HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: Chuck Adams <chuck_adams@qmail.ssc.gov>
Subject: Junk FAX Mail?
Organization: Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 18:41:25 GMT

I have heard on several occaisions that a new (and perhaps undesirable) trend
in "Yuppie" circles is junk mail received via FAX machine.  I have worked at
several places where we used a FAX, and my parents have one also.  I have never
seen the reception of a FAX that was not a part of regular business.

This scenario of "Junk" FAXes implies that there is a "list" of telephone
numbers out "there" that is somehow passed around/sold like mailing lists are.
I don't know of any way that FAX machines could be specifically targeted for
FAX messages unless someone dials every phone number in sequential order with a
FAX machine to see if a FAX machine on the other end responds.

Has anyone ever received junk mail on their FAX machine?


                      Chuck Adams,  WB5WRR   (The Chuckster)
                 Not an official document of DOE, SSCL, URA or EG&G
               Try Internet brand Tequila -  "A worm in every bottle"
             Internet:  chuck_adams@qmail.ssc.gov  (aka 143.202.130.11)
            FAX Machine:  unlisted to preclude reception of Junk FAX mail


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo)
Subject: Re: Peter? What Peter?
Reply-To: styri@nta.no
Organization: Bohemians and Globetrotters, Unlimited
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 12:49:58 GMT

In article <1992Aug24.205448.7833@acuson.com>, Drew Lawson writes:
>
> Have you ever heard about what happens if you chant "Churchill is Disraeli"
> in front of a mirror in a dark room?

Why would anybody have a mirror in a darkroom?

---
YoNoHoo  "not this time"
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 14:37:48 EDT
From: <WCE2@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Abandoned/Booby Trapped Aircraft hangars
 <bobk.715298800@slinky.NSD.3Com.COM> <1992Sep1.070432.24356@echo.philips.nl>
 <Btx9nq.BBw@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>

Concerning the bit about the underground maze that eventually has to be sealed
off, this sounds a bit like the story that appeared first in the August 1940
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC about the ancient catacombs underneath the island of Malta.
Allegedly you could walk from one end of the island to the other through these
underground passages, if you knew your way.  However, the entrances were
sealed by the government, allegedly after a tour of schoolchildren and their
teachers lost their way in the labyrinth and never returned.  Rumor had it that
 for weeks one could hear the wailing and screaming of the children underground
, but no one could locate the source of the sounds.

There are local legends in Great Britain about caves that contain labyrinths
or which extend from (say) Liverpool to Chester (I made that up, no flames
please about the Mersey River); a bagpiper goes down to test the truth of
story, promising to keep playing as he goes so that people up top can monitor
his progress.  He gets so far, but then the music stops, and he is never seen
again.  His dog, however, turns up 3 days later, having worn off every hair on
its body wriggling through the tight places.

It's not hard to see how stories like this could get combined into something
like the Pied Piper (piper goes into cavern + children disappear into hole
in ground and are never seen again).  How far was the German AFB from Hameln?

Bill Ellis
FOAFtale News
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Subject: Re: North Pole (was: The Flat Earth Society???)
Organization: Famed Parquet Floor
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 20:47:01 GMT

In article <1992Aug30.053237.18509@sq.sq.com> msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
>
>ObUL: Peary led the first party of men to reach the North Pole.

And UL it is indeed. The leader of the first party to reach the Pole,
and be able to prove it, was the same Roald Amundsen who first reached
the South Pole fourteen years earlier.  Cook and Peary and Byrd claimed
to have been there, but serious study shows them all as mountebanks and
liars.

Amundsen did it in an Italian dirigible, and it's entertaining to compare
his story with that of Nobile, the Italian pilot.

Phil "Love to use those H. L. Mencken words" 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."                     |
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Re: Price gouging in Florida and Guam
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 20:42:50 GMT

In article <1992Aug31.202137.27111@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> bwatson@nyx.cs.du.edu (bruce watson) writes:
>I keep hearing on CNN that there is price gouging in the aftermaths
>of Hurricane Andrew and Typhoon Omar for necessities like ice 
>and food. Surely this is an urban legend like the Red Cross selling
>donuts and coffee to soldiers in Europe. I went through Hurricane 
>Camille in 1969 and did not encounter price gouging.

Selling at a price higher than a competitor = price gouging.
Selling at a price lower  than a competitor = predatory pricing.
Selling at a price the same as a competitor = collusion.

All of these, of course, require immediate government intervention.

ObUL: Saddam Hussein had several "profiteers" executed for price gouging --
      an excellent way to ensure that nobody bothers to risk smuggling
      *any* food into Iraq at all.
-- 
           .........................................................
          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
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: dw@unislc.uucp (Dan Wright)
Subject: Re: Chef Boy-Ar-Dee commercial
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Organization: Unisys Corporation SLC
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 18:41:14 GMT

Kevin Dooley (dooley@helios.physics.utoronto.ca) wrote:
: Why they would choose
: to rerun an old commercial is beyond me, but I think that that is what
: they did.
: 	Kevin

Why?  For the novelty of it, of course.  I mean, here we are talking about
the commercial, aren't we?   I think this is a wonderful, underexploited
advertising ploy.  I should buy some spaghetti and meatballs for my kid
tonight to demonstrate my loyalty.

About once a year (usually during the superbowl) Master Locks plays their
famous old spot showing locks getting smashed, wrenched, hammered, and shot
(to no avail) to the accompaniment of classical music.  That's about all
they have to do each year.

I was going to the fridge during the commercial break in some TV special in
1989 when I heard the Life cereal Mikey commercial come on.  I was not in
time to record it.  They succeeded in getting me to pay strict attention to
the rest of that TV special in hopes of seeing Mikey again.

Some I would like to have on tape:  Alka-seltzer "I can't believe I ate the
whole thing" and "Try it, you'll like it".   Burger King (or was it
Wendy's?)  "Where's the beef?"  Federal Express debut speech compression
commercial.   Miller beer "When the day's land surveying is over, and
you've sighted that last target and pounded that last stake, now comes
Miller time..."  (I used to be a surveyor)

  -- Dan Wright
From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Cellular Frequencies
Date: 31 Aug 92 00:58:22 GMT
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA

cromar@math.rutgers.edu (Scott Cromar) writes:
>I have a 2-year-old Radio Shack portable TV that goes all the way to
>83.  I haven't noticed any cellular chatter, though.  Do you need a
>descrambler or something?

Nope.  However, unless you are near an extremely busy cell, your
chances of picking up anything are slim.  There's only about a dozen
to two dozen UHF channels in the right range, and cellular channels go
up to 1023 (although some of them aren't used).  You'd need to pick up
a cellular conversation that just happened to be at the frequency
where the TV expected the voice band for the channel you are tuned
into.  And due to frequency re-use considerations, a cell near you
would only use a certain set of those channels.  Unless you lived,
say, along the highway in LA, your chance of picking up cellular
conversations is low.

However, should you be looking around in that area, and happen to pick
up a call, Presto!  You are an instant criminal.  (Not to mention the
criminal intent in owning one of those things - you wouldn't own
something that could pick up those channels if you didn't intend to
use it.  (Big smiley necessary?)).

-- 
Death is a nonmaskable interrupt.
From: jprice@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (James Price)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Just One Calorie...?
Date: 4 Sep 92 01:25:13 GMT

dternes@duke.cdc.com (David Ternes) writes:

>Speaking of just one calorie, when I was growing up in a land far away,
>there was a story going around that Tab actually had more than one calorie
>and they paid huge fines to some unspecified federal agency in order to
>continue advertising it that way.
>-david
>E. David J. Ternes                                       dternes@udev.cdc.com

   the way I heard it, Tab had _less_ than one calorie, for indeed,
it didnt have any calories at all. They just said it had a calorie 
so no one would get overly suspicious I guess.... Who would drink 
something that had 0 calories, hell, I wouldnt trust it....

James
Net: jprice@jove.cs.pdx.edu       "Justice is incidental to law and order."
Globe: 45 31 25 N 122 40 30 W                          - J. Edgar Hoover
Unity not uniformity | NBC = GE   "Reading musses up my mind." - Henry Ford
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: artn@bert.eecs.uic.edu (Ellyn Sandor)
Subject: Re: mouse in Coors can 
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 20:13:03 GMT

pciszek@nyx.cs.du.edu (Paul Ciszek) writes:

>I remember following this story as it unfolded in the media.  There were three
>damning facts that the claimant could not explain away:

>1) The mouse was of a species found in Florida, but not in Colorado
>2) The estimated time of death of the mouse was inconsistant with the 
>   canning date of the beer, and
>3) The mouse bore bruises and scrapes consistant with being forced into the
>   can thru the open pulltab.

