From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: MOTHER PICKS UP CAR
Date: 24 Dec 1992 03:05:30 GMT
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Reply-To: TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.12.117

mnoell@reed.edu (I'm done dammit!!!) writes:
  
  +>>	Please pardon my ignorance and skepticism, but can anyone document
  +>>these episodes in which a mother lifts a car to save her child?  I too have
  
To which robear@access.digex.com (Robear) writes:

  +>Check the newpapers for a reasonably large city; it'll happen a few 
     times a year.
  +>the last I remember in this area was last Spring in No. Va.
  +>	David "OOO...plastic bumpers" Pipes

Then curt@access.digex.com (curt williams) writes:
  +
  +I managed to hold up my 67 Chevy Caprice after it slipped off the
  +jack while I was trying to change a tire on a steep hill in a
  +blizzard.  Long enough for a kid delivering Sunday newspapers to
  +block the front tires with the Allentown Call Chronical.
  +
  +I'm still not sure I believe these stories though.  I was just too
  +scared to do anything except hold the car (alright, it wasn't
  +really my car-- it was my fathers).
  +
  +I have a CD-ROM with a years worth of news (1990) from all the major
  +newspapers.  I was even able to search it and find the names of all
  +the VP's (from a copy I used to work for) who dumped their stock
  +just before filing  Chapter 11.  It's fairly comprehensive stuff.  If
  +someone can contribute some "key words" for the search, I'll look
  +and see how many recorded instances of mothers lifting cars off of
  +children I can find.  Then we'll know.  I'll report my findings.

Well Curt, I did a search on a database and turned up nothing.
Using the following combinations of keywords:  mother, car; father,
car; man, car; woman, car; trapped, car; lift, car.  I got some
neat stuff on lifting of automobile sanctions, but nothing close
to what we're looking for.  I used two databases, one that covered
newspapers and one that covered magazines and journals.  Both were
accessed via the University of California library.  They covered: 


NEWSPAPER DATABASE
==================
Contents:  807,692 newspaper citations indexed by Information Access Company
           for articles published 01/01/88 through 12/05/92 in:

Christian Science Monitor (National edition)   New York Times Magazine
Los Angeles Times (Home edition)               Wall Street Journal (Eastern
New York Times (Late and National editions)              and Western editions)
New York Times Book Review                     Washington Post (Final edition)


MAGAZINE AND JOURNAL DATABASE
=============================
Contents:  867,371 citations indexed by Information Access Company from
           over 1000 journals and magazines in all areas, with some abstracts.

Dates
Covered:   01/01/88 through 12/05/92

Use:       General interest and scholarly journal articles, especially in the
           humanities and social sciences.  Subject and keyword searching.

I would appreciate a cross-check to help verify this.  It seems such
a common story that something ought to turn up, but then, maybe it's
just urban folklore.  I'll follow up to alt.folklore.urban and let
you'all know if anything turns up.

Terry Chan
--
Energy and Environment Division   | Internet:  TWChan@lbl.gov
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory      | 
Berkeley, California  USA  94720  | Carpe per diem