HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What makes an urban legend work?
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
Date: 29 Aug 92 02:21:00 GMT

hucke@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Matt Hucke) writes:

>In article <mcirvin.714854582@husc8> mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin) writes:
>>
>>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.

>Live?  But you said it was dead...

He had it extracted dead from a nonliving container on live news in the
presence of lifelike TV news droids.  No Styrofoam was involved.

Matt "clarificator extraordinaire" McIrvin

-- 
Matt McIrvin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
From: alex@bnkc08.Bell.CA (Alex Laney)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: 'Dear Abby' -- Urban legend pusher
Date: 2 Sep 92 18:41:11 GMT
Organization: Bell Canada - Ops Dvlpmt (Ntwk Systems)

Reprinted without permission from 'Dear Abby', as appeared in 'The
Ottawa Citizen', Sept. 2, 1992:

{

Dear Abby:

Many years ago, I read something in your column that affected me so
profoundly. I never forgot it. It was the article you ran about a young
boy who was enraged after receiving a Bible instead of a car he expected
on the occasion of his high school graduation.

Abby, please run that letter again for all of us who have ever let greed
get the best of us.

-- Amanda B. Warren, University of Kansas

Dear Amanda: Here it is:

	Dear Abby: The letter concerning the minister who, on receiving
	a pair of leather gloves for services rendered, was disappointed
	- until he discovered a $10 bill stuffed into each finger,
	reminded me of this story:

	A young man from a wealthy family was about to graduate from
	high school. It was the custom in that affluent neighbourhood
	for the parents to give the graduate an automobile. "Bill"
	and his father had spent months looking at cars, and the week
	before graduation they found the perfect car. Bill was certain
	the car would be his on graduation night.

	Imagine his disappointment when, on the eve of his graduation,
	Bill's father handed him a gift-wrapped Bible! Bill was so
	angry, he threw the Bible down and stormed out of the house.
	He and his father never saw each other again. It was the news
	of his father's death that brought Bill home again.

	As he sat one night, going through his father's possessions
	that he was to inherit, he came across the Bible his father
	had given him. He brushed away the dust and opened it to find
	a cashier's check, dated the day of his graduation - in
	the exact amount of the car they had chosen together.

		-- Beckah Fink, Texas.

	Dear Beckah: I hope Bill read the Bible cover to cover, for
	it contained much he needed to learn: "A foolish son is a
	grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him."
	(Proverbs 17:25)


}

Does this sound like a Sunday School story?? I can just imagine a
'dramatic reading' of Beckah Fink's story.
From: jlpicard@austin.ibm.com (Craig Becker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: 26 Aug 92 14:37:05 GMT
Reply-To: craigb@ot.austin.ibm.com
Organization: IBM Object Technology Products
Originator: jlpicard@woofer.austin.ibm.com


[SNAFU/FUBAR stuff deleted]

Don't forget the ever-applicable BOHICA, which 
means Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.

Craig
-- 
-- "You can expect virtually      Craig Becker, Object Technology Products --
--  anything from a people who had      Internet: craigb@ot.austin.ibm.com --
--  nuclear weapons in the early      IBM TR: craigb@woofer.austin.ibm.com --
--  seventeenth century."                           VNET: CRAIGB at AUSVM1 --
From: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM (Brian Scearce)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: 'Dear Abby' -- Urban legend pusher
Date: 3 Sep 92 19:21:08 GMT
Reply-To: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems
NNTP-Posting-Host: sector7g

Alex laney quoting the _Ottawa Citizen_ quoting "Dear Abbey" quoting
one of her readers:
> He brushed away the dust and opened [the rejected Bible] to find a
> cashier's check, dated the day of his graduation - in the exact amount
> of the car they had chosen together.

So *how* long does one have to cash a cashier's check?

>	Dear Beckah: I hope Bill read the Bible cover to cover, for
>	it contained much he needed to learn: "A foolish son is a
>	grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him."
>	(Proverbs 17:25)

"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father [...] And a
man's foes shall be they of his own household." (Matt 10:35-36).

Brian "No middle name -- I'll let The Big Guy have the last Word" Scearce
---
Brian Scearce                               bls@sector7g.eng.sun.com
        The above does not necessarily represent Sun policy.
          It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.
From: jordan@castor.cs.uga.edu (Chuck Jordan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Of Butterflys and Hurricanes
Date: 26 Aug 92 02:37:40 GMT
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens

In article <1992Aug24.112301.1@ulkyvx.louisville.edu> amconn01@ulkyvx.louisville.edu writes:
>A butterfly fluttering in Tokyo can
>cause a storm in New York two weeks later. I realize that this is a gross
>oversimplication of sensitivity to initial conditions in any long-term,
>multivariable modeling system, but is there any truth to this at all, if _all_
>variables can be accounted for?

This is, I think, a pretty basic idea of chaos theory.  The idea is that
everything, even in such a "small" environment as Earth, interrelates with
everything else, so it is impossible to make a long-term projection of 
anything in nature (like weather.)

If you'd like to Read More About It, I'm sure you could find some book about
chaos theory by the guy who first proposed it, but that stuff is usually 
over my head, and I would recommend:  _Jurassic Park_ by Michael Crichton.
It's a great novel, I think, and really exciting, as well as having some
point to it.  The whole plot of the book is based on chaos theory and the
idea that it's really pointless for us to think that we can ever account
for EVERY variable concerned and make any kind of long-term projection.  In
other words, I recommend it highly.  (I really doubt the movie will be
that deep, by the way.)

>When I sneezed two weeks ago, did that cause
>Hurricane Andrew?

I would keep quiet about that.  You could be charged with several million
dollars worth of property damage.

Chuck "What could possibly go wr -- wr-- wrAAAAAHH CHOO!" Jordan

-- 
                  Chuck Jordan | jordan@castor.cs.uga.edu
SPY Magazine's 1,000 Reasons Not to Vote for George Bush:
NO 632: In 1988 he said that "most" of the homeless were mentally ill.
NO 634: In 1993 he plans to spend no money on public housing.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Subject: Re: The Flat Earth Society???
Organization: Famed Parquet Floor
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 02:00:47 GMT

In article <l9q3n1INN88p@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM writes:
>It *is*, in
>fact, a very interesting phenomenon that most of us think that the
>Earth is spherical, and almost none of us have direct experience of its
>roundness, or even know anybody who has direct experience of its
>roundness.
>
I'm not sure what "direct" means, but most of us have, in our travels,
been able to gather quite a bit of evidence.  Two examples:

1.  Whenever I travel to the East Coast,  I notice that the sun rises
    about three hours earlier than I would have expected.  The locals
    notice this, too, and even fudge their watches to compensate.

2.  On one trip to Seattle on a sunny June day, I noticed that it didn't
    get dark until 10:00 PM or so, when a thousand miles or less further
    South it was dark by 9.

Both of these observations are both consistent with the spherical-earth
hypothesis and, within hand-waving range, of the alleged radius of the
orb.  The alternate hypotheses I can think of to support them seem really
dumb.

So I have some direct evidence that this is true.  And a whole lot of 
indirect evidence.

If the only evidence I had were the word of a few dozen astronauts, I'd
have many more doubts.

Phil "Please: We aren't allowed to have sophomoric 'What is Proof' 
arguments on a.f.u.  No smilies, and no swipa's" 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: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Subject: Re: Why crescent moons? (was Re: You are humble and loveable. CHOMP!)
Organization: Famed Parquet Floor
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 05:42:03 GMT

In article <l9o08cINNir4@jethro.Corp.Sun.COM> geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) writes:
>In article <BtM1My.CHy@acsu.buffalo.edu> ptyaxel@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu 
>(Seymour Axelrod) writes:
>>Backwards?  Aren't waxing crescents concave to the left, and waning ones 
>>concave to the right?  
>Not in the western part of the country.  You're thinking of another 
>phenomenon, known as the Eastern Moon.  It's the reverse out here.
>You're not taking latitude and polar precession into account.
 
Now, let me get this straight.  The moon looks one way seen from Boston
and the other seen from San Francisco?  Does it look halfway in between
from Omaha?

Latitude? Precession? Sounds like bullshit to me.

Phil "Perhaps I'm ignoring the locations of the East and West poles,
who slip my mind at the moment" 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."                     |
From: gfm@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (George Francis McBay)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What makes an urban legend work?
Date: 4 Sep 92 08:37:51 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization

In article <laco87INN5rd@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM writes:
>OK, George, here's the WingDings mapping for the upper-case letters
>(courtesy of Joe Morris).  I'd like for you to come up with an
>alternate mapping, and then we can all have fun exhibiting *your*
>hidden agenda.

	Well I'm not much into font layout/design.  The problem is that
this sequence seems a bit too coincidental.   If the keymaps are like you
posted, typing NYC would give:  Skull&CrossBones, StarOfDavid, ThumbsUp
which is easily seen as "dead jew good", or "Only good jew is a dead jew"
or some other anti-Semetic statement.  In a way, it seems like one of those
things crazy people look for, like the KKK on the marlboro box that was posted.
But when you consider NYC (New York City) is a well-known Jewish "center" in 
the USA, it makes you wonder.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: duncan@yc.estec.esa.nl (Duncan Gibson)
Subject: Re: Abandoned/Booby Trapped Aircraft hangars
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 07:45:18 GMT
Organization: ESTEC/YCV, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Along similar lines...

During WWII, a ship called the Montgomery was sunk in the Thames
estuary. It was carrying munitions, and I don't know whether it is
designated as a war-grave, or because it is just too unsafe to salvage,
but it is still there...
-- 
Duncan Gibson, ESTEC/YCV, Postbus 299, 2200AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Preferred email:  duncan@yc.estec.esa.nl    or  ...!sun4nl!esatst!duncan
Desperate email:  dgibson@estec.esa.nl      or  dgibson@ESTEC.BITNET
From: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us (S. Mudgett aka little gator)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Monty Python's 3-sided ?
Date: 1 Sep 92 13:51:22 GMT
	<Btv7M2.9vD@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <31AUG199217031756@apsicc.aps.edu>
Reply-To: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us
Organization: gators 'r us
X-Software: HERMES GUS 1.03 Rev. Apr 14 1992

In <31AUG199217031756@apsicc.aps.edu>, E. Drew Einhorn writes:

>
>I heard it was a 3-sided record.  One side had a norm spiral groove with the
>audio signal pressed into the vinyl.  The other side had two intertwined
>grooves.  When you put the needle down you had a 50-50 chance of getting one
>groove or the other.  So the second time you listened to the second side you
>might hear a different second side.  Never saw or heard the album.  
>
>Wonder if it's a true story.  Would have required a special lathe to cut the
>master disk.
sigh. it is true. i own a copy, and have both seen and heard it.
-- 
-- little gator aka s. mudgett     email: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us
-- friend of a gator is a friend of mine
From: zimm@hmivax.humgen.upenn.edu (Laurie Zimmerman, HHMI, Univ. of Pa.)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Highest Channel
Date: 31 Aug 92 17:56:42 GMT
Organization: HHMI/Human Genetics, Univ of Pa.

In article <1992Aug28.184014.21827@news.iastate.edu>, glitto@iastate.edu (Scott M Klabacha) writes:
> 
> All this talk of TV channels beyond 54 has gotten me wondering...
> 
> What's the highest-numbered channel that has been used? 
> 
> Hmmm.... 
> ***gLITTOfERN*** glitto@iastate.edu


well, glitto, in good ol' lancaster county, pa  (home of the pa dutch amish and
mennonites)  we used to get (not all that clearly) a channel *69* which as i
recall dealt with christian topics... i don't know where the channel was based.
what do you expect from a county with towns named Paradise, Intercourse, and
Bird-in-Hand???  

laurie "really!" zimmerman
upenn
genetics
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Thomas Crapper and Spread Spectrum
From: rocher@husc8.harvard.edu (Jean-Marc Rocher)
Date: 29 Aug 92 18:05:56 EDT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

In article <7844@public.BTR.COM> grady@btr.BTR.COM (Grady Ward  grady@btr.com) writes:
>Does anyone know the origin of the "Thomas Crapper"
>(as in inventor of the toilet) myth?

    I believe this started with the book "Flushed with Pride: The Life of Thomas Crapper", by the same person who wrote "Bust Up: The Life of Otto Titzling"
(The supposed inventor of the bra). I also believe that Cecil Adams wrote that
these two books were full of it. 

>
>Also, can anyone verify or debunk the notion
>that Hedy Lamarr (the actress) holds the
>original Spread Spectrum patent in the 40's?
>
>Thanks!  grady@btr.com
>.
>
		...Jean-Marc "I have no idea what Spread Spectrum is" Rocher
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jfreter@triton.unm.edu (The Myth)
Subject: Re: You are humble and loveable.  CHOMP!
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 92 16:56:33 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <1992Aug23.060245.2606@rigel.econ.uga.edu> jordan@castor.cs.uga.edu (Chuck Jordan) writes:
>Why is this?  What is this supposed to prove?  Is a fake coin supposed to
>be harder/softer/hurt your dental work/what?  Is it to make sure it's not
>one of those chocolate pirate pennies?
>

Gold is a soft metal in its pure form.  But, when the gold is alloyed with
other metals, it gets harder and less easily bent/dented.  So, the bite test
is used to see if you're dealing with a coin that is pure gold or one that
is alloyed.  The only thing wrong with doing this is that gold can be 
alloyed with lead which will make it slightly less dense and not change its
hardness much.  And we all know what happens when you injest lead compounds.

The best test for the purity of the gold would be to drill a very small hole
into the center and drip some 2 Molar HCl.  The gold won't dissolve, but
any zinc, tin, silver, lead, or other metals ('cept platinum) will dissolve.
Just don't mix the HCl with HNO3 under heat, or you'll lose the gold, too.
From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: 25 Aug 1992 19:51:52 GMT
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Reply-To: TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.12.117

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

Army folk are fond of saying that it is an abbreviation for either 
"situation normal, all fouled up" or "situation normal, all faq'd
...er...f*cked up".

Terry "How about 'posh'?" Chan
--
Internet:  TWChan@lbl.gov	       Next to being witty yourself, the best 
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory               thing is to quote another's wit.
Berkeley, California  USA  94720                        -- er, I forget who    
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: seanna@bnr.ca (Seanna Watson)
Subject: Re: Chef Boy-Ar-Dee commercial
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 17:06:28 GMT

In article <1992Aug26.125155.14833@sco.COM> simon@sco.COM (Simon Tooke) writes:
>
>	we're having Beef-a-roni;
>	Cheese and Macaroni!
>	Beef-a-roni-getti,
>	(mumble mumble something, fade to quiet)
>
This jingle is to a different tune (not one that I have heard anywhere
else unlike the Bells of St. Clemens.  Here are the words I remember:


We're having beef-a-roni,
Made with macaroni,
Beef-a-roni's good to eat.
Beef-a-roni's made with meat.
Beef-a-roni's fun to eat.
Hurray!
For beef-a-roni.

(The things one's mind retains after 25 years....)

-- 
Seanna Watson   Bell-Northern Research, 
(seanna@bnr.ca) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Opinions, what opinions?  Oh *these* opinions. | It's hard to seize the
No, they're not BNR's, they're mine.           | day when you must first
I knew I'd left them somewhere.                | grapple with the morning.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: hucke@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Matt Hucke)
Subject: Re: What makes an urban legend work?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 01:38:28 GMT

In article <mcirvin.714854582@husc8> mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin) writes:
>
>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.

Live?  But you said it was dead...

ObUL:  A medical student sued the mortuary that provided him with a cadaver,
after finding a gerbil in its rectum.
-- 
And now, Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey:
    If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, go real limp, so people will think
    you're a dummy, and they'll try to catch you, because hey, free dummy!
hucke@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu             _V_a_l_h_a_l_l_a BBS, 217-352-3682, WWIV4.21, 14.4k
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 15:07:27 EDT
From: <WCE2@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Eating Dogs
 <85vpblmh@csv.warwick.ac.uk> <1992Aug31.190030.16394@news.nd.edu>
 <1992Sep1.071446.25598@wixer.cactus.org>

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)?

Bill Ellis
FOAFtale News
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: me@csri.toronto.edu (Daniel R. Simon)
Subject: Re: Gold coins (Was: Re: You are humble and loveable.  CHOMP!)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Date: 31 Aug 92 18:37:26 GMT

In article <1992Aug29.001818.1084@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com> billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
>me@csri.toronto.edu (Daniel R. Simon) writes:
>: 
>: It appears my statement was slightly ambiguous.  What I meant to say was that
>: I doubted that gold coins had been in *common* circulation at any time in the
>: *recent* past.  As far as I know, fairly trustworthy government-backed 
>: currency of low intrinsic material value (paper money, for instance) has been
>: the norm for quite some time (certainly in North America, and also in Europe,
>: with rare, short-lived exceptions).  Gresham's law would therefore dictate 
>:that any coin made of an intrinsically valuable material such as gold would 
>:rapidly have exited from common circulation, even if given the status of 
>:legal tender.  Was the ten-dollar gold coin really in *common* use as legal 
>:tender in 1837?  
>
>Gold coins (including the ten-dollar coin) were in circulation into the 1920s,
>at least. They only went out of circulation when the government took our
>currency off the gold standard and made it a crime to possess gold. Before
>that time, our national currency had been based on valuable metal - you could
>turn in a paper certificate anytime and get gold or silver in return.

I am well aware that gold coins have recently been, and in some cases
still are, *legal tender*.  Canada minted a twenty-dollar gold coin in
1967 as part of its centennial series, and I have no reason to believe
that it is not still legal currency here.  However, it is highly
doubtful that anyone was foolish enough to spend one, even during the
brief period when its gold content was actually worth less than its
face value.  Hence my doubts that gold coins were in *common
circulation* at any time in the recent past.  The instinct to hoard
currency of intrinsic material value, and instead spend materially
worthless counterparts of equal face value (paper money, for instance)
is quite universal; the government's promise of convertibility cannot
compete with the reality of a lump of pure gold in one's hand.  (So
argued Gresham, anyway.)

Disclaimer:  A mild congenital disorder prompted my post of an utterly 
	     unfounded speculation about the origin of the phrase, 
	     "don't take any wooden nickels".


"There *is* confusion worse than death"		Daniel R. Simon
			     -Tennyson		(me@theory.toronto.edu)
From: cromar@math.rutgers.edu (Scott Cromar)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Taking Your Sports Seriously
Date: 3 Sep 92 04:52:49 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.


El Salvador and Honduras once fought a war over a disputed soccer
game.  (Actually, the game was an excuse for the countries to fight
over disputed stretches of forest.)  Just out of curiousity, have any
other wars been fought over sports matches?  Or is soccer the only
sport to have inspired so much loyalty in its fans?

--Scott "sore loser" Cromar
From: ceb@dbrus.Unify.Com (Caroline E. Bryan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Gold coins (Was: Re: You are humble and loveable.  CHOMP!)
Date: 25 Aug 92 20:34:10 GMT
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organization

In article <1992Aug25.103546.12825@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> me@csri.toronto.edu (Daniel R. Simon) writes:
>
>...  Gold coins haven't been in 
>common circulation for a very long time (if they ever were)

You speak of geological time, I take it.

Gold coins in circulation in 850 A.D. have been found in archeological digs
in Great Britain, where gold coins *were* rare in ancient times.  (I'd give
the source if this weren't a.f.u.)  They were much more common much earlier
in Europe, North Africa, the Mid-East, etc.  In the USA gold coins were
common in circulation before and after 1837 (the date on the $10 gold coin
my great-great-aunt Callie left me).  Gold coins in the US were recalled only
when the USA went off the gold standard.  In geological time this is only a
flash in the pan (as it were), but then so is all the rest of human history.


Carrie		ceb@rechenau.unify.com	x6244   ------------------------------+
|   "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then there will be   |
|   peace."					-- Anon.		      |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+