HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: artn@bert.eecs.uic.edu (Ellyn Sandor)
Subject: Re: Death by sneezing
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 21:39:33 GMT

geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) writes:
>In article <1992Aug26.192355.13314@bert.eecs.uic.edu> artn@bert.eecs.uic.edu 
>(Stephan Meyers) writes:
>>	Does anyone have a clear description of how to do this?  I have been
>>trying to teach it to my wife for a while, since airplane pressure changes
>>are sort of difficult for her, but I can't for the life of me figure out
>>how to describe what to do.
>(1)  Pinch nose shut.
>(2)  Close mouth.
>(3)  Blow as you would to blow your nose.  
>The increased pressure can't get equalize via any of the usual orificies, 
>so it finds the path of least resistance through the eustachian tubes.
	Tried that description.  Her cheeks puff out.  Though I'll try the
part about "as you would to blow your nose," but I think I tried explaining
it that way once.  The problem seems to be describing how to get pneumatic
leverage by pressing the back of the tongue against the soft palate.

		sbm
-- 
--
Stephan Meyers | artn@uicbert.eecs.uic.edu
(Art)^n Laboratories, inventors of the Stealth Negative PHSCologram
(312) 567-3762
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Subject: Re: QWERTY
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 14:52:45 GMT

In article <17n6lhINN7g8@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> carolo@cse.ucsc.edu (Carol Osterbrock) writes:
>In article <1992Aug28.010427.26089@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>
>>ObULInFAQFormat:
>>   F: The QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow down typists.
>
>Well, so what *was* the reason for the design?  I think I was told
>that it was so that common letter combinations were unlikely to cause
>the machine to jam.  To me this means that it forces you to type more
>slowly, since a jam is caused when one key is returning when another
>one is striking.

Yes and no. Jams are caused by one key returning and another striking
simultaneously, but only when the two keys are close together (or the two
slugs are close together, to be more accurate). So the reason for the
QWERTY arrangement was to minimize the possibility that two letters next to
one another would be struck in sequence, rather than to actually slow down
typing speed. In theory, this arrangement allows you to type faster than
one with more sequences in it. Of course, now no-one uses thos old typewriters
any more, there are much quicker arrangements possible, but who's going to
demand a retraining of every typing pool in the western world?

The Wisp.
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     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
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Spaghetti trees
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 01:19:46 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.220253.27951@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai) writes:
>bogart@sabre.larc.nasa.gov (Ed Bogart) writes in
>Message-ID: <Btp1Mq.4Kr@news.larc.nasa.gov>  :
>>
>>No, realy, this was a send up or put on done by Ernie Covacs on his show
>>in the early 50's.  He did a lot of this stuff and I supose that some
>>people believed it.
>>
>>Ed "If you don't know who Covacs is, don't talk to me" Bogart
>
>ObUL:  People old enough to remember Kovack have early stage
>Alzhaimer's (sp?) and have forgotten how to spell his name.
>
>Jon "I may not know Alzeheimers spelling, but do know Kovack's" Papai

Didn't Koufax pitch for the Dodgers?


Try Ernie Kovacs, which can also be spelled as Percy Dovetonsils.

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.tv
From: katbea@auto-trol.com (Kathy Beatty)
Subject: Re: Kimberly Dunning, or "Whatcha talking about?"
Organization: Auto-trol Technology Corporation -- Denver, Colorado
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 17:02:03 GMT


Furrfu! 

I can't believe this thread has gone on this long without someone
besides me realizing that the character's name was Kimberly Drummond.
And I never even watched the show. You folks must all be using too much
dope and alcohol at the same time.


Kathy "Or was that Kimberly Disraeli?" Beatty
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU (macphil)
Subject: Re: Just One Calorie...?
Organization: IUPUI
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 15:27:09 GMT

In article <1992Aug31.182845.4426@ultb.isc.rit.edu>
kls4344@ritvax.isc.rit.edu (Person in flux) writes:
 
>In article <mcirvin.715035613@husc8>, mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
>writes re. whether TAB still is around.
>
>[]
>
>I can't remember where I had my most recent TAB, but I did have it in the last
>year (maybe Chicago?)....  What I want to know is whether Fresca still is made
>and sold.  Where is it?
 
It can still be found here in Indianapolis.
 
Fresca should be on Letterman's Top Ten Worst Tasting Substances.
From: llama@pooh.cc.utexas.edu (sine nomine)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Semen, NOT sailors!
Date: 25 Aug 92 09:13:10 GMT
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

ltf@ncmicro.lonestar.org (Lance Franklin) writes:
: [quart of semen story deleted]
:
: Well, normally, that would be correct....but recently, I heard from a
: Friend in a Position to Know (FPK) that Acidheads have a high concentration
: of Strychnine in their semen...it apparently slowly builds up in their
: Vital Juices(tm) from the long term use of LSD, but doesn't affect them
: because of the small amounts in each dose spread over a long period.

aieeeeeeeeeeeeeee. the "acid is cut with strych" thing is one of the
most persistent urban drug legends around. read the alt.drugs faq. 

if strych built up in semen (or anywhere else in the body) in
quantities great enough to kill someone who ingested a quart of it,
why are there people wandering around who've tripped hundreds of
times?  and why hasn't anyone died of strych poisoning due to overuse
of acid?

the above, btw, ignores the serious improbability of someone being
able to do enough guys to accumulate a quart anyway (see previous
followups).

--
sine nomine      | "hey, you're going the wrong way!"
debbie martinson | "world's round, right? i'll get there" -- radio ad
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: 3 Sep 92 00:31:43 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   

>>stories of mistranslations in advertising 

A computer company I once worked for made a print buffer. They wanted
to sell it in Canada, which meant that they had to put French copy on
the box alongside the English.  Our pricey translation firm not only
turned "buffer" into "tampon," but argued with us when we tried to
let them know that this word had another meaning entirely en Anglais.

Fortunately, after a certain amount of hilarity, we won.  Would've
been pretty much a nonissue anyway, since I'm quite sure we gave
away more of that sorry device as demo units than we sold to actual
paying customers -- thank God.  A corporate urban legend held that
shortly after Top Management (tm) bought the thing from its inventor,
our then-chief engineer took one home, emptied his .45 into it, and
put what was left on his desk as an editorial comment.  Most users
had similar opinions, if less firepower.

Joe "The product finally bit the wax tadpole a couple years later" Chew
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: daugher@cs.tamu.edu(Walter C. Daugherity)
Subject: Re: Re: Pencil in Priorities
Keywords: poison control
Reply-To: daugher@cs.tamu.edu
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 23:21:07 GMT

In article <16852DC9B.IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU> IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU  
(macphil) writes:
| In article <2940050@hpcc01.corp.hp.com>
| joanne@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Joanne Petersen) writes:
|  
| >Syrup of ipecac is still dispensed today and recommended as something to
| >keep around when you have toddlers (who eat poisons unintentionally, of
| >course)..... and you should also always call the poison control center
| >BEFORE administering the syrup of ipecac, because some poisons (the caustic
| >acidic type usually) should NOT be regurgitated.
| >
|  
| 1) Not everyone will vomit from syrup of ipecac.  I have several friends
|    who are not vulnerable to it.

A first-aid book I read recently recommended dish-washing liquid (Dawn, etc.).

| 2) It's not just "acidic types" which will cause problems, but the other
|    extreme of the pH scale as well (lyes).

The original poster probably meant caustic/acidic, which would include both  
extremes.  Also, things containing petroleum distillates should not be  
regurgitated due to the danger of inhaling them.

ObTastelessFolklore: One of the most potent regurgitation-inducers is the sound  
of someone else throwing up. 
--
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: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Subject: Re: Cellular Frequencies
Organization: Famed Parquet Floor
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 00:20:38 GMT

In article <25817@dog.ee.lbl.gov> jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov writes:
>In days of old when viewers were bold
>And cellular wasn't invented,
>The UHF tuners, 'fore FCC pruners,
>Reached 83, as intended.
>
[Major tour de force deleted]

I thought we didn't have to deal with doggerel in this newsgroup.

Thanks for the poem, and thanks for the idea: Phil, get a government job!
Don't worry about actually doing anything useful!  Hundreds if not
thousands, etc.

-- 
|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: datri@egsner.cirr.com (Anthony Datri)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Just One Calorie...?
Date: 4 Sep 92 06:45:07 GMT
Organization: Central Iowa (Model) Railroad, Dallas, Tx.


>>I stopped drinking it when I saw [ethyl | propyl]ene glycol as one of the
>>ingredients.

>     I stopped drinking Dr. Pepper for the same reason. I suppose it's
>there as some sort of sweetener, but I prefer not to drink chemicals in
>the same family as anit-freeze.

UL alert:  My sister has long claimed that Dr. Pepper is carbonated prune
 juice.
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: 30 Aug 92 05:45:52 GMT
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations

In article <BtrvHA.3G@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> hucke@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Matt Hucke) writes:
>In article <37452@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> pashley@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Montykins) writes:
>>   (On advice, I've whapped rn around so it puts in a comma up in
>>the attribution line. I'm grammatical now! Joy! Tears of joy!
>>Unbounded happiness!)
>>   (Five points to anyone who knows where the "Joy! . . . happiness!"
>>quote is from)
>
>Churchill.  Or maybe John Belushi.

Bill Murray.  Or maybe Stimpy.
-- 
             ......................................................
             ted frank | thf2@midway.uchicago.edu | std disclaimers
             the university of chicago law skool, chicago, illinois
             it's log!  log!  log!  it's big, it's heavy, it's wood
From: jdravk+@cs.cmu.edu (Jeanette Dravk)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Spaghetti trees
Date: 27 Aug 92 17:12:54 GMT
Organization: Barbie's Dream Dungeon

>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.  Anybody else ever see this gem?  


I had this described to me by an ex-Brit who claimed it came from a BBC
show called "What's wrong with this picture?" or somesuch.  The idea was
that viewers had to figure out what was wrong with the skit they were shown
and call in.  Apparently it took awhile for them to figure this "spaghetti
farm" out.


j-

-- 
   "Ha! Mere flesh and blood desires mean *nothing* to Destructo-Kitty!"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Color UL
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 02:20:09 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.175459.20183@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>Another imponderable: describing precisely what a color means to us as
>we perceive it.
>
>Obul: we all don't see colors just the same way at all, but since we can't
>describe it we are all assuming that we see it the same way.  In fact this
>is a "natural conspiracy" because unbeknownst to us, we all have quite
>different color vision, which is part of why some people like garrish
>color combinations unliked grossly by others.  Not an intrinsic part of
>personal taste per se, but rather that it's the way the colors are seen by
>those that like it; presumably a detractor would like it that way as well if
>they could see it precisely the same way.
>cjl (is my red your green?)

Y'know, I had exactly the same theory when I was six.  I tried to ask
my parents about it, but they didn't know what the hell I was talking about.

ObUL: Trees on top of skyscrapers are erected by construction workers to
      celebrate the completion of a building without fatalities.

ObUL2: White-collar workers in downtown Houston near construction sites post 
       scores and "degree of difficulty" ratings in their windows when the
       fatalities do happen.
-- 
           .........................................................
          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: sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com (Bruce Tindall)
Subject: Re: You are humble and loveable.  CHOMP!
Originator: sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 17:04:32 GMT
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.


In article <1992Aug28.235335.29860@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com>, billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
>Besides, a nickel would cost more to counterfeit than it was worth - unless it
>was one of the rare ones.

Somebody actually did counterfeit nickels back in the '30s or '40s,
and ultimately got caught.  Reference:  children's book "Story of the
Secret Service," published early/mid 1960s, by Quentin Reynolds (?).

But then, that was when a nickel was a nickel (unless they were horses).
-- 
Bruce Tindall, Core Testing Manager, SAS Institute Inc., Cary NC 27513
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Counterfeiting
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
Date: 1 Sep 92 03:38:10 GMT
 <1992Aug31.093111.6305@news.columbia.edu> <dizedz6@Unify.Com>

ceb@dbrus.Unify.Com (Caroline E. Bryan) writes:

>In article <1992Aug31.093111.6305@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>>In article <1992Aug28.012336.26921@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>>>ObUL: The $1 bill is the smallest denomination of paper money in
>>>      the developed countries.
>>Is the U.S. a developed country?  1863-5 US 50 cent and 25 cent paper money
>>exists (I have one of each of the socalled "fractional currency").

>Mark it false anyway.  This summer I briefly had in my possession a 20-escudo
>bill.  At the time US$1 was about equal to 130$00, so 20 escudos was worth
>about 15 cents.

Italy has 1000-lire bills, which were worth something like 80 cents US 
a year ago.  Now, I don't know.

-- 
Matt McIrvin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU (macphil)
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Organization: IUPUI
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 14:06:24 GMT

In article <1992Aug30.114631.13519@ozrout.uucp>
stirling@ozrout.uucp (Stirling Westrup) writes:
 
>Nevermind the seven deadly sins, you can look them up in any old book.
>Trying to remember the seven cardinal virtues is the hard one.  Heck, it
>took me a week of pouring through the stacks of our local library to find
>out what they were.  (No, I don't remember what they were.  I wrote them
>down, and have no idea where I put that particular notebook...)
 
Nevermind the seven cardinal virtues, you can look them up in any old book.
 
:{)
 
If that is something you consider hard, we need to move this discussion
over to alt.sex and figure out how to fix your love life!
(sorry, I just couldn't resist)
 
Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Prudence, and Temperance.
 
P.S.
 
_Five Rings, Six Crises, Seven Dwarfs, and 38 Ways to Win an Argument:
 Numerical Lists You Never Knew or Once Knew and Probably Forgot_
by John Boswell and Dan Starer; ISBN: 0-14-013195-7
 
I really hope you were exagerating about spending a week in the stacks.
From: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com (Mike Moroney)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: 3 small legands
Date: 3 Sep 92 21:17:02 GMT
Reply-To: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com (Mike Moroney)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


In article <1992Sep1.211650.4187@bnlux1.bnl.gov>, reay@bnlls1.nsls.bnl.gov (Robert Reay) writes:
|>   This was told to me in the context of how some people can't grasp that 
|>NYC does not cover all of NYS.  [Which is true, I've met a couple in Ohio]
|>Apearently this lady got into a NYC taxi and asked to be tacken to 
|>Niagra Falls.

Also sort of the opposite problem is how many NYC residents call anything
north of the Bronx "upstate".  Being a former "upstate" NY resident I know
anything in the greater NYC area (and located in NY State) is definitely
"downstate"!


|>    And third.  A lady in California calls the police.  It seems she has locked
|>her keys in her car.  The police say that they'll send someone over soon and
|>are about to hangup.  Before they can she asks if they can hurry.  The 
|>top is down and it looks like it is about to rain. 

I heard this as an ethnic joke.  I've heard many ethnic jokes retold as
urban legends recently.  Do people really believe ethnic jokes happened?
Or is it because ethnic jokes are extremely "politically incorrect" now,
people tell them as urban legends instead?

-Mike
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What makes an urban legend work?
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
Date: 26 Aug 92 18:43:02 GMT

jfreter@triton.unm.edu (The Myth) writes:

>In article <1992Aug25.220107.9959@rat.csc.calpoly.edu> dgross@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Dave Gross) writes:
>>
>>Also, a Coors contamination rumor (mice, I think) started to spread in the
>>midst of union problems and other political problems at Coors.
>>-- 
>Wasn't it a live mouse that was found in a bottle of Elsinore Beer?

A few years back a man in Florida "found" a dead mouse in a
Coors [can/bottle; I think it was a can] and had it extracted 
from the container live on the local TV news.
It later turned out that he had planted the mouse in the bottle
to get even after his car collided with a Coors truck.

