HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: glitto@iastate.edu (Scott M Klabacha)
Subject: Mailing Coconuts
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 01:46:23 GMT

>T. You can send a coconut thru the mail without any further wrapping. Yowser!

I've wondered about this one for some time now. What are the details? What
kind of implement do you use to write on a coconut? Do the stamps just stick
on, or do you need to use glue? Would there be any use in writing "This End
Up" seeing as how the thing's gonna roll around anyway?

Seriously, though, what are the details about this? Why is it possible? What
do you do if the people at the post office don't want to accept it?

***gLITTOfERN*** glitto@iastate.edu
From: dogbowl@dogbox.acme.gen.nz (dogbowl)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Wild Chicken Flocks
Summary: Larson bait!
Keywords: chicken, freeway, flock, human flesh
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 92 19:25:58 Y
Organization: The Dawghaus BBS
Comments: Ooook!

tsmith@skat.usc.edu (Nep "chickens in the mist" Smith) writes:

> Hi everyone!
> 
> I'm curious about the rumor that a wild chicken flock haunts the Four
> Level on the Hollywood Freeway here in Los Angeles. For those of you
> living elsewhere, I'd be curious to see if you'd heard of it, or if
> you have similar legends about strange groups of animals lurking in
> urban environments. The story, as I've heard it, goes like this:
> 
> 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 on the side of the
> freeways.
> 

Just think about the sort of cartoons Larson could do on this topic.

OBUL: Foxes live in suburban areas in the U.K.
OBfact: They have been filmed raiding rubbish bins in suburnban U.K.

dogbowl at The Dawghaus BBS  ( +64 6 357-9245 )


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva)
Subject: Re: Viruses: was(Re: aids started by cia?)
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 05:27:35 GMT

> In article <1992Aug27.211759.13809@acuson.com> lawson@aldia.UUCP (Drew Lawson) writes:
> >In article <1992Aug25.160703.10475@news.cs.brandeis.edu> st890270@pip.cc.brandeis.edu writes:
> >>the small pox virus is now extinct.
> >
> >Only because all its victims are dead.

But smallpox really wasn't that fatal of a disease.  The most virulent
strain was only 10-30% fatal (tho those figures can add up fast in 
epidemic proportions). 

The main problem with smallpox is that it was so highly contagious
(it's an airborne disease -- passed much like the common cold, by
sneezing, touching, etc).  The other problem is if you survived, you
were horribly disfigured by the poxmarks.

This is also why traditionally milkmaids have always been considered 
to be so beautiful.  They commonly would contract cowpox which in turn 
would also protect them from the smallpox virus and therefore would 
tend to have clear complexions.
Sounds rather ULish, doesn't?

ObUL:  The K in Vitamin K stands for Kibo.
-- 
Stephanie da Silva                                    arielle@taronga.com
"I am *not* Tuskernini -- and this is an excellent disguise!" -- Tuskernini
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jcraig@access.digex.com (Joseph N. Craig)
Subject: Re: Counterfeiting
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 16:17:20 GMT

rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:

	[stuff delet
ed]

>A recent story in the Boston Globe or the Middlesex News indicated that
>the treasury has recently released new $1 bills that have some numbers
>and other marks missing.  Evidently, the Secret Service/Federal Reserve
>people in Boston have been answering a lot of questions.  It is simply
>a new style of $1 bill.


A few weeks ago I overheard our secretary exclaim rather loudly, "look, a 
counterfeit $10 bill."  She was counting up the money in the petty cash box.

Sure enough, she had her hands on a really strange looking bill.

