HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jbarnett@nrtc.northrop.com (Jeff Barnett)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: "Killer" bowling balls
Date: 11 Sep 92 17:00:10 GMT
Reply-To: jbarnett@nrtc.northrop.com (Jeff Barnett)
Cc: gregw@hspice.portal.com


In article <1992Sep10.204226.23587@hspice.portal.com>,
gregw@hspice.portal.com writes:
|> I cross-posted this to afu because it smacks of an UL.  I haven't
|> seen an afu FAQ for about six months, maybe the answer is there?
|> 
|> I used to bowl with this guy named Skip in a mixed handicap league.
|> Skip was a good bowler, averaged in the high 180's, used a "Cobra"
|> wrist support.  One day Skip called me to say that he couldn't bowl
|> for a few weeks because he had torn some tendons in his wrist.
|> When I asked him about it, he said, "I have my ball drilled so
|> that it can only come off my hand the 'right' way.  I was bowling
|> in ABT and it didn't come off right, so it tore up my wrist."
|> 
|> So ... is there a method of drilling such that the ball will only
|> come off a certain way, and if not, injures you?

This is not a UL. There are several variables involved in drilling a bowling
ball and these, in part, determine not only how the bowl rotates but how the
bowl feels.  There are two major classes of variables: (1) weight parameters
and (2) fit parameters.  The former are important because most balls have
asymmetric weight blocks inside.  The ABC (and the pro tour) have the following
rules on weights: (1) ball is no more than 16 pounds, (2) no more than 1 oz of
static imbalance toward the thumb or finger, (3) no more than 1 oz of static
imbalance toward the left or right, and (4) no more than 3.5 (maybe 4)
oz static
imbalance toward the top (hand side) or bottom.  These weight parameters
control,
to a large extent, how the ball rotates and, hence, hooks as it rolls.  They
are measured with a special type of beam-balance device.

The fit parameters are such things as the spacings between the finger holes and
pitch. Pitch has to do with the angles the holes are drilled with repect to a
radial line.  Typically, balls with less thumb pitch are harder to
release.  Thus,
weaker people's balls should be drilled with less pitch.  Note, in bowling, the
thumb comes out first--the lifting and twisting motion is done with the
fingers which
should be under the ball.  If the thumb does not come out first, the
thumb can be
damaged.  A typical problem, other than swelling, is nerve damage on the
hand near
the base of the thumb or the index finger.  This condition is called
bowlers thumb.
If your friend is having this or a related problem, I recommend two
things.  The first
is to consult a sports doctor or clinc that specializes in hands. 
(There are several
in LA.)  The second is to find a competent professional to drill him
another ball.
I would say that most ball drillers don't know either enough physics or enough
physiology to be competent.

If you need any more information, feel free to contact me either on the
net or by
phone.

Jeff Barnett     (310) 544-5223
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: cel@nsscmail.att.com (clayton EDward LEIHY iii)
Subject: Wild Farm Animals (was: Re: Wild Chicken Flocks)
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Keywords: chicken, freeway, flock, human flesh
Organization: NCR Systems Support Center - New Jersey
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 21:16:28 GMT

A similar tale from when I was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas around
1968.

The Post newspaper published an article in the fall suggesting that
persons desiring a hunting permit for the Annual Wild Cattle Hunt
should do so immediately.

The story goes that the military leases land on and near the tank
trails on the base to ranchers who graze their cattle their part of
the year.  The cattle are later rounded up and sent off to market.
However, some cattle are always missed, and head up in the more
remote parts of the base where they hide from humans (and tanks,
we hope), and BREED and grow wild.

Since "A wild cow/steer/bull/etc is a dangerous thing", the government
issued hunting permits and allows permit holders to find and shoot
the runaway critters.

I have never seen one of these wild animals myself, nor have I ever
seen a hunting permit or taked with someone who hunted there.

It occurs to me that this could be a Local Legend.  Anybody from the
Fort Hood, Killeen, Copperas Cove, Waco area of Texas able to
confirm any of the above "facts"??

Eduardo
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Citecheck Hell)
Subject: Re: Marching Band ULs needed
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 04:54:15 GMT

In article <BuFsL2.KK1@world.std.com> lmh@world.std.com (Larry M Headlund) writes:
>	I have heard a similar story about the late composer Glass.
>
>Larry "I observed 4:50 of silence when I learned of his demise" Headlund

I think this was Disraeli.  Maybe Cage.

