HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tsmith@skat.usc.edu (Nep Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Modern Mummies
Date: 8 Sep 1992 17:18:28 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: alt
NNTP-Posting-Host: skat.usc.edu

I hate my news reading program!

In a recent article, -somebody- wrote:
>>Due to the enormous amounts of preservatives that we eat in our modern
>>everyday lives, our bodies are taking longer and longer to degenerate
>>in the grave.

I had heard the same thing, but more specifically (don't you just love
that phrase?) had heard that it was evident in the Vietnam war, when
bodies of GIs took much longer to decompose than the Veitnamese killed
in the same battle.  Comments about what the Army was feeding these
fellows?

Nep "It probably tasted like chicken" Smith



-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Let's build a |  < Nep Smith >   |tsmith@skat.usc.edu -or-|"You've 
campfire, sing |I'm giving my body|921W30thSt.#6,LA,Ca -or-|got the
some songs..." |to science fiction|Ph#: (213) 747-8628 *<:)|right 1...
From: nielsen@crd.ge.com (Paul E. Nielsen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Bridges
Date: 11 Sep 92 20:21:56 GMT
	<SHAFER.92Sep9204620@ra.dfrf.nasa.gov>
	<1992Sep10.081055.20777@sq.sq.com>
Organization: GE Research, Schenectady NY


> [1] This is the Broughton bridge, near Manchester, England, which if I
>   remember correctly collapsed in 1815.  Another case was reported in
>   the newsgroup when this was being discussed before; it was in France,
>   later in the 19th century, and we were told that the collapse involved
>   a violent storm, so the span may simply have been overloaded.

According to "To Engineer is Human", within the context of bridge lore:
  "An early suspension bridge over the Maine River at Angers, France is said
  to have collapsed in 1850 under the marching step of five hundred
  soldiers.  The soldier's custom of breaking step when reaching a bridge
  is said to have stemmed from that accident."

and more recently
  "Such incidents may have been in the minds of those who advanced the
  theory that rhythmic dancing on the ill-fated skywalks of the Hyatt
  Regency Hotel caused them to udulate in ever-increasing ammounts until
  they fell."

PN
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: olt@elwood.isgs.uiuc.edu (Scott Olt)
Subject: Re: The Brady Bunch
Organization: Madame Tinkertoy's House of Blue Lights
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 07:22:13 GMT

In <88375@netnews.upenn.edu> crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:

>In article <1992Sep9.141421.13621@javelin.sim.es.com> gfowler@javelin.sim.es.com (Gary Fowler) writes:

[about the death of Robert Reed]
>>Yes, he did die a short time ago.  I can't remember the cause though.

>It was AIDS.  There was an article on the Bradys in People (where I
>get all _my_ true info), and they mentioned it there.d

Yup. _People_ got it right, for once...

--
Scott Olt                                  | Internet: sdo@uiuc.edu
Illinois State Geological Survey           | UUCP: uunet!uiucuxc!uiuc.edu!sdo
"Most people wouldn't know music if it came up and bit them on the ass."
                              -- Frank Zappa
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: stirling@ozrout.uucp (Stirling Westrup)
Subject: Re: A bird in the hand v. 10 birds in the FAQ
Organization: Andre P. Ozrout
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1992 04:35:45 GMT

cindy@solan10.solan.unit.no (Cynthia Kandolf) writes
>Jonathan Papai writes:
>>ObFACT : In 1906, a Pygmy was sold to the Bronx Zoo to sweeten a
>>deal for a chimpanzee.  They believed the Congolese man, named
>>Ota Benga, to be closer on the evolutionary scale to monkeys than
>>to humans.  Clergymen raised a fuss, and he was removed from
>>display after ten days and placed in an orphanage for black kids
>
>"Closer on the evolutionary scale to monkeys than humans"?  Monkeys
>are not simply "less evolved" humans.  Humans and monkeys evelved
>from a common ancestor... humans did not evolve from monkeys.
>Sorry, but i have a hard time accepting this story, and part of
>the reason is that claim.  Independent confirmation?