(Give dates and documentation?  Who, me?  Surely someone else
remembers this incident.)

-- 
Matt McIrvin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: michaelb@cse.fau.edu (Michael Rogero Brown)
Subject: Re: The Flat Earth Society???
Organization: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 15:39:05 GMT

In article <mcirvin.715469851@husc8> mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin) writes:
>michaelb@cse.fau.edu (Michael Rogero Brown) writes:
>
>>John Sladek, in his book _The New Apocrapha_, a sort of British "Fads and 
>>Fallacies in the Name of Science_, had a brief item on the Flat Earthers.
>>He said that if we ever established a colony on Mars, we would know it was
>>going great when someone forms a "Flat Mars Society".
>
>>A great book if you can find it.
>
>Sladek is also a writer of funny, cynical science fiction with a
>heavy dose of social satire.  In the novel _Roderick_ he includes a
>pseudo-historical digression about a flat-earther religious sect
>led by a man named Jorad.  It seems to be a combined parody of
>the Flat Earth Society and the cult founded by Cyrus "Koresh" Teed,
>which held that the earth was hollow and that we live on the
>*inner* surface.
>
I'm familiar with this cult.  The're the "Koreshan Unity".  They established
their "New Jerusalem" in Estero Florida (after being driven out of Chicago)
in the early part of the centuary.  Estero is between Naples and Ft Myers.
I'm from Naples.  The cult died out because members had to be celibate.
An interesting group.  While they where fairly educated, they believed in
alchemy over chemisty and believed Teed would return from the dead.  Teed
wrote a book claiming if you abstained from sex and other stuff you would ne
immortal.  Didn't work.

-- 
<<                                                               >>
<< Michael R. Brown    CS Graduate Student-Florida Atlantic Univ >>
<< Internet: michaelb@sol.cse.fau.edu                            >>
<< BitNet: m_brown@fauvax                                        >>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jerryg@ssd.intel.com (Jerry Gaiser)
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Organization: Supercomputer Systems Division, Intel Corp.
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 18:33:07 GMT

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).............       ;-)

Situation Normal, All F**ked Up.

When I was in Japan in the late 60's, the SeaBees were working on some 
project on base in Yokosuka. We'd pass by the construction area every
morning on our way to work. For a number of weeks they had a big, fairly
professional looking sign reading 'Fubar Construction Company'.
-- 
Jerry Gaiser
         Usenet: jerryg@ssd.intel.com
        Fidonet: 1:105/380
           PBBS: n7pwf@n7pwf.or.usa.na
From: lawson@acuson.com (Drew Lawson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Eating Dogs
Date: 3 Sep 92 19:24:19 GMT
Reply-To: lawson@aldia.UUCP (Drew Lawson)
Organization: ACUSON, Mountain View, CA

In article <92246.150727WCE2@psuvm.psu.edu> WCE2@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>A couple of years ago, when I was in England, I saw an item in the
>TIMES that claimed that Orientals really did eat dogs as a delicacy,
>the dogs being first tied up and hung upside down, then slowly beaten
>to death.  The principle was that the adrenalin somehow tenderized the
>muscles and made the meat unusually tender.
>
>Despite the TIMES' general respectability, I assumed that this was "one
>of ours" and gave the cutting to another folklorist who was working on
>ethnic slurs.  Anyone else heard this (or can argue for its authenticity)?


I can add a small bit to this.

Earlier this year, about February or so, I heard a lot on the radio (in
Washington, DC, at the time) about an uproar concerning ski boots.
Some company was importing ski boots (Swiss, I think) which had fur
trim.  The fur was from dogs.  The defense was that this was a
byproduct of the dog meat industry.

Unfortunately, I do not recall the company name.  Perhaps this sparks
someone's memory?

Drew "How much are the ski boots in the window . . ." Lawson
-- 
Drew Lawson                      If you're not part of the solution,
lawson@acuson.com                you're part of the precipitate
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban