HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ptrei@bistromath.mitre.org (Peter Trei)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Testing the Truth of a Computer UL
Date: 21 Dec 92 14:39:33 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corporation

In article <1992Dec21.032105.2939@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>UL: Peter Trei greps for "Mason".

     Wow! I'm a legend! :-)	 

     Mark this one T fnord. I've never denied this (doesn't that make
it an "urban truism" rather than a legend?).  I don't use grep
anymore.  I've written a Perl script which pulls every unseen news
message from a large selection of groups daily, and searches for
"mason", among other things. It runs in the wee hours of the night
(and is a pig for the news server).

     Here's the log summary from a recent run:

groups: 1627  articles: 17529  lines: 977808  bytes: 43151979 duplicates: 37
6187 bytes/sec, 116 mins

    The program flagged 130 articles (throwing out another 37 as
crossposts), and suggested checking 18 of them, of which I read 6 and
I think 3 actually had information of interest.

     In case you're wondering why I do this, I am an active Freemason,
and the editor of the Masonic Digest mailing list (for more info drop
me a line). I've made it a hobby to track down inaccurate statements
concerning Freemasonry on the net and when I feel it's appropriate,
to respond.

>Alternate UL: There are Masons assigned to read every single newsgroup to
>inform Peter Trei when misinformation about Masons is posted.

     F. I don't need any help for English-language usenet newgroups.
However, I am, like most Americans, effectively monolingual. I
frequently see tantalizing stuff in foreign language newsgroups (eg:
right now in soc.culture.turkish), which I can't read, and would love
help on.  Also, if people find stuff in mailing lists, I'd appreciate
being forwarded a copy.

>Ted "But what happens when rec.arts.movies discusses 'Lolita'?" Frank

     Nothing much. There's a throwout list (otherwise I'd read
everything from George Mason University, for example).  If the only
"interesting" strings in a flagged message are on the list, I don't
get told about it (that's where the 130 -> 18 cut came in).

>ted frank                     | thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu 
>standard disclaimers          | void where prohibited
>the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637

						Peter Trei
						Master, Wilder Lodge
						Ancient Free & Accepted Masons
						Leominster, MA
						Editor: Masonic Digest

						ptrei@mitre.org

Disclaimer: Anyone who thinks that this has something to do with my
employer probably has other interesting delusions as well.
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:31853 rec.food.cooking:23711
From: cc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Chris Cooke)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.food.cooking
Subject: Re: Don't tell them the recipe's from the Mrs. Field's cookbook
Date: 22 Dec 92 16:27:50 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

In article <1992Dec21.181043.29600@nntp.nta.no> styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo) writes:

   Pro. equip. I can understand, but what is pro. ingredients (part from
   snake oil)? Is it a polite way of saying "secret ingredient", or do
   pro. cooks have a license to buy things ordinary people must do without.

   C'mon, I've been working with pro. chefs that never brought anything
   special into the kitchen except the odd "secret spice mix". Ok, I do
   have things in my kitchen that I have to buy at the chemist rather than
   at the local supermarket, but - pro. ingredients???

Yes, but Mrs. Fields aren't exactly chefs - they're industrial food
processors, and they must make hundreds of tons of cookies per day.  I'd
imagine that "professional ingredients" means substances which have been
designed in a laboratory to be cheap, convenient to manufacture, and to last
a long time.  Oh, and which taste acceptable. :-)
--
	-- Chris. 	cc@dcs.ed.ac.uk   (on Janet, cc@uk.ac.ed.dcs)
From: jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu (Joel K. Furr)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The El (Was: Re: Conductivity of water <plus a story from Uncle Dave>)
Date: 22 Dec 92 19:36:54 GMT
Organization: Virginia Center for Lemur Fandom (subscribe to alt.fan.lemurs TODAY)

In article <13698@optilink.COM> manley@optilink.COM (Terry Manley) writes:
>In article <BzJ394.J5F@polaris.async.vt.edu> jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu (Joel K. Furr) writes:
>>In article <13695@optilink.COM> manley@optilink.COM (Terry Manley) writes:
>>>I lived in Chicago for a while quite near the "L".  For those of you
>>>who don't know the "L" is an (extremely noisy) electric train system
>>>employing a third rail.  
>>
>>Interestingly, it's called the El because it's an elevated train.  Not the
>>"L"... the El.
>
>WEl I haven't been there since '79 and the brain tends to wipe out
>unpleasant memories!  I was undecided as to whether it was "L" or
>"El" - did it stand for "Electric" or "Elevated" or  "Loupe"
>as in "The Loupe".  For those of you that don't know, "The Loupe"
>is the downtown area of Chicago.

Well, no, it's not, but the "Loop" is.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.space
From: dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com (Dave Jones)
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban,sci.space
Organization: Vonnegut Tent Rentals, Inc.
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 14:39:47 GMT

bill nelson (billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com) wrote:
> jfurr@nyx.cs.du.edu (JKF) writes:
> : In article <1992Dec21.211902.4322@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com> billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
> 
> : >: or near miss in about 4 billion years. Working backwards they should also
> : >: have collided about 2 billion years ago (c. 1/2 the estimated age of the
> : >: solar system). Some people speculate that Pluto is an asteroid that was
> : >: captured by Neptune at this time.
> : >
> : >Yeah - some people do make such a speculation. The same ones who ignore the
> : >fact that Pluto has a moon. Also, the same people ignore the fact that none
> : >of the asteroids travel anywhere close to that far out. They are pretty much
> : >confined between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars.
> : 
> : Sorry, Bill, but there are many planetoids and asteroids that orbit beyond
> : the orbit of Jupiter.  One such is a minor planet called Chiron.  There
> : are quite a few others as well.
> 
> Note that I said "pretty much".
> 
> There certainly are some that travel outside the orbit of Jupiter - as well
> as inside the orbit of the Earth. However, I know of none that travel outside
> the orbit of Saturn, much less any of the planets further out.
> 
> Bill

Well, stay tuned.  Object 1992QB1 is reckoned to be a good candidate for a
distant (40-50 A.U.) minor planet and may be the first of many discovered at
that distance.


--
||------------------------------------------------------------------------
||Dave Jones (dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com)|Eastman Kodak Co. Rochester, NY  |
From: joltes@husc10.harvard.edu (Richard Joltes)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: WAY stupid things to do with guns (was self-i
Date: 23 Dec 92 15:00:16 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

dwight@locus.com writes:

[I wrote]

>|> Dick "doesn't rhyme with `volts'" Joltes 		joltes@husc.harvard.edu
>
>I never thought "Dick" rhymed with "volts" at all.  Oh.  You mean the other one.  Well,
>what does it rhyme with then?

Happily, not a blessed thing.  Although 90% of those surveyed (who also believe
that 78.5% of all statistics are made up) seem to think that the "e" in my last
name is silent; hence they tend to pronounce it as "Jolts."  No relation to
the cola manufacturers, either, although I've considered pressing suit for 
name similarity just to cause trouble.

>|> "Mind you, not as bad as the night Archie Pettigrew ate some
>|> sheep's testicles for a bet...God, that bloody sheep kicked him..."
>
>I still get some great mental images whenever I see that one.
>
>	/dwight

I've received at least 20 messages commenting on that quote and asking for the
source.  Interest is now high enough to warrant the advent of the Archie 
Pettigrew Fan Club.  The membership fee is, of course, two-fifty, and the sole
purpose of the group is to find the origin (if possible) of the quote so folks
can calm down.

And no, I don't know where it came from.  I heard the joke years ago and found
it again in a quotes file 'bout 3 years back.  The rest is history...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dick "achieving net.godhood along with Kibo, but I doubt I'll ever found my
own religion" Joltes					joltes@husc.harvard.edu
Hardware & Networking Manager, Computer Services 	joltes@husc.bitnet 
Harvard University Science Center

"Mind you, not as bad as the night Archie Pettigrew ate some
sheep's testicles for a bet...God, that bloody sheep kicked him..."
From: rrd@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Ray Depew)
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 17:32:50 GMT
Subject: Honest Engineers
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban

From AIChExtra, December 1992 (typos are mine):

While only 12 percent of people polled say honesty and ethical standards 
are high for US senators and congressional representatives, 45 percent 
think that description fints America's enginers.  As reported in the 
October 1 issue of 'USA TODAY', doctors were the only professional group
to outrank (at 54 percent) engineers in the honesty and ethics sweepstakes.
College teachers tied with engineers.  Journalists came in at 26 percent;
lawyers, 22 percent [apologies to Dick Schulze]; business executives, 21
percent; and building contractors, 20 percent.


Merry merry.
Ray
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: obrien@netcom.com (Robert O'Brien)
Subject: Re: AFU Flan Cub
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 05:56:29 GMT

Sheesh!  Now we gotta change the FAQ "Official foods of AFU" list again...


flan ingredients: sugar, calcium carrageenan and locust bean gum (thickeners),
salt, altificial flavor and color (contains yellow 5 and red 40).
sauce ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, sugar, caramel syrup, caramel 
color.         -my box of Nabisco "Royal flan caramel custard"


	Bob "always stir *my* custards with a steel spoon" O'Bob
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.space
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: asteroids beyond Jupiter
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 06:30:13 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <1992Dec26.045333.29799@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com> billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
>I assume that the asteroids in the orbit of Jupiter are called "Trojan"
>because they are all at the two stable Trojan points in Jupiter's orbit.

Actually, vice versa.  The Trojan asteroids are called that because they
were named after heroes of the Trojan War.  The Trojan points got *that*
name *from* the Trojan asteroids, which were the first known actual
examples of objects in those positions.

Trivia dept:  the discoverers of the Trojan asteroids originally intended
that those in one Trojan point be named after the Greek heroes and those in
the other after the Trojan heroes.  Alas, one hero got mis-located by
accident fairly early on, and the two groups got mixed up after that.
-- 
"God willing... we shall return."       | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
       -Gene Cernan, the Moon, Dec 1972 |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: ldoering@engin.umich.edu (Laurence Doering)
Subject: Re: I Live to FAQ!
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 19:35:37 EST
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

In article <1992Dec22.194453.27356@cbnewsd.cb.att.com> barth@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (barth.richards) writes:
>
>The numbers and letters do, in fact correspond to the Federal Reserve Bank
>that issues the note.  The large black letter that appears in the middle of
>the Federal Reserve Bank seal (the black seal to the left of the portrait),
>the letter at the beginning of the serial number, and the four black numbers
>that appear towards each of the four corners, but still within the white
>area of the bill, all correspond to the issuing Federal Reserve Bank.  The
>banks are numbered (and lettered in the order in which they were
>established.  An incomplete list of the banks (going by what I presently
>have in my wallet) follows:

Well, lessee...  according to the contents of _my_ wallet, the following
gaps are filled:

>          Boston, MA             1     A
           New York, NY           2     B
           Philadelphia, PA       3     C
>          Cleveland, OH          4     D
>                                 5     E
           Atlanta, GA            6     F
>          Chicago, IL            7     G
>                                 8     H
           Minneapolis, MN        9     I
>                                10     J
>                                11     K
>          San Francisco, CA     12     L

Also, looking closely at Lincoln's beard (on my Minneapolis $5 bill, series
1988 A), you can see the name "Nina" several times in the cross-hatching.
Was Al Hirschfeld responsible for the design or something?

Larry "Einbahnstrasse" Doering
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: thumper@engin.umich.edu (Bob Topping)
Subject: Re: Ethnicity & Soc.Secur.No.
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 92 00:33:27 EST
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

In article <92360.195253MIWHC@CUNYVM.BITNET> <MIWHC@CUNYVM.BITNET> writes:
>The story I heard is that the 1950s era government rigged the social security
>system so that any government agent or knowledgeable employer or banker could
>tell the ethnicity of someone by the middle two numbers. An -06-, -52-, -32-,
>-12- or any other EVEN middle number belongs to Blacks, Hispanics, Jews,
>Asians, etc. Any ODD middle number (e.g.  -67-, -43-, -07-) shows its owner
>to be a WASP of reasonably pure upbringing.
>   I asked around and could find very few odd middle numbers. My results:
>
>     * EVERY even-numbered peson was either, Black, Hispanic, Jewish, Asian,
>       Roman Catholic, Greek, or other Eastern European.
>     * EVERY odd-numbered person I found was white. A few were half Jewish
>       or half Roman Catholic.
>
>    Coincidence or not, I would like to know what other people have
>found about this and the results of their informal surveys.
>    I do know that the Social Security System has records to do such
>encoding, they used to know about ethnicity before the various rules of the
>70s disallowed such mandatory questions.
>

  Just to add my own two pence to this:

  My middle SS# is 90, and I'm a first generation WASP.  My dad is from
Wigan, England, and came here in 1927.  C'est la vie...

  Happy Holidays!
    --Bob "My ancestors fought the Revolution from the OTHER side" Topping


-- 
@ "Our lives are better left to chance;  ****      PLEASE!  E-Mail to:       @
@   I could have missed the pain, but    ****  bob.topping@um.cc.umich.edu   @
@   I'd have had to miss the dance."     ****  phy_astrclub@emunix.emich.edu @
@  Garth Brooks, The Dance.   @>-,'--    ****     :::RETURN OUR HURON!:::    @ 
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:31908 rec.arts.startrek.misc:12987
From: cri@acsu.buffalo.edu (Mr. PlEaSanT)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.startrek.misc
Subject: Re: Sex, the Final Frontier?
Date: 22 Dec 92 21:38:37 GMT
Organization: We here at the Asylum don't think about that.
 School Groups: Treasurer A.R.S.A.
  Affiliations: None. I don't like anyone.
 Project: Twisting the minds of America's youth
 Where: Wish I could tell you...

twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan) writes (re: gay trek stories):

>Can anyone provide any further enlightenment on this point?

	They even have a general name ; "K-S stories" (for Kirk-Spock).
They're not just trek  either, there are Star Wars K-S (Luke and Han generally)
and others.  There are whole fanzines devoted to various K-S stories.  It's a
subculture in and of itself.

Criss "Gay Vulcans and the Captains Who Love Them" Invidiata

"Lie down on the floor and stay calm."
		-J.Dillinger
cri@acsu.buffalo.edu

 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: dst@hardy.u.washington.edu (Dale Tanigawa)
Subject: Re: Net's Funniest Kitchen Disasters
Organization: Care Bear Dismemberment Society
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 11:45:27 GMT

>>roder@cco.caltech.edu (Brenda J. Roder) writes:
>>> Supposedly when the first dishwashing liquid came out, someone in 
>>> Cincinnati (home of Proctor and Gamble who probably came out with said
>>> liquid), dumped a case of the stuff into the big fountain downtown.  

There are a few legends here at the UW involving Drumheller Fountain, which
is bordered on one side by the chemistry building.  Drumheller is a nice
big pondish sized fountain.  One of the legends is that someone launched a
can of sodium from the chemistry building into the fountain---sodium reacts
explosively with water.  The other is slightly more entertaining.  Supposedly,
a grad student dumped a failed experiment in the fountain where it reacted
with all the duck shit to become something else entirely.  The resulting
substance was a flourescent orange-yellow, and heavier than water so you
couldn't see it from looking from above (due to aforementioned duck shit).
When the fountain was turned on for its daily display, it sucked the stuff
off the bottom and spewed it into the air, resulting in a nice orangey-yellow
water plume, and lots of flourescent glow-in-the-dark ducks.


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: antunes@astro.psu.edu (Sandy Antunes)
Subject: Re: Mother Lifts Car Off Child. Uh huh.
Organization: Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Penn State University
	<1992Dec31.094204.16484@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com>
	<1992Dec31.141457.15840@panix.com> <28182@dog.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 01:39:19 GMT

Re: cars bursting into flame on TV and in real life...

I guarantee that cars can burst into flame, and not just on TV.
Mine did (VW Bug) while I was driving it through Pennsylvania...

Cheers

Sandy "flameproof" antunes
alex@astro.isas.ac.jp
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:31999 talk.bizarre:42858
From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,talk.bizarre
Subject: Re: Walking Between Rain Drops !!!!
Date: 23 Dec 1992 19:31:55 GMT
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Distribution: usa
Reply-To: TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.12.117

Commenting on one of his appellations dwight@locus.com writes:

  +Wait a minute.  Where do you get off calling me names like that?  I change my
  +underwear at least once a week.
  +
  +"Crusty" indeed!

Whoa!  My most humble apologies.  Perhaps it should have been something
like "sticky?"

Terry "Trying to bring this thread closer to the subject line" Chan
--
Energy and Environment Division   | Internet:  TWChan@lbl.gov
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory      | 
Berkeley, California  USA  94720  | Carpe per diem
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: meyers@acf5.NYU.EDU (Adam Meyers)
Subject: Re: Sex, the Final Frontier?
Organization: New York University
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 18:12:00 GMT

/* acf5:alt.folklore.urban / twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan) /  2:07 pm  Dec 16, 1992 */

A friend of mine told me this story about trekkies.  It seems
that one of his friends had a sister who was a very quiet,
religious person, who spent most of her time reading.  After
a while, she became a real avid trekkie; going to conventions,
reading books, and finally getting to the point where she 
began writing her own stories and swapping it with other
people at those conventions.

One day, my friend's friend noticed one of her sister's stories,
and was curious about her sister's writing style.  When she
read the story, she was shocked because it was pornographic.
It turns out that there is a huge segment of the trekkie
subculture that meets and shares stories where the characters
from the old series are in egaged in much racier stories (the 
one that stuck in her mind was Kirk and Spock's homosexual 
relationship) than those commonly associated with the series.

Can anyone provide any further enlightenment on this point?
Maybe 'Lost in Space' wasn't better after all

Terry "Tiberious" Chan
--
Energy and Environment Division   | Internet:  TWChan@lbl.gov
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory      | 
Berkeley, California  USA  94720  | Carpe Per Diem
/* ---------- */
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jlacour@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (John Lacour)
Subject: Re: CD Legends
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 02:06:47 GMT

In article <1992Dec25.122232.21686@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>I saw a post on one of the newsgroups about a band whose last CD track
>was lyrics, played at 2400 baud ASCII and transcribable somehow.

This is the new one from _Information Society_ (unless of course its something
entirely different ;-).  There is a track on the CD which can be read with a
CD rom drive.  Its not lyrics, but rather a story about them (the band) and a
trip to a concert in Central/South America somewhere.

Something about customs problems, unfriendly natives, etc.

Kurt Valaquen of InSoc is on Prodigy and the entire text was posted on Prodigy
on the Music Bulliten board under the Modern Rock.

Regards,
John
From: popec@unkaphaed.gbdata.com (William C. Barwell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: kpix SCREWS UP (was Re:    Skyscraper FALLS DOWN.)
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 06:09:00 GMT
Distribution: add
Organization: Unka Phaed's UUCP Thingy, Houston, TX

Bruce.Tindall@launchpad.unc.edu (Bruce Tindall) writes:

> In article <1992Dec29.064554.25146@netcom.com> obrien@netcom.com (Robert O'Br
> >ObUL: Dan Quayle's law degree was partially chewed up by the dog
> >	Bob "just heard that on KPIX" O'Bob
> 
> I was watching KPIX-TV news on Dec. 31, 1983, when the ignorant blow-dried
> newscreature mentioned that we were about to start the year 1984, in which
> (he said), George Orwell warned us that computers would be a danger to the
> world, blah blah blah.  Of course, anyone who's ever read _1984_ knows 
> that computers are not even mentioned in the book (except perhaps for the
> "speakwrite", which plays a very minor role).  The motion picture had a
> lot of nice touches capturing the low-tech nature of the society portrayed
> in the book, such as the rotary dials on the mechanical device for calling
> up old newspaper isues, and the black-and-white telescreens.  No 'puters.
> 
> So "heard that on KPIX" should be a contender for AFU motto-of-the-whatever.
> 
> --
>    The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
>      North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
>         Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
>            internet:  laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80


Down here in Houston, on the day Pat Buchanan et al spoke at the 
Republican Convention, after the convention coverage was over for the 
day, one of the major TV channels played the movie "1984".
  The version with John Hurt.   So you could go from Buchana and his pals 
straight to "5 minutes of hate" the opening scene.
Try telling me that this movie was scheduled by accident.

Pope Charles, Subgenius Pope Of Houston.     Slack!

--
popec@unkaphaed.gbdata.com (William C. Barwell)
Unka Phaed's UUCP Thingy, Houston, TX, (713) 943-2728
After December 31, (713) 481-3763
1200/2400/9600/14400 v.32bis/v.42bis