I can't confirm the bit about the Pygmy in the Zoo, but according to the
book "A History of the Sciences", Darwin's _Origin of the Species_ was
published in 1859, and became widely accepted in Britain (at least amongst
scientists) as correct within a couple of years.  America was far slower to
accept the teachings though, and as of 1895, there were still learned
scientists who opposed the work.  Among competing therories were ones in
which all life formed an unbroken chain of advancement (in which chimps were
seen, not as our ancestors, but as an inferior creature created on the road
to the building of mankind), as well as the theory that all higher
lifeforms were descended from lower lifeforms that still existed (ie.
Chimps really were our direct anscestors).  So, it is at least plausible
that there were anti-darwinian zookeepers around in 1906 who considered a
Pygmy to be just one small step better than an ape.
-- 
||    BUNGEE SIDEWAYS!                              o   )))
||                                                 /-- ///
|P~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\_  \\\      __ -_
||    stirling@ozrout.uucp                                 ((( (_)T(_)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lindaj@solbourne.com (Linda Weygant)
Subject: Re: Third to Be Bombed
Organization: Solbourne Computer, Inc., Longmont, CO
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 17:24:23 GMT

Everbody knows that the entire state of Colorado is really the third on the
list of places to be bombed (with frozen chickens?)  Some reasons why:

	1) NORAD
	2) Rocky Flats
	3) McDonnel Douglas
	4) Ball Aerspace (home of the space yo-yo that didn't work)
	5) Rocky Mountain Arsenal
	6) University of Colorado (the real center of academia)
	7) Air Force Academy
  Not to mention the fact that Colorado is the the best way to drive 
  cross-country-otherwise you have to go through New Mexico (almost as 
  boring as Nebraska) or try to negotiate the winding highways and urban sprawl  of Montana/Wyoming.

Linda "I'm rubber you're glue so nah nah nah nah nah" Weygant
lindaj@Solbourne.com
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Ann Landers stops an urban myth!
Date: 8 Sep 92 20:00:50 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

Gee, I heard that if it was the right hoof, the soldier was gay,
and if it was the left hoof, he was straight ... or maybe it was
the other way around.  

Now, if the horse was rearing ...


-- 
Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu

I believe we are on the irreversible trend toward more freedom and
democracy -- but that could change.   -- J. Danforth Quayle
From: stan@service.West.Sun.COM (Stan Galonski [Strategic Account Manager])
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Wild Chicken Flocks
Date: 8 Sep 92 23:00:17 GMT
Reply-To: stan@service.West.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: service.west.sun.com



In article 26170@dog.ee.lbl.gov, jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW) writes:
>>A truck driver with a load of chickens took a freeway offramp a bit
>>too fast and spilled his load, so to speak, blocking traffic for a few
>>hours and freeing a gaggle of chickens. Now, authorities -say- they
>>got all the chickens back, but some people to this day claim that they
>>see chickens wandering around in the shrubery 
>
>As you've noted, this sure sounds a lot like a UL.  But chicken
>sightings ("tastes just like iguana") might not be implausible,
>depending on the neighborhood, and might not have anything to do
>with the truck accident. A lot more livestock-type animals are
>kept in the cities and 'burbs than one might imagine.  Someone not 
>far from our old house in Vallejo had both chickens and goats, and 
>one night here in Berserkeley -- on the campus, no less -- I saw a 
>woman taking her rather large pig for a walk.
>
>Joe "Or maybe they're ghost chickens, trying to hitchhike" Chew


It's true, the Highway 101 chickens are alive and well in Los Angeles. They
are also being harvested and listed on the menu of LA's restaurants as
"free ranging chickens"tm, no durgs or hormones just eat the stuff on the
side of the road.

Stan
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: Re: Counterfeiting
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 92 00:14:55 GMT


I was hoping to have a newspaper article in hand to cite when writing
this, but I seem to have misplaced it.  Actually it was Slinger's column
in the Toronto Star, which sometimes has almost-deadpan tall tales in it,
but there is no indication this time that our legs were being pulled.

It seems that a few months ago a batch of counterfeit *loonies* turned
up in a major Canadian city!  That is, $1 coins.  Some 1500 of them were
detected.  And how were they detected?  Because the counterfeiters
neglected to make them the right *shape*!  Slinger's comment was to the
effect that it all seemed endearingly amateurish and very Canadian and
he figured they probably lost money anyway...

(Loonies do have a trickier shape than other North American coins: they
have 11 sides, each curved.  I believe the sides are arcs centered around
the respective opposite vertices, so that the whole outline is a curve
of constant breadth.  British 20p and 50p coins are like this, but with
7 sides.)
-- 
Mark Brader				"Every new technology carries with it
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto			 an opportunity to invent a new crime"
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com				-- Laurence A. Urgenson

This article is in the public domain.
From: sweeney@Ingres.COM (Tony Sweeney)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Counterfeitin'
Date: 9 Sep 92 15:56:02 GMT
Reply-To: sweeney@Ingres.COM (Tony Sweeney)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501

In article <1992Sep2.165412.8941@city.cs> matt@cs.city.ac.uk (Matthew G Sillitoe (Matt)) writes:
>
>UK notes only go down to \pound 5 but seem in another
>league (though the `computer aided' designers at the Royal Mint
>seem to have had a field-day on the number of fonts, typefaces
>and colours used on the new versions). French notes are quite nice
>too - the artwork really impresses the note's value.
>
But the nicest of all are the Irish ones.


>m
>--
>Matthew G Sillitoe                                email:  matt@cs.city.ac.uk
>Systems Architecture Research Centre,             tel: +44 71 477 8000 x3722
>City University, London EC1V 0HB, UK.             fax: +44 71 477 8587

Tony "Book of Kells" Sweeney.

ObUL. "Educating Rita" was filmed at Trinity College, Dublin.
From: cromar@math.rutgers.edu (Scott Cromar)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What makes an urban legend work?
Date: 8 Sep 92 17:52:30 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes:
> When did you see a seagull in an oven?

Right after Walt Disney threw in some Alka Seltzer so he could make a
snuff film of Sea Gulls exploding in a microwave oven.  He filmed from
the freezer.

--Scott
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: mjenkins@alfred.carleton.ca (Michael Jenkinson)
Subject: Re: Halcyon Predictions (was: Halcion
Organization: Carleton University
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 22:00:10 GMT

In <1992Sep13.210018.13677@henson.cc.wwu.edu> n9020351@henson.cc.wwu.edu (James Douglas Del-Vecchio) writes:

>Frederick.A.Ringwald@dartmouth.edu (Frederick A. Ringwald) writes:

>>In article <mjenkins.716221276@cunews>
>>mjenkins@alfred.carleton.ca (Michael Jenkinson) writes:

>>> Just recently there was a report in the papers from a psychiatrist or
>>> a psychologist who claimed Bush was on a major downer, suffering from
>>> clinical depression.

>>Doesn't anyone know for sure? For something this important, it's
>>worrisome.

>	If nobody knows for sure, then you can be sure it's not true.  

Uhhh...not quite. Do you think if Bush was suffering from clinical
depression the White House would announce it? That would 86 his
re-election for sure.

>	"a psychiatrist or a psychologist" has zero credibility as a
>source, because if he were in a position to know for a fact what drugs
>any particular person is taking, he would be in _no_ position to tell 
>anyone about it.  

I do believe in the original article the person involved was
identified as Dr. XYZ, of the MNOP Hospital, or QRST University.
Unfortunately, I don't have that article anymore. From what I remember
from it, the person was making the diagnosis based on Bush's
appearance, mannerisms, mood, etc. It was not a hard-and-fast
diagnosis based on a personal examination, but a diagnosis from afar,
based on what he had seen and heard from Bush.

Michael
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:23263 alt.great-lakes:629
From: dtasman@NMSU.edu (Dan Tasman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.great-lakes
Subject: Re: Highest Channel
Date: 10 Sep 92 22:10:44 GMT
Organization: New Mexico State University

pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin) writes:

: (I go into a paranoid fit about anti-Buffalonianism from Canadians :)

: It's nothing to do with recent events (like 'Anti Cross Border
: Shopping') as Dan suggests (in a part I deleted).  10 years ago, one
: constant item on the University of Waterloo Enginees Havenger Scunt
: list was a picture of a fire or a fire truck in Buffalo, Cheektawaga,
: N. Tonawanda, etc.  That, or an appearance on EyeWitless news with
: Irv.  I got the picture a couple of times, but I never could talk my
: way past the guard at the front on the Channel 7 studio.

It's amazing that Channel 7 news has such a following across the border.  One  
time, I had a date with a woman in Toronto.  As I walked into her house, her  
dad was watching Eyewitness News.  "Buffalo blaze busters battled a five bell  
burner at a Black Rock bar ..."

obUL - Cheektowaga is home of the legendary "Lawn Ornament Graveyard".
   
: (I think I still have my "Buffalo - Talking Loud" button.  I know I have a
: 'key' from the Playboy club in Buffalo, back when it was pretty hard for non
: members (especially scruffy Engineering students) to get in.)

Still have all three Talking Proud buttons ... the original white, the yellow,  
and the green one for St. Patrick's Day.  "Talking Proud" was from the  
miserable days of the early 80s, when unemployment was 15%, they couldn't keep  
a U-Haul truck in the city, and the Houston Chronicle (with its then extensive  
job listings) probably sold more papers in Buffalo then the Buffalo News.  

A few years ago there was "Buffalo, We're Looking Good!".  Of course,  
unemployment was something like 2%, Buffalo was considered one of the nation's  
top 10 moving destinations by Ryder, and Texas license plates are a fairly  
common sight.  I don't know what the new feel-good phrase is, probably  
something like "Only a two hour commute to Downtown Toronto" :)

another obUL - the Talking Proud campaign was dropped because the Buffalo  
Teacher's Federation complained, saying that the phrase should be "Talking  
Proudly" to reflect proper grammer


--
   Dan Tasman                                       dtasman@dante.nmsu.edu
                                                     molson@rever.nmsu.edu
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   "I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree
    Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all."
                                                                Ogden Nash
From: snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Fuel misers
Date: 12 Sep 92 01:20:17 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: Just put everything on the floor; I can find it.


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".

 - snopes

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
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|                                                                             |
| +  David Mikkelson  Digital Equipment Corporation, Culver City, CA  USA  +  |
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: schwae@barh1a.its.rpi.edu (Eric A. Schwartz)
Subject: Re: Notorious Toothpaste Skit
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 04:18:38 GMT

In article <1992Sep10.172818.8887@unislc.uucp> dw@unislc.uucp (Dan Wright) writes:
>For four years I attended a private co-ed boarding high school named
>Wasatch Academy.  During orientation at the beginning of each year,
>students were separated into groups presided over by faculty advisors,
>and each group was told to come up with and to practice a skit, which
>they would have to perform that evening for the rest of the school.
>Each year Mr. McGrew convinced his group of new students perform the
>same notorious skit.  Even though I have seen that skit four times I'm
>still not sure how he persuaded his students to do it.
>
It is refreshing to find a private school that isn't turning its students
into Moral Minority yuppie fuckwits. 

>On a small table are a glass of water, a toothbrush, and a tube of
>toothpaste.  The first performer comes on, squeezes some toothpaste onto
>the brush, and proceeds to brush his teeth.  He then rinses with the
>water, spitting it back into the cup.  The next performer comes on,
>squeezes more toothpaste onto the brush, brushes his teeth thoroughly,
>then uses the dirty water to rinse, again spitting it back into the cup.
>The audience gets more grossed out and groans more loudly as two other
>performers come on and further dirty the water in their turn.  The cup
>is looking positively sickening when the last performer comes on.  For
>this role Mr. McGrew would chose the prettiest, most dainty girl he
>could find.  After brushing her teeth, this girl does the unthinkable:
>she raises the filthy cup to her lips and drinks it all down, swallowing
>several times, till every last drop is gone.
>
>I can only imagine that McGrew has each of the students brush their
>teeth five times immediately before performing the skit.  I have also
>wondered whether the "toothpaste" was something more inert like
>cornstarch-paste.  Lastly I'll bet McGrew pays the girl who swallows
>something like 50 bucks (joke away with that line you clowns).
>
Maybe after he is finished and gives her the $50, she is willing to
drink it just to get the taste out of her mouth.  I mean, for $50, you
gotta swallow.
 
E.S.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: nasadk@aix.rpi.edu (Kristopher Martin Nasadowski)
Subject: Re: Bridges
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 03:52:24 GMT

[discussion of resonating bridges deleted]

When I was in my local Boy Scout Troop, we went camping and hiking in 
the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There was a bridge that we marched
across that we were able to get to resonate. Problem was, if you misstepped 
(or misspelled!) your foot would go down as the bridge was going up! Quite
painful. But if you fell in time with the bridge, you would spring up
about a foot. Real neat.

The bridge was a wooden one, with two piers near the banks and one in the     
middle. We marched two by two. 

Resonate a bridge? Yes. Cause it to collapse? Not unless you remain
in step, which is not easy to do.

Nazman
<nasadk@rpi.edu>
From: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Soc Security Number theory
Date: 4 Sep 92 22:45:40 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

hal@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Hal Wadleigh) writes:

> It's the MIDDLE digits that tell where the card was issued.  Those with a
> leading "0" are railroad retirement numbers (and some others, too).

No, it's the first 3 digits that tell where the card was issued or where
owner resided at the time (depending on date of issue).  Someone
recently posted a chart.  First digit = 7 are railroad retirement numbers.

-Mike
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.great-lakes
From: dtasman@NMSU.edu (Dan Tasman)
Subject: Re: Highest Channel
Organization: New Mexico State University
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 21:59:17 GMT

bill.dehaan@rose.com (bill dehaan) writes:

(I wrote)
: DT>ObUL ... The Buffalo suburb of North Tonawanda is continually ablaze.
 
: Not a UL. I see the proof daily on the news.

North Tonawanda is home to a great majority of the Buffalo area's lumberyards.   
The NT high school mascot is the lumberjack.  Couple that with the wood homes  
that dominate the Buffalo region (unlike Toronto, where most homes are made of  
brick) and the unique "journalistic style" of Channel 7 Eyewitness News, and  
it's no wonder Canadians think Buffalo is one big firestorm.  Also, there might  
be a conspiracy by the Anti-American-Buffalo-slamming-say-no-to-cross-border-  
shopping-don't-watch-American-TV-OV-beats-any-beer-from-the-States-the-Falls-
on-our-side-is-bigger-no-man-made-structure-is-taller-than-the-CN-tower-
Beachcombers-watching-our-money-is-prettier-our-(insert opposite sex  
here)-are-sexier-and-our-crime-rate-is-lower-than-yours-is-nyah-nyah-nyah  
crowd... Irv Weinstein, anchor of Eyewitness News, is originally from Toronto.   
Coincidence?  I THINK NOT!     

Incidentally, the arson wave on Buffalo's West Side in the late 70s and early  
80s had its benefits.  Most of the areas where the fires took place have been  
heavily gentrified, and the smouldering ruins of modest wood cottages have  
usually been replaced by new $200,000+ neo-Victorian homes.  Likewise, hundreds  
of new middle and upper-middle income homes have been built on the Lower East  
Side, where many buildings burned to cinders in the '60s.  Arson is relativly  
rare in Buffalo now, but it's more common than in Toronto.  Wood burns a lot  
faster than brick.  Adobe, meanwhile ... :) 

--
   Dan Tasman                                             dtasman@NMSU.edu
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   "I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree
    Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all."
                                                                Ogden Nash
From: baldwin@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil (J.D. Baldwin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: How are McNuggets made? <gag!>
Date: 14 Sep 92 13:26:23 GMT
	<1992Sep8.110751.224@zia.aoc.nrao.edu> <smith.87@panther.adelphi.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: Comp. Sci. Dep't., U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
In-reply-to: smith@panther.adelphi.edu's message of 11 Sep 92 19:53:26 GMT

>>They're not made, they're mined.
>
>They're not made, they're laid.

According to Mojo Nixon, Chicken McNuggets are the by-products from the
manufacture of Ed Meese Love Dolls.

I have yet to hear a more plausible explanation for these things.
--
 From the catapult of:              |+| "If anyone disagrees with anything I
   _,_  J. D. Baldwin, Comp Sci Dept|+| say, I am quite prepared not only to
 _|70|___:::)=}-  U.S. Naval Academy|+| retract it, but also to deny under
 \      /   baldwin@usna.navy.mil   |+| oath that I ever said it." --T. Lehrer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban