origins of the concept that it's better to wound
than to kill, Spitfire pilot shooting at fuselages rather than engines
and fuel tanks...) would be sci.military.  

Joe "I'm not a doctor...I don't even play one in historical arguments" Chew
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: dhartung@chinet.chi.il.us (Dan Hartung)
Subject: Re: "Yes Virginia!" What does it mean?
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 02:58:45 GMT

connolly@memstvx1.memst.edu writes:
>
>The New York World, in the 1890's.  Virginia had an Irish last name
>(O'Halloran, I think) and lived in the 100 block of West 95th Street
>in Manhattan, on the North side of the street (odd numbers).  I have
>the strange distinction of having lived at 150 West 95th, so I could
>see her now empty brownstone from my window.

No kidding!  I lived with friends at 70 W 95th for a while, and never
knew.  (Not that it's that important in the larger scheme of things --
I just like to know the special things about the places I go and 
especially stay.)

-- 
HYPOCRISY HALL OF FAME:                  | Dan Hartung               |  Ask me
"I would think very hard and long about  | dhartung@chinet.chi.il.us |  about
voting for a presidential candidate who  | Birch Grove Software      | Rotaract!
has had an affair."  -- Gennifer Flowers!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,nyc.general
From: kasprj@isaac.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
Subject: Whither Manhattan? (was Re: Cannibaderm, anyone?)
Reply-To: kasprj@rpi.edu
Organization: The Big Wedge 
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 06:31:55 GMT

In article <1992Aug19.000536.15374@fid.morgan.com>, sethb@fid.morgan.com (Seth Breidbart) writes:
|>>BTW, NYC has just switched the Bronx into the 718 area code, and has started
|>>an all-business 917 area code, mostly for new business, such as beepers, etc.
|>>The Bronx switch is being done gradually to allow people to get used to it,
|>>but by next March you can't use 212 to get there anymore.  Thus 212 is now
|>>only for the island called Manhattan.
|>
|> No, 212 is for the Borough called Manhattan, which is the county named
|> New York.  The island of Manhattan has different borders.
|> 
|> The exact distinction between them would make for a good UL.
 
 Okay, so let's inject some FACTS (sorry) into this discussion. As far as I
know, the Borough of Manhattan includes (besides Manhattan Island itself)
a few blocks across the Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx, and possibly the docks
on the Brooklyn side of the East River (I'm not 100% sure about that). 
 
 Anyone have a good reference for this? Are Governor's, Ellis and Liberty 
Islands also considered part of Manhattan Borough? And just why _is_ that 
little piece of the Bronx included?
------------------------------------------------------------------
     __  Live from Capitaland, heart of the Empire State...
 ___/  | Jim Kasprzak, computer operator @ RPI, Troy, NY, USA
/____ *| Pro-Environment. Pro-Education. Pro-Family. Pro-Choice. 
     \_| Pro-Change. Pro-America. Pro-Clinton.
      ====  e-mail: kasprj@rpi.edu or kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu
From: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Imponderables
Date: 19 Aug 92 05:28:45 GMT
Organization: Famed Parquet Floor

In article <1992Aug18.152428.28723@unislc.uucp> dw@unislc.uucp (Dan Wright) writes:
>
>[Incidentally, clocks run clockwise because sun-dials run clockwise
>in the northern hemisphere]
>
Or, because the sun goes clockwise as seen from the Northern Hemisphere.
The sundial observation is a corollary.

Actually, it's a tautology:  if clocks ran the other way, that would be
clockwise instead.

Phil "So many postings, so few UL's" Gustafson

-- 
|play: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG; {ames|pyramid|vsi1}!zorch!phil                |
|work: (Under Construction)              | Phil Gustafson                   |
|         "Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile."                     |
From: gtoal@ibmpcug.co.uk (Graham Toal)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: *Source* of eelskin wallet rumour
Date: 15 Aug 92 13:12:09 GMT
Organization: The IBM PC User Group, UK.

We all know about the 'eelskin wallets demagnetise your credit card'
story.  Most of us even know that it was the magnetic clasps on the
wallets which were supposed to have done it.  Well, no someone has
claimed to be the original manufacturer of these magnetised wallets...

Anyone care to check the reference below, and add the info to the FAQ?

G
---
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 00:03:57 GMT
From: rah@btr.com (Richard A Hyde)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Solve Three Problems (was Telecom Fraud)

> I wonder if Justin has an eel-skin wallet?  Strangely enough,
> they've been known to wipe the mag-stripe info off of credit cards.

There was an article in the {San Francisco Chronicle} last week on
Hagfish.  It seems that Hagfish skins are sometimes used to make
eelskin wallets ...

Anyway, the article contained a comment from a major eelskin wallet
manufacturer who claimed that a large batch of early wallets did
indeed erase credit cards ... the manufacturer ("unwisely", in his
words) had used magnetized metal for the catches!  This resulted in
the skins being blamed for the phenomonon ...


Richard Hyde   RaH@btr.com



--
From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Cost of phone service (was Re: Modem tax back)
Keywords: long distance telephone service
Date: 14 Aug 92 14:29:39 GMT

In article <1992Aug14.012945.14000@tamsun.tamu.edu>, daugher@cs.tamu.edu (Walter C. Daugherity) writes:
> Some years ago a telco employee told me it cost AT&T more to run the
> billing computers (which punched a 3-inch wide paper tape, so you know it
> really was some years ago) late at night, and process the bills, than it  
> brought in in revenue.  In other words, AT&T would have made more money if they  
> had simply shut off the long-distance billing between, say, midnight and 4:00  
> A.M. and let anyone call for free.

I doubt that that was ever true.  Running billing computers (or, in
this case, the recording equipment) isn't that expensive.  What is
expensive is building the equipment, deploying it, etc.  In other
words, the toll call billing system requires a lot of up-front
capital.  The marginal cost per call recorded is quite low -- but the
initial outlay still has to be recovered.  (This is one of my pet
peeves -- folks who justify phone freaking, hopping subway turnstiles,
etc., by focusing on the low marginal cost, and ignoring the capital
cost.  There's also the issue of price/demand relationship -- if the
the price is too low, demand will increase, requiring more capital
expenditures for the basic service equipment.)
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:21284 comp.dcom.modems:11986