Ted "if you play 4'33" backwards, you can hear satanic messages" Frank
-- 
           .........................................................
          ted frank | thf2@midway.uchicago.edu | standard disclaimers
         the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637
         here i sit looking for a warming smile in a house of cold wit
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:23444 soc.culture.jewish:15897
From: baker@ROBOCOP.NYU.EDU (Jonathan Baker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: What time is it at the North Pole?
Date: 14 Sep 92 21:19:09 GMT
Organization: Courant Institute, New York University

Re: telling time at the North Pole, in orbit, at near-light-speed, etc.

Many of these questions were answered in the sixties and seventies,
at the beginning of the manned space program.  R' Azriel Rosenfeld
wrote a couple of articles on the topic in Tradition (v7, n1, 1965).

The problem is resolved by just living on some 24-hour (subjective) cycle,
whether in the Jerusalem time zone, or in the time zone from which you departed
the Earth.

Is this on the FAQ?

     ---+  ||  --+  --+
        |        '    '             Jonathan J. Baker
     ---+-                          baker@robocop.nyu.edu
From: pashley@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Montykins)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Highest Channel
Date: 7 Sep 92 07:15:20 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego

In article <1992Sep6.202834.26205@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>, flaps@dgp.toronto.edu (Alan J Rosenthal) writes:
>
>Denigrate your own country, please.

And then, in <1992Sep202954.26229@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>, Alan
says:

>Give me a break.  When has an American government ever done
>something like this?

Hmm. It's either irony or hypocrisy.

 -Paul "Monty" Ashley
   (I reserve comment on which _I_ think it is . . .)
-- 
  "Didn't expect to see me again,         | pashley@sdcc13.ucsd.edu
eh, Svengali?"                            |  [Not a UCSD employee]
     -- Bugs Bunny                        |
From: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Colour perception (was: Death by sneezing)
Date: 4 Sep 92 23:29:44 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

I read once somewhere that scientists discovered a variation in the gene
that produces the red-sensing pigment of the eye.  The variation is one
amino acid, and it causes the sensitivity peak of the red cones to be at
a slightly longer wavelength, and also allows a little extension of the
visible range into the infrared.  These people would perceive some colors
a little differently from normal people, but would never really know it
unless their visual range got tested.  However, this may be one reason why some
people see two colored objects such as clothes or house paints as matching
(look good together) while others see the same objects as clashing.

ObUL:  Red traffic lights are tinged a little on the orange side, and
green lights tinged on the blue to help red-green colorblind folks to
distinguish them.

-Mike
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg)
Subject: Re: Stupid Cop Tricks & the Reagan Office Hours
Organization: Hatch Usenet and E-mail.  Playa del Rey, CA
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 23:03:45 GMT

Today (9/12) LA Times had a story that while true (sorry about that)
sounds like another "parking Ticket UL".

It seems that a car was ticketed for illegal parking, and the
meter maid (or man, didn't say) didn't notice that there was
a dead man sitting in the drivers seat slumped over the wheel.
He had been shot in the head and was somewhat bloody.
Even more amazing was that the ticket was not slipped under the
wiper blade, but was placed on the dashboard thru the open window.

The supervisor said that the meter people sometimes get very rushed. . . .

-- 
                
Rich Greenberg - N6LRT - 310-649-0238 - richg@hatch.socal.com
From: rxh6@po.CWRU.Edu (Randall Holt)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Mail Blocks
Date: 15 Sep 1992 18:17:09 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


In the same thread as the Mailing Coconuts idea;
 
I recall reading a Forbes Mag. (in 1990?) overview of the US Postal Service
that listed a number of all-time classic postal excesses, many of them related
to Rural Free Delivery, the concept that a letter should cost the same to mail
no matter how much it costs to deliver.
 
My favorite was the Alaskan who wanted to build a house in the deep northern
forest, but couldn't afford the quarter of a million to ship the building
materials. Instead, he individually wrapped, addressed, stamped and mailed
50,000 cinder blocks. Each of which -individually- fall under the size and
weight limitations of the USPS guidelines, at a personal cost of under 100K.
Which basically means that the USPS (or rather the US taxpayer) made up the 
difference.
 
And the poor post-person probably got back strain and a hernia.
 
-- 
Randall W. Holt - rxh6@cwru.po.edu     |   Sturgeon's First Law   
Dept. Radiology MetroHealth Hosp.      |   '90% of everything is crap'
Dept. Biomedical Engineering, CWRU     |   
(216) 778-8296                         |
From: ap290@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ruth M. Hanschka)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Agnostics and Athiests
Date: 7 Sep 1992 01:13:32 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: ap290@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ruth M. Hanschka)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, mauax@warwick.ac.uk (Brazil) says:

>In article <92246.162407HCM100@psuvm.psu.edu> <HCM100@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>IF THIS DOESN'T STOP, IM GOING TO START THE WORST CASCADE EVER.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>WHILE EATING THIS SLOP, I SEWED THE FIRST BROCADE BEAVER.
>>>>>>>>>>>>BILE FITTING RIG STOP, LIE SPEWED THIRST LIVER !!!!
>>>>>>>>>>>IF YOU MUST CONTRIBUTE, AT LEAST DELIVER...
>>>>>>>>>>WHO MAY I ATTRIBUTE TO THIS BEASTLY SLIVER?
>>>>>>>>>TO SPAY A LUTE IN A GREASY RIVER
>>>>>>>>DAMN CASCADERS THINK YOU'RE SO CLEVER
>>>>>>>I WILL NOT CASCADE; NOPE, NO, NEVER
>>>>>>WOULD YOU, COULD YOU, ON A TRAIN?
>>>>>WOULD YOU, COULD YOU, IN THE RAIN?
>>>>R2-D2 ON THE BRAIN?
>>>This cascade is damn insane!
>>And it's really getting lame!
>This lower case is going against the grain!
lIKE 'RETHA SANG, "CHAIN CHAIN CHAIN"....

-- 
It's Ruth the NetHead, back from the [virtual] dead
	- ap290@cleveland.freenet.edu
fighting for truth, justice and static-free lines
From: Antonio_DeSimone@ATT.COM (Tony DeSimone)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Cage's 4'33" (was Re: Marching Band ULs needed)
Date: 14 Sep 92 22:39:19 GMT
	<1992Sep12.045415.23153@midway.uchicago.edu> <BuH3IG.1Ls@world.std.com>
Reply-To: tds@hoserve.att.com (Tony DeSimone)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories

>>>>> On Sat, 12 Sep 1992 16:08:40 GMT, lmh@world.std.com (Larry M Headlund) said:

>In article <BuFsL2.KK1@world.std.com> lmh@world.std.com (Larry M Headlund) writes:
>>I have heard a similar story about the late composer Glass.^H^H^H^H^HCage
>>
>>Larry "I observed 4:50 of silence when I learned of his demise" Headlund
>
>I think this was Disraeli.  Maybe Cage.
>
>Ted "if you play 4'33" backwards, you can hear satanic messages" Frank
>-- 

A letter in last Sunday's NY Times Arts & Leisure section claims that
Cage copied large pieces of 4'33" ``note for note'' from an older work.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: Re: Counterfeiting (Was: You are humble and loveable)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 92 05:57:36 GMT

> New Canadian $50s and $100s have a little shiny metal patch on them with the
> [denomination] engraved.  It's just striking enough that you'd probably
> realize it if you were handed a colour photocopy.  The photocopy may look
> about the same, but it wouldn't reflect light.

The patch, officially called an Optical Security Device, also has the
property that it looks different colors according to the angle that you
look at it from: it's either yellowish or greenish.

Canada has one denomination above $100, which is $1000.  These are little
enough used that they were skipped in the general redesign of all bills in
the mid 1970s, when we went to multiple colors on each bill.  (That change
stopped the counterfeiting of Canadian bills dead, until color photocopiers
revived it in recent years.  Canadian counterfeiters preferred to produce
bogus US money.)

A further general redesign has been going on for several years now; if I
remember correctly the bills have been introduced in the order $5, $2, $10,
$50, $100, $1000.  The $1000 appeared only a few months ago (no, I don't
have one to show you; I haven't even seen one) and it too has the OSD.
The $1 bill was withdrawn rather than be redesigned.  I conjecture that
the $20 is the most widely used bill and that its redesign was left for
last so that a decision on whether to use an OSD on it or not could be
delayed until experience had been gained with the higher denominations.

ObUL: On Canadian $5 and $10 bills, the US flag is shown flying over the
      Canadian Parliament buildings.

(Actually, they're pictures showing the Parliament as it was during the
time of the Prime Ministers depicted on the bills, and they show the old
Canadian flag.  It's too small to be shown in full detail.)
-- 
Mark Brader		"Actually, $150, to an educational institution,
Toronto			 turns out to be about the same as a lower amount."
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com				-- Mark Horton

This article is in the public domain.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: boebert@sctc.com (Earl Boebert)
Subject: Re: Fuel misers
Organization: SCTC
Distribution: alt
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 21:28:56 GMT

snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes) writes:


>In article <1992Sep8.204334.20731@sctc.com>, 
>  boebert@sctc.com (Earl Boebert) writes...

>> My buddy's brazing skills weren't quite up to snuff

>Oh, don't start that again.  There's no such thing as "brazing skills".


Mea maxima culpa; I meant to say "brazing saddles."  S'nuff movie for
anybody.

Earl


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com
Subject: Re: Ann Landers stops an urban myth!
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 02:45:13 GMT

In article <harris.715767370@drvax3> harris@drvax3.msfc.nasa.gov (Mitch Harris) writes:
>Well, poor Ann Landers & her sister Dear Abby are always being accused
>of perpetuating urban myths. Here's one time she doesn't. The following
>article is from the Huntsville News, Sept. 5,1992 :

>Dear Ann Landers: While visiting in Washington, D.C., my wife & I
>engaged a taxi driver to show us the sights & give us some history of
>our nation's capital.
>We passed a statue of a soldier mounted on his horse. The taxi driver
>asked if we knew the significance of a horse sculpture with all 4 of the
>horse's hooves on the ground, compared with one hoof lifted or the horse
>reared with 2 hooves off the ground. When we said we didn't, he went on
>to tell us that 4 hooves on the ground meant the soldier died a natural
>death, 1 lifted meant the soldier was wounded in combat, & the horse
>reared meant the soldier was killed in battle.

I wonder if this is one of those urban legends that starts out false but
over the ages enough people hear it and believe it that it becomes ingrained
and eventually might as well be considered true.  In this case, a story goes
around that sculptures are to be done as above.  Certain person hears it
and believes it.  Eventually that person becomes a sculptor and is asked
to make a statue of General X who was wounded in battle.  He "knows" that this
means the horse should have 3 feet on the ground and designs the statue as
such.  He is either never questioned about this or is and answers the above
UL.  The people who requision the statue never bother to check if any Army
Regulation XXX prescribes the design of a statue, and it is built with
one leg in the air.  Later people point to the statue of General X and
use it as an example that "3 legs means he was wounded in battle"...  Repeat
ad infinitum...

Does anyone know of statues that do _not_ follow the above?  General
Custer with 3 or 4 feet on the ground?  General George Washington with 3 or
2 feet on the ground?

I actually think there should be a special category in the FAQ for such
legends, generally true but for no reason other than the UL is
self-perpetuating, or true only because someone heard the UL and
re-enacted it (collecting soda can tabs for charity for example)

-Mike
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)
Subject: Re: Mailing Coconuts
Reply-To: warren@nysernet.org
Organization: Mail to News Gateway at Wang Labs
Date: 6 Sep 92 00:57:56 GMT

I once mailed a tennis ball.  Wrote the address, glued a stamp to it.
It got there.

How do you write the address on the coconut?
-- 
/|/-\/-\       In real life, the Vice President chastises Murphey Brown
 |__/__/_/     for her morals.  Bill Clinton plays the sax on "Arsenio
 |warren@      Hall."  Though "Batman Returns" is fiction, it's not too
/ nysernet.org much stranger than truth - Caryn James, The New York Times
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: naran@fraser.sfu.ca (Travers Naran)
Subject: Re: Presidential UL's
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 04:30:18 GMT

jdahl@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Jared Dahl) writes:

>UL?:  Richard Nixon watched the movie "Patton," starring 
>George C. Scott, six times while deciding whether or not 
>to bomb (Laos/Cambodia??)

And I bet he watched "To Catch a Thief" a few times before deciding to approve
of Watergate. :-) :-)

>UL?:  Ike ordered the death of hundreds of thousands of
>German POW's after WWII? (by starvation)

This story has gone far beyond just being a UL, one Canadian news magazine show
seemed to hint (Well, they actually said it) that this is a Revisionist story
with no real basis in fact. The problem is, the one guy who is really pushing
the theory has, so far, only gotten the Revisionists to listen to him. You know
the guys, Revisionists claim the Holocaust never happened, that there were no
gas chambers, etc. Some even claim an international Jewish conspiracy in
banking and historical institutions (Cute: The Nazi's did the same things). 

>UL?:  JFK and Jackie smoked pot in the white house.

Is that all the UL you could come up with involving JFK and Jackie? :-)

UL? or Fact?: JFK and Marylin Monroe were more than just fans. :-)

>UL?:  Reagan was actually awake during his terms!!(probably false)

Scary if he was. It means he was the smartest, and most cunning president since
Nixon and Eisenhower. (Possibly even JFK). Faking senility so well as to
convince almost everyone that he really did know nothing about Iran-Contra, the
deficit, etc. :-)

>UL?:  John Hinckley Jr.'s parents are good friends of George and 
>Barbara Bush.( I know, alt.conspiracy )

UL?: LBJ may have had a hand in the assasination of JFK. (I was surprised this
didn't show up in alt.conspiracy!). 


Some CANADIAN Political Legends:

UL? Fact?: John A. McDonald was a drunkard (known) who talked to his dog.
(Questionanbly accurate).

UL?: JFK tried to help one candidate in a Canadian prime-minister race so he
could get Nuclear missiles on Canadian soil. The actual name involved was
forgotten by me, but it was one of the more interesting Canadian elections. One
guy involved had won to Nobel Peac Price (Lester B. Pearson, was it?) 

UL? or Alt.conspiracy?: Ronald Regan and the Republican party provided massive
financial assistance to the Progressive Concervatives (sic) in Canada to win
the 1984 election. 

Enjoy! :-)

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Travers Naran						| "We fear
Mail address: naran@fraser.sfu.ca or naran@sfu.ca       |  change. WHACK!
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada	| WHACK! WHACK!"
Cmpt. Science student wanna-be				| -Garth 
Trekker, Leaper, Red Dwarf'er, Prober, etc.		|  "Wayne's World"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: phil@adam.adelaide.edu.au (Phil Kernick)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Briant Gumble and NBC
Date: 11 Sep 92 05:23:50 GMT
Organization: University of Adelaide, South Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: adam.adelaide.edu.au

cromar@math.rutgers.edu (Scott Cromar) writes:

>Phil has been taking a lot of heat about his posting becase the UL he
>cited is racist.  Now I don't think he actually believes the UL, nor
>have I seen evidence that he is actually racist.  But it is important
>to realize that this particular UL resonates with racist feelings
>ingrained in our society.  All ULs resonate with one or another deeply
>ingrained belief or attitude, that's why they become ULs.  The
>importance of the story that Phil quotes is that because it resonates
>with racist societal attitudes, it tells us something about those
>attitudes in our society.

Just to clear things up a bit, (a) I don't believe the legend, and (b) I
don't consider myself racist.

Funny thing was I had heard this legend for a while, and I never actually
thought of it as racist until I tried to write it down.


Scary really.


FURRFU!

Phil.


-- 
   _-_|\    Phil Kernick                        "Sleep all day,
  /     \   University of Adelaide               Party all night,
  \_.-*_/   E-Mail: phil@adam.adelaide.edu.au    It's fun to be a
       v    Phone:  +61 8 228 5914               Vampire!"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: bill.dehaan@rose.com (bill dehaan)
Subject: bird in the hand
Organization: Rose Media Inc, Toronto, Ontario.
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 04:19:07 GMT
X-Gated-By: Usenet <==> RoseMail Gateway (v1.70)


Date Entered: 09-10-92 23:14
In message <1992Sep8.104713.20537@nntp.nta.no>, styri@hal.nta.no
(YuNoHoo) writes:

Yu>Talking about the thread leading to this entry one of my friends told
Yu>me the following "fact":

Yu>        Birds count "one", "two" and "many".

Yu>Thus, if there are many (ie. more than two) and you add some more, or take
Yu>a few - leaving more than two eggs in the nest - the bird will not notice.

I don't  know much  about birds,  but I  know it  works with cats. Had a
friend once who  bred the things.  Mommy cat had  something like six  or
seven of the beasts, and after they were weaned, they were sold, one  at
a time. Mommy didn't notice numbers one, two or three disappearing, sort
of noticed number four going, caught on to number five, and when  number
six disappeared, she followed the seventh one like a shadow to see where
they were all going. I saw  this pattern repeated on a litter  by litter
basis.

Bill "can't even count my OWN brothers and sisters" de Haan

----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
Deus Ex Machina                   | Internet:   bill.dehaan@rose.com
Software Consulting and Gator Pit | Eradicate Hunger - Eat the homeless
----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
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