>--
>Paul Ciszek, pciszek@nyx.cs.du.edu | No nation was ever drunk when wine was
>                                   | cheap.   -- Thomas Jefferson

	Wouldn't it be a lot easier to put a newborn (or very young) and 
hence very tiny baby mouse in a can, and feed it until it got bigger? Has
anyone done this with an animal?  Perhaps a larger animal in a larger glass
vessel?  One would need to make sure enough air could get in for it to
breathe properly.
	I have seen pictures of this being done with fruit, in particular,
a pear in a bottle.  You simply put the bottle over the budding fruit, and
pick when ripe.  Sort of neat, really.
	I have this vision of a full-grown, very depressed cat in a Hinckley-
Schmidt water-cooler bottle...
			sbm
-- 
--
Stephan Meyers | artn@uicbert.eecs.uic.edu
(Art)^n Laboratories, inventors of the Stealth Negative PHSCologram
(312) 567-3762
From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Highest Channel
Date: 31 Aug 92 17:37:35 GMT

In article <1992Aug31.122437.29212@geovision.gvc.com>, pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin) writes:
> NOBFact: The CN Tower is designed for a much bigger impact than a jumbo jet,
> and winds two or three times as high as the highest winds recorded during
> Hurricane Hazel.  More's the pity.

I confess I'm skeptical about that one, especially if the jet were to
hit one of the legs...  But the winds -- yah, I believe that.  I really
liked the ``10x''  indicator in the display showing the deflection of
the tower top...

The Empire State Building was once hit by a plane, though it was much
smaller and slower than one of today's jumbo jets.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: robcruic@intacc.uucp (Robert Cruickshank)
Subject: Re: Why crescent moons? (was Re: You are humble and loveable. CHOMP!)
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 02:13:25 GMT
Organization: Inter/Access' Matrix BBS

In article <l9nso3INNili@jethro.Corp.Sun.COM> geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) writes:
>
>
>TruFaxDept.:  An astronomy instructor of mine mentioned that the crescent 
>moons shown on outhouse doors in the comic strip Lil' Abner were always 
>backwards.  Such depictions, in any context, came to be known in astro-
>nomical circles as "Dogpatch moons."
>
>


Would that be backwards looking from the inside, or the outside?  

----
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Cruickshank
robcruic@intacc.uucp
Inter/Access Artists' Center
Matrix BBS
Toronto, Canada
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: geoff@pmafire.inel.gov (Geoff Allen)
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 19:42:06 GMT
Organization: Roller Coaster fanatic with no hope for a cure
Subject: Re: You are humble and loveable.  CHOMP!
Summary: 
Followup-To: 
Organization: Roller Coaster fanatic with no hope for a cure
Keywords: 

moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com writes:
>"Silver" pennies are easy to make.  Just place a clean penny in used (abused is
>best) photographic developer solution.  It gets a thin silver plating.  A
>friend would make some to get interesting reactions from store clerks, when he
>bought something using one, many thought they had something valuable and would
>swap it with one of their own pennies.

Are you sure you mean developer?  All the developer does is change the
form of the silver that has been exposed to sufficient quantities of
photons.  The *fixer* is the stuff that removes the undeveloped silver,
and which therefore contains silver.  So I think that you'd need to put
that penny into photographic *fixer* to silverize your penny.

Geoff ``Minor darkroom hacker'' Allen

-- 
Geoff Allen          \  Why is it that no one ever admits to watching Hee Haw
uunet!pmafire!geoff   \  but they all know the words to ``Where, Oh Where,
geoff@pmafire.inel.gov \  Are You Tonight?''
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: ckd@eff.org (Christopher Davis)
Subject: Re: My roses hate me (was Re: Screaming peaches...)
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation Tech Central
	<1992Aug25.102647.18399@nntp.nta.no>
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 12:59:04 GMT

YuNoHoo> == YuNoHoo  <styri@hal.nta.no> 

 YuNoHoo> Talking about screams, didn't Stevie Wonder write the music to
 YuNoHoo> the film that wasn't made based on that book? Should I try to
 YuNoHoo> read the book while playing the record? (The quality of the
 YuNoHoo> music seems to be as good as the book.)

No, it was "In The Air Tonight".  It's about an incident in which
several plants were drowned, and Phil could hear them screaming.

I think Churchill, or maybe Disraeli, was the one drowning the plants.
--
Christopher Davis * ckd@eff.org * System Administrator, EFF * +1 617 864 0665
            ``Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ti Kwan Leep.
            Approach me that you might see.'' -- The Master
From: stein@erg.sri.com (Bruce Stein)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: 27 Aug 92 16:45:54 GMT
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, CA

In article <1992Aug25.181531.25673@sunova.ssc.gov> Chuck Adams <chuck_adams@qmail.ssc.gov> writes:
>I'm looking for mnemonics for stuff like "FUBAR" (f**ked up beyond all
>recognition).  Is "SNAFU" a real word, or more of the same?  (It may stand for
>screwed 'n all f**ked up, or then again it might be Strange, Nerdy
>A.F.U'ers).............       ;-)
>
>
>                      Chuck Adams,  WB5WRR   (The Chuckster)
>                 Not an official document of DOE, SSCL, URA or EG&G
>               Try Internet brand Tequila -  "A worm in every bottle"
>             Internet:  chuck_adams@qmail.ssc.gov  (aka 143.202.130.11)
>

This is a mnemonic for (situation normal all f**ked {fouled} up).  I first heard
it while I was in the Navy.  

Bruce "no sig here" Stein
From: ekman@netcom.com (Crossly the Glad-Eyed Bear)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Spaghetti trees
Date: 26 Aug 92 19:40:53 GMT
Organization: Home for the Terminally Infirm

In article <87098@netnews.upenn.edu> crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:
>All this talk about parents giving us bum information (screaming peaches)
>and Chef Boy-Ar-Dee has brought back memories of my mom and dad telling us
>about spaghetti trees.
>
>Apparently, back when TV was first becoming popular, some wise-acre ran
>a "documentary" on where spaghetti comes from.  It showed all these happy
>Italian farmers, using their pitchforks to harvest spaghetti from the
>spaghetti trees.  My folks saw this; my mom believed it.  I have no idea
>what my dad thought; he's not saying.  
>
>Anybody else ever see this gem?  Or know anything about it?  Wonder if
>it's still around anywhere ...

I believe it was produced by the BBC in the late 50s.  At least that's
when I first (and last) saw it, in London.  In addition to showing the
spaghetti being harvested, I believe it also had scenes from the great
Spaghetti Harvest Festival, with the participants dressed  in
appropriate folk costumes.
-- 
Crossly the Glad-Eyed Bear              ekman@netcom.com
Home for the Terminally Infirm, Redwood City, California
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: daugher@cs.tamu.edu(Walter C. Daugherity)
Subject: 666 (was Re: Highest Channel)
Keywords: 666,mark of the beast
Reply-To: daugher@cs.tamu.edu
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 02:53:49 GMT

In article <mcirvin.715294480@husc8> mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)  
writes:
>zimm@hmivax.humgen.upenn.edu (Laurie Zimmerman, HHMI, Univ. of Pa.) writes:
>
[lines deleted]
>   This isn't quite as good, but in the DC area there was and maybe still
>   is a channel 66 catering to the same clientele.  If only the numbers
>   had three digits.
>
666 would be a great topic!  At least since the middle ages people have been
devising schemes to make their worst enemy's name add up to 666 numerologically  
(the mark of the beast, or more precisely "the number of his name").   
Unfortunately, there is at least one early Greek version of the Bible which has  
616, not 666, so even the target number is uncertain.

ObFact:  I read one preacher's newsletter about the end of the world and
smiled to see his return address--Box 666.

--
Walter C. Daugherity			Internet, NeXTmail: daugher@cs.tamu.edu
Texas A & M University			uucp: uunet!cs.tamu.edu!daugher
College Station, TX 77843-3112		BITNET: DAUGHER@TAMVENUS
	---Not an official document of Texas A&M---
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: rrgd50@email.sps.mot.com (Chris Terwilliger)
Subject: ice_cubes
Organization: Motorola
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 21:49:44 GMT

Here's one I remember from long ago and recently started a war at work with...

