HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Re: Calvin/Hobbes diagnosed as clinical schizophrenic
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Keywords: Louie "Lemur" Louie
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 03:03:11 GMT

In article <amymw.721962605@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu> amymw@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Amy Wisotsky) writes:
>This probably isn't the place to mention this at all, but as long as
>someone brought it up.....does anyone know the words to the Puff song?

While, we're at it, can the kind folks at sci.med post the words to
the Dr. Zhivago theme song?

Me, I'm going to set followups to alt.folklore.urban...

Ted "was *I* like that when I went to Brandeis?" Frank
-- 
ted frank                     | thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu 
standard disclaimers          | void where prohibited
the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637
From: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us (S. Mudgett aka little gator)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Vanishing Hitchhiker equals Archangel Gabriel / Germa
Summary: In Germany people reported of a "vanishing hitchhiker"-type exp
Keywords: Hitchhiker, Archangel Gabriel
Date: 20 Nov 92 13:37:52 GMT
Reply-To: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us
Organization: gators 'r us
X-Software: HERMES GUS 1.04 Rev. Sep  5 1992

In <1992Nov18.112114.27077@uropax.contrib.de>, Rudolf Stoert writes:

>More or less ... that's it. I am curious whether you know this version of the
>"vanishing hitchhiker"-experience. I just read the FAQs and to be true it's the
>first time i ever read any news. allright ... hope you don't know it.
sorry, i heard it 20 years ago, having heard it happened in the southwestern
us(i live in the northeastern us).  the only detail you missed was that he
was dressed all in white.
-- 
-- little gator aka s. mudgett     email: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us
-- friend of a gator is a friend of mine
From: zlsiida@fs1.mcc.ac.uk (dave budd)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: The toothbrush & the burglar's behind
Date: 19 Nov 92 09:50:28 GMT
Organization: Manchester Computing Centre

This well known and currently popular UL has appeared on KEY103 the local FM 
station in Manchester UK at approximately 17:30GMT 1992-11-18.  The DJ 
claims to have received a letter from a listener saying that while 
holidaying in Florida their hotel room was burgled and everything valuable 
was taken except the camera, and when the film was developed some shots 
showed the old toothbrush_up_the_burglar's_rectum trick.  
If I can be bothered I'll contact the station and try to ascertain whether:
(a) the DJ knew of the UL and used it to spice up the show;
(b) the people who wrote in used the UL to spice up the show;
(c) it really happened (I can imagine a burglar hearing the UL and thinking 
it funny enough to include on his next burglary).




  From the UK phone book Yellow Pages:  BORING - see Civil Engineers   

  Dave Budd, MCC, Oxford Rd, Manchester, England   (44|0)61-275-6033  
  D.Budd@mcc.ac.uk                                          fax 6040
From: dmp1@ukc.ac.uk (D.M.Procida)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: New Source of ULs Located! AFU Rejoices! Death of Net Predicted!
Date: 17 Nov 92 18:02:06 GMT
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.


I was so pleased the other night.  I realized that the female MBA
student with whom I have the pleasure of sharing a house is not *just*
mad, as I previously thought, but also a pure source of Urban Legend,
uncontaminated by undesirable, er, contaminations such as the concepts
of Reason or Plausibility. 

I think that I will begin gently however, and for the moment ration this
supply to the net.  But in any case, quality is more important than
quantity... 

Begin UL:

[For the Britishly-challenged, a 'Donor Card' is a card which in the
event of your untimely demise informs the medics that you are willing to
donate such of your organs as are servicable to the medical system]

"I'd *never* carry a Donor Card because Doctors(tm) would rather use
your organs to save one of *their* patients than bother attempting to
save *your* life.  I don't know; some of these Doctors(tm) are a bit
knife-happy.  It's true- they'll let you die on purpose; and they can,
because you have a Donor Card and they want your organs and nobody will
know."

End of UL

Nothing- I repeat *nothing*- would pursuade her that this contention was
a load of unsubtantiated rubbish.  She was rather upset by our doubting
the voracity of her story (nothing though compared to the effect of
my merely questioning her *other* story about the FOAA (friend of an
aunt) who woke up to find himself in the morgue).  The good (?) thing
is, there's more- lots more- where this came from.  Frightening. 

Daniele "Dr. Smith, there are some new organ-donors waiting to see you
in Reception" Procida
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lmh@world.std.com (Larry M Headlund)
Subject: Re: Vanishing Hitchhiker equals Archangel Gabriel / Germany
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 23:28:42 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.122657.60994@cc.usu.edu> slb3y@cc.usu.edu (Punk Rocketeer) writes:
>In article <1992Nov18.112114.27077@uropax.contrib.de>,
>ots@uropax.contrib.de (Rudolf Stoert) writes:
	(Vanishing Hitchhiker as Archangel Gabriel)

>     This is a familiar tale here in Utah.  A number of people have
>claimed similar experiences, though usually the hitchhiker is presumed
>to be one of the Three Nephites.  
	(deleted)

	Never identified with the Apostle Philip, the original vanishing
hitchhiker (Acts 8:26-39)?

	By the way,  the Smithsonian magazine  (November 1992), which had the
article on UL from which I cribbed the above,  reveals that the new book
by the honored Brunvand will be titled _The Baby Train_.  I admit with
dismay that I cannot identify a UL by that title.  Does the title ring
a bell with anyone?

Larry "or does the name Pavlov ring a bell?" Headlund


-- 
Larry Headlund  lmh@world.std.com    Eikonal Systems (617) 482-3345 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo)
Subject: Re: LSD Laced Lick-on Tattoos
Reply-To: styri@nta.no
Organization: Bohemians and Globetrotters, Unlimited
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 15:27:38 GMT

In article <1992Nov16.212039.12377@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com>, billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
|> styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo) writes:
|> : bill nelson writes:
|> : > [blue star tattoo stuff deleted]
|> : >
|> : > I do not recall hearing it before the early to mid seventies.
|> : 
|> : Nah, it's at least from the sixties. I remember I got some home brewed leaflet
|> : during grade school. Don't think this UL started in Norway...
|> 
|> Well, during the early 60s, the students in my school used alcohol. No one
|> seemed to be interested in other drugs. So, no warnings.

Makes sense, must have been late sixties. Maybe 70-71, but that's about it.

|> Was lsd in popular usage at the time? It was my impression that there was
|> little usage until the late 60s and early 70s - far too soon for parents
|> to start panicking about their grade school children. At that time, it was
|> just the hippies and other dropouts who used the drug.

Well, your statement makes some claims about my grade school I cannot refute.

---
YuNoHoo  "They also told me that mixing Coke and Aspirin didn't work any longer"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: sweeney@Ingres.COM (Tony Sweeney)
Subject: Re: Not really Re: An ast
Reply-To: sweeney@Ingres.COM (Tony Sweeney)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501
Date: 16 Nov 92 12:27:36 GMT

In article <3262.434.uupcb@ehbbs.gwinnett.com> harris.minter@ehbbs.gwinnett.com (Harris Minter)  writes:
>
>Another urban legend, like the thousands of children killed each year
>with guns.  According to the FBI, it's less than *one* thousand.
>    
Oh, well that's alright then. 

>----
>+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
>|       Ed Hopper's BBS - ehbbs.gwinnett.com - Atlanta, Georgia         |
>|  USR/HST: 404-446-9462                  V.32bis: 404-446-9465         |
>+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Tony.
From: jeffj@yang.earlham.edu (ChaOs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Puff the Magic Dragon (was Re: Calvin and Hobbes)
Date: 21 Nov 92 20:36:17 GMT
Organization: Honest John's Used Toaster Emporium

In article <gln.722201692@brutus>, gln@iti.org (Glen Niebur) writes:
> Who has heard the story that "Puff" is about Marijuana?
> Little Jackie *Paper*?, Puff?  The story goes that the song is about
> how smoking pot is something you do when you are a kid, but then you
> become a responsible adult and give it up (i imagine to move on to
> the hard stuff to deal with the idiots you work with :-).
> 
> Do you think it's true?  Do Peter, Paul, or Mary read this group?

At a concert, Peter, Paul and Mary answered this one.  It's _not_ about
marijuana.

No, I don't have a direct quote, just a secondhand account.  (Yes, for the
purposes of this story, I suppose I am a FOAF.  If it's that important, I'll
have him post, he was at the concert in question.)

Oh, yes, and little Jackie Paper doesn't die - he grows up.

Jeff "I'm not a Terry, but I play one...oh, forget it" Johnston

JeffJ@yang.earlham.edu
From: trif@bike.rad.washington.edu (To Run In Fear)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: UL Alert:  Blue blood!!
Date: 23 Nov 92 13:37:05 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle WA

In article <QxH=4a=@engin.umich.edu> thumper@engin.umich.edu (Bob Topping) writes:
   Well, here's one that I haven't seen pop up here on afu--

   One of the shelvers at the library where I work was telling me
   today that blood is blue while its inside your body, and doesn't
   turn red until it is exposed to air.

   I think she was a little bit offended when I started to laugh
   uncontrollably.  Oh well, she's a good kid; she'll get over it.

And now you will have to go and apologize to her---she is mostly right,
at least moreso than you are.  Deoxygenated blood could definitely be
called blue (have a look at your veins sometime), and oxygenated blood
is red (have a look the next time you cut yourself shaving).  So you have
both blue blood and red blood in you.  When I give blood it starts out
dark red and as I bleed more it gets darker and bluer, becoming a dark
purple by the end, since the blood is extracted from a vein and the free
oxygen in the collection apparatus is getting used up.

I would like to inject some UL bits here though, related to the blue
blood bit.  When studying hemoglobin in bio class, we learned that the
molecule shifts its conformation slightly when it binds oxygen.  A smarmy
grad student later told us that you can make nice crystals out of 
deoxygenated hemoglobin (in a deoxygenated environment, of course).  He
then implied that exposing the crystal to air could result in some spectacular
"fun", by which I assume he meant the crystal would explosively shatter as
the molecules shifted shape in the crystal while binding oxygen.  Of course
he refused to tell us what actually did happen, resorting to vague
descriptions of "fun" and "try it sometime".

Now, is it true that crystals of deoxygenated hemoglobin will shatter or
explode when exposed to oxygen?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: matthews@lynx.dac.northeastern.edu (Matt Sullivan)
Subject: Re: Going Topless/Nude in a Convertable
Organization: Northeastern University, Boston, MA. 02115, USA
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 16:34:17 GMT

In article <Qf3AbRe00WB61Nph8Z@andrew.cmu.edu> Seth Malcolm Redmore <sr2s+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>        Well, I was stopped by an officer down in Texas when I didn't
>have a shirt on.  Then again, it could have been because he clocked
>me at 139 mph.
>
>        (Why, you ask, did I stop?  Well, it was on a flat out deserted
>ribbon of road that just stretched for _miiillles_, and I knew the cops
>around there drove Mustangs that would eat my Mazda alive.)
>
>
>        Oh, yeah, as for having pets crawl under your brake pedal
>I just about died when one of my cats got under there.  thank
>God for emergency brakes.

Hope you weren't going 139mph at the time!

>
>Seth "I knew the cop. " Redmore


                  Matt Sullivan  Northeastern University
                    MatthewS@Lynx.Crc.Northeastern.Edu

                  --  Go U.Maine Black Bear Hockey!  --
From: styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo)
Subject: Re: LSD Laced Lick-on Tattoos
Reply-To: styri@nta.no
Organization: Bohemians and Globetrotters, Unlimited
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 14:32:10 GMT

bill nelson writes:
> [blue star tattoo stuff deleted]
>
> I do not recall hearing it before the early to mid seventies.

Nah, it's at least from the sixties. I remember I got some home brewed leaflet
during grade school. Don't think this UL started in Norway...

---
YuNoHoo
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Soldiers breaking step across bridge
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 15:05:43 GMT

In article <1992Nov20.173456.16258@ulysses.att.com> smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin) writes:
>In article <1992Nov20.141002.28195@news.columbia.edu>, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>> 
>> Aren't there some bridges that, like diodes, only have flow in one direction?
>
>Only bridges over troubled waters.

I believe that there have been some bridge spans built as two separate one-way
bridges near each other.  I believe I saw on the news that one of them
had fallen down and they were "time-sharing" the other span for two-way
traffic in a "half-duplex" manner.

This likely occurred in the Southern US about 8-10 years ago,

cjl


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.college
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Subject: Re: SURVEY: Crime Stories
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:11:17 GMT

bets@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Beth Schwindt) writes:

>Survey on Crime Stories

>4)  What is your affiliation to K-State?

Well, I know the song, that's about it.

Paul "Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming" Tomblin

-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@geovision.gvc.com
(This is not an official opinion of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone
  -- Henry David Thoreau.
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:29390 sci.med:21390
From: trif@bike.rad.washington.edu (To Run In Fear)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.med
Subject: Re: Smoke cigarettes -- leave early!
Date: 23 Nov 92 13:16:45 GMT
Article-I.D.: bike.TRIF.92Nov23051645
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle WA

In article <1992Nov23.001333.7002@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes:
   >takes 1 year off your life, so each cig is worth a day.  

   I heard N = 5 minutes.  So 288 cigarettes takes a day out of your life, and
   105408 cigarettes takes a leap year out of your life.  So, therefore, this
   generation of cigarette smokers is lucky, because the year 2000 isn't a leap
   year.

Ah, but the year 2000 *is* a leap year.  Usually, the century year isn't a
leap year.  The rule is that every four years is a leap year, except for
century years, except when the century (19th, 20th, etc.) is divisible by
four.

Anybody know when the next correction to this rule will have to be made?
From: zlsiida@fs1.mcc.ac.uk (dave budd)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Airport security
Date: 16 Nov 92 14:49:55 GMT
Organization: Manchester Computing Centre

In article <1992Nov12.075145.13548@seanews.akita.com> billmcc@seanews.akita.com (Bill McCormick) writes:

>Then we sat down and I discovered that I was taken off the plane because
>one of my bags was "buzzing."

>To make a long story short it turned out that I had thrown my electric
>shaver into a computer box.  The jostling of loading the box must've
>turned on the razor.  Since it was pressed against a computer's metal
>cabinet it was making a horrendous noise.

I just had this stereo fitted to my car before a trip to Ireland.  We're 
queued up for the ferry when the stereo apparently goes berserk - we got to 
the point where my wife was thumping various panels (women!) when we 
discovered the walkman in her bag had been accidentally switched on to an 
empty radio frequency.



        Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty

  Dave Budd, MCC, Oxford Rd, Manchester, England   (44|0)61-275-6033  
  D.Budd@mcc.ac.uk                                          fax 6040
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:28923 soc.culture.african.american:11243 sci.skeptic:19776
From: pfritsch@skid.ps.uci.edu (Paul Fritschle)
Subject: Re: Ankle-Slashing UL Resurfaces
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Organization: Miskatonic University Department of Computer Science
Distribution: usa
Date: 18 Nov 92 20:49:58 GMT

[details of UL omitted]

I happen to work at the mall cited in the rumors, and first heard the
story yesterday morning at work. I figured then it was a UL, and
waited to see if the media picked up on it. Fortunately, they didn't
go off half-cocked.
Interestingly, this morning the mall had flyers posted inside all the
stores stating that this story was cropping up nationwide, and that
they were not aware of any such events actually occuring. Hopefully
this one will die shortly.
Is this particular story already documented by Brunvard?

--

Paul Fritschle                                         pfritsch@skid.PS.UCI.EDU
                 Have you hugged YOUR shoggoth today?
From: slb3y@cc.usu.edu (Punk Rocketeer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The Fabrikant case--did it happen?
Date: 18 Nov 92 12:14:03 MDT
Organization: Omega:  The Final Solution

In article <Bxw60D.ICr@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, mcwg9235@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
(Marsha Woodbury ) writes:
> I need some information ASAP--
> at what school did The Fabrikant case take place.
> Did it?
> is it an urban legend or what?
> my information is that this guy was a disgruntled
> grad student  who lost it and went on a shooting
> spree,killing innocent people.
> Urban myth?
> Reality?
> Thanks.
> Please respond to me directly.

     Utah State University, 30 May 1993 at about 4:52 p.m. MST.  A
grad student climbed to the top of the business building with a scoped
deer rifle and began shooting at random targets.  He was reportedly
under a great deal of stress after his thesis was graded 'F', thereby
denying him graduation.  Furthermore, the school offices would not
refund the money he had paid toward graduation fees.

Patrick "not a true story . . . yet" Clark
-- 
Patrick S. Clark | "We are not in the Eighth Dimension.
Email is life!   |  We are over New Jersey.  All is not lost."
Usual disclaimer | --Unidentified red Lectroid announcer
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:28754 alt.conspiracy:12248 alt.politics.perot:5535
From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.conspiracy,alt.politics.perot
Subject: Re: Tomorrow's Conspiracy Theory, brought to you today.
Date: 16 Nov 92 19:33:08 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories

In article <1992Nov16.134752.3585@CERIS.Purdue.EDU>, jheath@CERIS.Purdue.EDU (Jim Heath) writes:
> What if some group, say the LaRouche (sp?) people, managed to get
> their people in as electoral college members in large enough
> numbers to elect LaRouche?  Would it be legal?  Would he be
> allowed to take office?  Would it matter that they had lied about
> who they were going to vote for? 

How do you propose they do that?

It's like this -- when you qualify for the ballot in some state, you
also designate a slate of electors.  If you win the state, your electors
are chosen.  For LaRouche -- or Perot, or Marrou, or Fulani, or Bush,
or Clinton, or whomever -- to subvert this would require that the trick
the party organization into designating the wrong people.  I doubt that
that's feasible in any large scale.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: schneid@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mike Schneider)
Subject: Re: Toilet paper: over or under?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 18:22:34 GMT

HAHAHAHAHAHA!  I've started another thread!
-- 
!!! Mike Schneider *** schneid@jerry.stat.uiuc.edu !!!
!!!     Assistant Manager of Systems Services      !!!
!!!            Department of Statistics            !!!
!!!   University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign   !!!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: datri@egsner.cirr.com (Anthony Datri)
Subject: Re: green golfballs?
Organization: Central Iowa (Model) Railroad, Dallas, Tx.
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 20:25:19 GMT
Keywords: green golf balls


>In rec.humor I repeately read about the "green golf ball" joke.
>It seems to be something that everyone knows (wants to know)
>but that no one wants to repeat, or lost the original and it's 
>too complex to really remember, etc...

Just like the "farmer's daughter" joke, eh?
From: rst@ukc.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: HP Monitor models
Date: 18 Nov 1992 07:06:35 -0600
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

In article <13960@pogo.wv.tek.com> pogo write:
>
>In article <1992Nov12.172127.25913@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> ib09@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Thomas) writes:
>>[stuff]
>
>Has to do with the degauss coil.  The Earth's magnetic field is enough to
>distort either very large or very high quality color displays.  When I sold
>home electronics as a summer job one year, our 30 inch color TV's had a
>small switch in the back for Northern or Southern hemispheres.  
>
That doesnt make sense. The magnetic field through the set would change
if you turned it around. And what happens if you're on the equator?
Set the switch to the middle? Better to have a switch depending on which
direction you have the set facing, regardless of hemispheres. I have
a sneaking suspicion that the switch would have the same use as the
extra six transistors in the old twelve rtansistor radio sets. I.e.
marketing. Feel free to correct me. I think that you'll find the earth's
magnetic field rather too weak to have any significant effect at electron
speed anyway. I'll do some calculations if you want...

>Reminds me of the color monitor geometry & convergence calibration
>procedures used for a Mac big-screen display company I once worked for.  The
>procedure began with "1. Face East" (referring to the device).  I was sure
>it was a joke, until it was explained to me that when the shadow mask is
>parallel to the N-S magnetic field, it provides the most central skew of
>adjustments point for an arbitrary position of usage in the field.
>
This sound reasonable.

>Reality is often stranger than fiction!
Reality? What's that?
--
Rich

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.computers