Several of us passed it around for about five minutes before someone noticed
that it was a Series 1935 bill!  

joe

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jmethot@vicorp.com (John Methot)
Subject: Re: Ann Landers stops an urban myth!
Organization: V. I. Corporation, Northampton, Massachusetts
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 15:39:42 GMT

In article <harris.715767370@drvax3> harris@drvax3.msfc.nasa.gov (Mitch Harris) writes:
>Well, poor Ann Landers & her sister Dear Abby are always being accused
>of perpetuating urban myths. Here's one time she doesn't. The following
>article is from the Huntsville News, Sept. 5,1992 :
>
>Dear Ann Landers: While visiting in Washington, D.C., my wife & I
>engaged a taxi driver to show us the sights & give us some history of
>our nation's capital.
>We passed a statue of a soldier mounted on his horse. The taxi driver
>asked if we knew the significance of a horse sculpture with all 4 of the
>horse's hooves on the ground, compared with one hoof lifted or the horse
>reared with 2 hooves off the ground. When we said we didn't, he went on
>to tell us that 4 hooves on the ground meant the soldier died a natural
>death, 1 lifted meant the soldier was wounded in combat, & the horse
>reared meant the soldier was killed in battle.
>
>Dear Jack: According to the US Army Military History Institute in
>Carlisle, Pa., these stories have no basis in fact.

My wife and I were in Buenos Aires from 26-31 August, and we took a bus tour of
the city.  The Argentine tour guide told us exactly the same thing about the
many statues of military heroes.  I suppose I closed the circle by bringing
back a particularly virulent Argentine cold.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.religion.kibology
From: ward@math.psu.edu (Brian Ward)
Subject: Re: Viruses: was(Re: aids started by cia?)
Organization: The Bill and Ted Society of Computer Science
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 23:07:37 GMT

arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva) writes:
|Does this mean you're the owner of all those convenience stores?

Of course. Kibo is the big granddaddy of _all_ convenience stores.

--
Be excellent to your kernels.
From: WAUGH@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Business Reply Cards & Junk Mail...
Date: 15 Sep 92 22:40:19 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

In article <1992Sep15.153804.816@HQ.Ileaf.COM>, hal@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Hal Wadleigh)
says:
>
>I once replied to a particularly offensive burial insurance "survey" by
>writing "does not apply--I indend to donate my body to Alpo" on the form.
>I then cut a piece of quarter-inch steel plate to fit in the envelope,
>wrapped the form around it, and dropped it in the mailbox.  It made a very
>satisfying CLUNK when it hit the bottom.

I participated in a similar activity when, as a life member of the NRA, I was
solicited by Handgun Control Incorporated for a contribution to their cause.  I
returned their post paid envelope filled with a lead plate.  Much the same
effect as described above but in spades!

Okay, flame me for being a NRA member, but in talk.politics.guns not a.f.u...

Brian Waugh                       |    "What's for dinner?"
WAUGH@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU    |      Charelton Heston
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: naran@fraser.sfu.ca (Travers Naran)
Subject: Re: British Paper Money
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 04:19:19 GMT

masticol@cadenza.rutgers.edu (Steve Masticola) writes:

>ObUL: The Germans, during World War II, produced a perfect set of
>counterfeit plates for British #5 notes, to try to destabilize the
>currency. It could have happened, so it must be true.

I hate to disappoint you, but this is !!!!TRUE!!!!! This is NOT an Urban
legend. Repeat, not an Urban legend. And not just because Nova (on PBS)
reported it, but because this is a highly documented and written about attempt
in counterfeiting (I think it's so popular because it failed so badly! And made
everyone laugh at the lameness of the Nazi regime). 

The Germans, near the end of World War II, understandably, suddenly dumped all
their bills, plates, etc. into a lake, but this lake started turning up clumps
of counterfiet #5 notes! :-)

True story, amazingly.

ObUL: During the Viet Nam War, the CIA (most likely suspect) printed
counterfiet North Vietnamese currency and used to dump it on North Vietnam
literally by dropping bags full of the stuff. The reason it is a UL and not an
actual fact is because so far, there has been only one witness to this fact and
frankly, no one really believes him. Mostly because attempts at War-time
counterfieting-to-destabilize has yet to work, but on the other hand peace-time
mass counterfieting or just bloody over-production of bills (Like What happened
in Germany during the Bismark reign), will destabilize a government and cause
it to collapse, at least partially. :-)

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Travers Naran						| "We fear
Mail address: naran@fraser.sfu.ca or naran@sfu.ca       |  change. WHACK!
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada	| WHACK! WHACK!"
Cmpt. Science student wanna-be				| -Garth 
Trekker, Leaper, Red Dwarf'er, Prober, etc.		|  "Wayne's World"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: So, what IS the shelf life of Twinkies?
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 14:57:26 GMT

In article <intrigue.715621604@milton> intrigue@milton.u.washington.edu (Angelwing) writes:

>they're still soft.  Mind you, I wouldn't eat them, but the thing is that
>*they're STILL soft*!!!  Yikes!

As the Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal story goes, real programmers eat
vending machine food that is "pre-staled" so you can't know how old it is.
Presumably Twinkies et al, are in this category.

cjl (Real Programmer, but I mostly eat Chinese food, which follows the
other food line in the story)
From: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us (S. Mudgett aka little gator)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Distribution: world
Organization: gators 'r us
Subject: microwaving lobsters
Reply-To: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us
X-Software: HERMES GUS 1.03 Rev. Apr 14 1992
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1992 16:44:30 -0500

i thnk we should all know that the boston glob(wed 9/2/92 page 35)
gives directions for microwaving lobsters.

put the lobster(if a maine lobster put it in whole, if a florida lobster
just the tail, split open on the top) in a microwaveable bag, knot it
loosely, and nuke for 4 to 8 minutes.  the florida variety is done when  meat
 is opaque and white, the maine variety when the tail is curled under and
 snaps back if you straighten it out.

anyone want to try it an report the results?


-- 
-- little gator aka s. mudgett     email: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us
-- friend of a gator is a friend of mine
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Subject: Re: Sinking libraries and floating ships
Organization: Famed Parquet Floor
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 22:21:24 GMT

In article <1992Sep2.215200.23910@acuson.com> lawson@aldia.UUCP (Drew Lawson) writes:
>In article <1992Sep1.174727.22970@uwm.edu> spice@convex.csd.uwm.edu (James G Spice) writes:
>
>>I seem to recall about 10 or fifteen years ago the city of Greenbay
>>WI had a problem with a newly constructed bridge.  The architects
>>successfully estimated the proper clearance for ships coming into
>>the bay over which the bridge extended, but forgot to consider
>>the fact that ships float higher in the water once they unload
>>their cargo.  The result was that ships were able to get under the
>>bridge, but would be stuck in the bay once they unloaded.  They would
>>have to load back up to get out again.
>
>This goes without saying (but say it anyway), but that would be really
>dumb if it happened.  Perhaps there was an expectation that no larger
>ships would ever come along, but most new (or newish) bridges I've seen
>are significantly higher than the ships.  I have assumed that it is to
>provide an idiot margin in the planning.
>
New York Times, National Edition, 4 September 1992:

  Ship Hits Construction Work on the Brooklyn Bridge

  A tower on a ship struck some dangling construction scaffolding 
  yesterday under the Brooklyn Bridge, briefly shutting down two lanes
  of the bridge.  The Cape May, a barge and container carrier, was being 
  towed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  There was no structural damage to
  the bridge.

Yes, I know we're talking about a pretty old bridge.

But the ship pilot can figure out, using chart data for the bridge and
tide tables, whether his ship can fit.  Since time is money, he'll
sometimes cut it too close.

The responsibiliy for the collision mentioned in the first post rests
with the captain, not the architect.

Phil "A pox on dimbulb middle names" 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: bobh@troy.cc.bellcore.com (hettmansperger,robert)
Subject: How are McNuggets made?
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 92 02:11:04 GMT

Hey, I heard long ago that McDonald's chicken McNuggets are made by first
processing "whole" chickens in something which dissolves the bones and
feathers, and then chopped up and formed into the nuggets. 

Truth, or just another urban legend?

-Bob
From: dignan@husc10.harvard.edu (Thomas Dignan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: The Wildebeast
Date: 15 Sep 92 01:42:10 GMT


	Does anyone know what it really is? Is it just a british word for 
yak, or is it something totally seperate. I don't really care but this guy
here is bugging me about it. 
-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Dignan                          |   I am not a chutney ferret.
Knight@Templar.haywain.cab             |   "This song rhymes and we 
Master@Priory.sion.cab                 |      play it in time." - Flipper
From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Business Reply Cards & Junk Mail...
Date: 13 Sep 1992 07:52:25 GMT
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Reply-To: TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.12.117

btd43733@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (BTDonovan) writes:
 +
 +I once heard that one of the best ways to convince junk mailers to take your
 +name off their mailing lists is to attatch a large rock to a those 
 +"Postage paid by adressee" business reply cards.  Has anyone out there tried it
 +and is it effective?  Also, this wouldn't constitute mail-fraud or some other
 +obscure breach in protocol, would it?  (If not, I have a couple of boulders
 +to send out in the next few days :)

Good idea, but the _Domestic Mail Manual_ says no dice when a mailing
label is used improperly as in this case.  [check _More of the Straight
Dope_.]


Terry "Neither rain, nor sleet, nor hernia..." Chan
--
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory                    Internet:  TWChan@lbl.gov
"[PBS viewers] are affluent, highly educated, the movers and shakers, the
 socially conscious and the well-informed.  What about the rest of us?"
                                      -- U.S. Senator Robert Dole
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: cindy@solan10.solan.unit.no (Cynthia Kandolf)
Subject: Re: What time is it at the North Pole?
Organization: /home/ludviga/cindy/.organization
	<cbuckley.716042360@unix1.tcd.ie> <17205@ulysses.att.com>
Date: 12 Sep 92 17:02:02

Steven Bellovin remembers the joys of childhood:
>A long time ago, I used to ask my Hebrew school teacher questions like
>those.  Things like ``above the Arctic Circle, how do you know when
>sunset is, and hence when the holidays start?  What about astronauts
>traveling at near-light speeds, and experiencing time dilation?  Their
>calendar will get out of sync.  Colonists on Mars will undoubtedly use
>the Martian day, which will cause the same effect.  Should they use
the
>Martian year as well?''  Etc. -- though she didn't even understand
some
>of the concepts I was talking about, since there's nothing in the
>Talmud about relativity or Lorentz contractions.
>
>Sigh -- for some reason, she thought I was harassing her.

Well, i can't help you with the space travel stuff, but if the
holidas-above-the-artic-circle bit is still puzzling you, i can
tell you something that might throw some light on the subject.
It's sort of round about so be patient.

Muslims in Norway face a similar problem, especially during
their holy month when they are expected to fast from sunrise
to sunset.  Since their religious calendar is lunar, that month
moves around quite a bit.  Should it fall in the summer, the fast
can get unreasonably long or, if you get far north enough, never
end.  If it falls in the winter, in the north there would be no 
time of fasting at all since the sun never rises.  

The solution is simply to adapt to local conditions.  The leaders
of the mosque in Oslo set an arbitrary but "reasonable" time -
say, from 6 am to 6 pm - which all the Muslims in the country
then follow.  This is, of course, not exactly what is prescribed,
but it works...  Following the letter of the law here would not
work.

Unfortunately, i've never heard exactly what Jews in Norway do...
but a good guess is that they have a similar system, using arbitrary
times for "sundown" when there is no real sunset or when it is
unreasonably early or late.

-Cindy Kandolf
 cindy@solan.unit.no
 Trondheim, Norway


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Subject: Hot (superheated) tea?
Organization: Just put everything on the floor; I can find it.
Date: 15 SEP 92 09:33:46    


Associated Press: 13 September 1992

                      Tea May Have Put Them in the Soup

   BALTIMORE - The Hardee's fast-food chain is in legal hot water over a cup of
tea.
   Stephanie Washington-Bey has filed a $150,000 lawsuit against Hardee's Food
Systems Inc., contending that she suffered second-degree burns when she spilled
a cup of Hardee's tea on her leg.
   The incident occurred Jan. 24 at a Hardee's in Baltimore.
   "The tea which was prepared and sold by Hardee's was defective and
unreasonably dangerous at the time of its sale," according to the suit in
Baltimore Circuit Court.
   Alleging that the chain was negligent because the tea was too hot, the suit
seeks compensation for medical expenses and lost wages.
   Officials at Hardee's headquarters in Rocky Mountain, N.C., were unavailable
for comment Sunday.
   Leonard C. Redmond III, a Baltimore attorney, said normal hot tea would not
have caused the type of burns that his client suffered.
   "I don't know exactly what the temperature of the tea was," he said.  "It
may have been superheated."

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "In December 1942, Charlie Chaplin's testes, like those of every other man  |
|  on the planet, contained biological products in quantities sufficient to   |
|  impregnate every woman on the planet . . ."                                |
|                                      - Peter W. Huber, "Galileo's Revenge"  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  David P. Mikkelson   Digital Equipment Corporation   Culver City, CA  USA  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: buccb@after.math.uiuc.edu (Carlos Dragonslayer Butler)
Subject: Re: So, what IS the shelf life of Twinkies?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 01:08:29 GMT

James c Copeland writes
> OK, I have heard that Twinkies could last for 20 years?  What is the  basis
> for this claim?  What is the REAL shelf life of these things?
> (I have a steak dinner riding on this one).

	A possible source for the answer:
"Everything You've always wanted to know about Twinkies: There's more
than goo on the inside." _Zillions: consumer reports for kids._ Oct. 1, 1990.
pg 8.

--
         Carlos, first-born son of Rodney, of the Chicago Butlers,
            Dragonslayer by birthright and heir to the throne.
 buccb@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu  buccb@after.math.uiuc.edu  buccb@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
          University of Illinois 	     (217) 373-4781 Pager
          "People often condescend what they fail to comprehend...
         ...ignorance makes life easier. Learn to tolerate. Peace."
From: jmoody@netcom.com (Jim Moody)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Third to be bombed...
Date: 8 Sep 92 18:51:32 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

The question about the significance of "third" is interesting.
For further discussion and no conclusionis see Alan Dundes
"The Magic Number Three in folklore"  (that isn't the exact
title but it's something like that and I am pretty sure that
the first reference is in the Journal of American Folklore"

It might be interesting to speculate on primitive numbering 
systems and binary numbers.  Many primitive systems have some
concept whcih loosely translated goes one, two, lots....
Maybe three fits that?


-- 
Jim Moody	jmoody@netcom.com	(415) 978-3289
===================================================================
    "The mystery does not get clearer by repeating the question"
         "nor is it bought by going to amazing places"*
                                                          Rumi
==================================================================     
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: barth@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (barth.richards)
Subject: Re: Counterfeitin'
Organization: AT&T
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 19:46:08 GMT


In article <1992Sep8.073859.3106@ericsson.se> etlanar@slartibartfast.ericsson.se (Alan Arthur) writes:

>Hmmm, if you travelled a few hundred miles north, you'd find that in Scotland,
>we still quite happily use 1 pound notes (in fact there's four different kinds
>in common circulation)..

What is the fourth variety?  I know of three:

     - Bank of Scotland
     - Royal Bank of Scotland
     - Clydesdale Bank

Currency collecting minds want to know...
From: rklute@enchanter.tymnet.com (Robert Klute)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Hurricane Iniki Struck Kaui, FAQs Later
Date: 14 Sep 92 18:27:19 GMT
Organization: BTNA

OK, if this Club 33 in Disneyland is T., then where can I find out more 
about it?

--------


They came for the 4th amendment, I said nothing for I wasn't a drug dealer. 
Then they came for the 2nd amendment, but I said nothing, I wasn't a gun owner.
Then they came for the 6th amendment, but I kept quiet, I knew I wasn't guilty.
Finally they came for the 1st amendment, and it was too late to say anything.