"Ice cubes freeze faster when you use hot water..."





* Chris Terwilliger, KB7PPT                rrgd50@email.sps.mot.com *
* Motorola                        "And now, the sequence of events, *
* 2100 E. Elliot Rd. EL374         in no particular order."         *
* Tempe, AZ  85284                                     - Dan Rather *
From: lawson@acuson.com (Drew Lawson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Safety Margins (was: Sinking libraries)
Date: 3 Sep 92 19:00:44 GMT
Reply-To: lawson@aldia.UUCP (Drew Lawson)
Organization: ACUSON, Mountain View, CA

In article <la9utiINNov8@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM writes:

>I said to him, "It kinda makes you wonder about all the things that
>were built by engineers using those books, doesn't it?"
>
>He said, "Why do you think engineers build things with such a large
>safety factor?"

I remember a comment in a program/article on structural disasters,
including the <mumble> Narrows Bridge (aka Galloping Gertie).  The
topic was brought up of older bridges and why they didn't have the
aerodynamic (sp) problems.

The Brooklyn Bridge was mentioned stating that the designer was aware
of the problem but didn't have any way to calculate the strengths
needed.  So he intentionally overcompensated to make up for the
unknown.

-- 
Drew Lawson                      If you're not part of the solution,
lawson@acuson.com                you're part of the precipitate
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: bwatson@nyx.cs.du.edu (bruce watson)
Subject: Re: What makes an urban legend work?
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 92 01:15:35 GMT

In article <17go7cINNr85@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> carolo@cse.ucsc.edu (Carol Osterbrock) writes:
>In article <1992Aug26.174142.29091@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> bwatson@nyx.cs.du.edu (bruce watson) writes:
>
>[...]
>
>>I took a tour of the plant years before the mouse incident. We went
>>to the room where the beer is cold filtered and shown what happens
>>to fresh beer when it is put into a container that is just less 
>>than perfectly clean. There would have been virtually no beer
>>in a can containing the slightest amount of contamination.
>
>Well, why not?  I would assume that the machinery can't tell and puts
>the beer in anyway.  After the can is sealed, where is the beer going
>to go?  I ask this partly because it sounds a little um, incomplete,

The beer will foam if it went into a can with contamination. The can 
will be nearly empty before the top goes on.

>and partly because I have on maybe 2 or 3 occasions bought a six-pack
>in which one of the cans was empty.  The flip-top or whatever you call
>that gizmo was still intact, but there was nothing inside, or if there
>was it weighed exactly the same as air and didn't slosh around.  I
>just thought that it had slipped by the QC, but does that actually
>mean that there was some kind of contamination inside and it ate the
>beer?
>
>-carol "thirsty" o
>-- 
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>Carol Osterbrock       *       Such a long, long time to be gone
>carolo@cse.ucsc.edu    *         And a short time to be there...
>===============================================================================


--
Bruce Watson  wats@nyx.cs.du.edu  Toy Cows, Toy Cows in Africa, Toy Cows
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Subject: Re: Faces of death
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 13:53:45 GMT

In article <1992Sep3.014946.22612@PA.dec.com> snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes) writes:
>
>In article <mr0nb3wj@csv.warwick.ac.uk>,
>  csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) writes...
>
>>> Ha ha.  Somebody would actually have to provide evidence before I could
>>> ignore it.  Perhaps you'd like to break tradition and cite a reference
>>> or do some research or something.
>
>>I think you just proved it for me...
>
> Yep, another content-free posting from someone who has nothing to contribute,
> but is determined to argue it to death nonetheless.
>

Hey snopes, where ya been? The whole net has been missing your trenchant, well
reasoned, content-free rebuttals this last couple of weeks...

Cheers,

The Wisp.[BTW, what are we arguing about?]
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Chris Williams <csuah@uk.ac.warwick.csv> aka <csuah@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
"Tony Greig in the slips, legs apart, waiting for a tickle"
                                      Brian Johnson (thanks to A. Simha 8^>)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban