HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lmh@world.std.com (Larry M Headlund)
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 19:33:48 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.181531.25673@sunova.ssc.gov> 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).............       ;-)
>
Situation
Normal
All
F****d
Up

WW II vintage.  In fact,  there was a a swing song with that name.  No,  
this isn't a "In the butt, Bob" story,  they rendered the F as Fouled.

Larry "I don't think Kilroy wrote it" Headlund

PS. Anyone want to bet POSH is mentioned soon?


-- 
Larry Headlund  lmh@world.std.com    Eikonal Systems (617) 482-3345 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: tad@ssc.wa.com (Tad Cook)
Subject: Re: Screaming Peaches and Terrified Eggs
Organization: very little
Distribution: alt
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 06:38:03 GMT

In article <l98eeqINN7d2@jethro.Corp.Sun.COM> geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) writes:
>
>
>When I was a kid, my mom told me about an experiment performed at 
>Columbia University in which the agonized "scream" of a peach was 
>detected somehow with sensitive instruments as someody bit into it.
>Even as a kid, I thought the very idea was absurd to the point of being 
>hilarious, but my mother insisted that she'd either heard or read about 
>it somewhere.  Looking back on it, it's rather interesting that a
>specific location for the research (Columbia) was specified.
>
>Later, when I was in high school, one of my teachers (not of science)
>mentioned an experiment in which eleven of the eggs in a carton were
>connected to electrodes, and a definite electrical pulse was recorded
>as the eggs "freaked" (as he put it) when the twelfth one was cracked
>open.
>
>Has anybody else heard versions of these stories?
>

I just returned from a seminar at University of Oregon that was
conducted by Dr. Ray Hyman, who had investigated this back in the
1970s.  You are talking about the work of Clive Baxter, who was
hooking up lie detectors to various organic things.

Ray said that although Baxter was convinced that this worked,
investigators could find no correalation between the random
electrical readings and various events that they were supposed
to be caused by.



-- 
 Tad Cook     |  Phone:  206-527-4089  (home)     |   MCI Mail: 3288544   
 Seattle, WA  |  Packet: KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA   |   3288544@mcimail.com 
              |  Internet: tad@ssc.wa.com        or...sumax!ole!ssc!tad
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Why crescent moons? (was Re: You are humble and loveable. CHOMP!)
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
Date: 27 Aug 92 00:18:33 GMT
 <BtM1My.CHy@acsu.buffalo.edu> <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?  

Possibly what he meant was whether it was concave up or down.  A
crescent moon is only easily visible when the sun has set, and the
convex side of the crescent always faces the sun; furthermore, the
crescent moon is always on the same side of the sky as the sun.
Put this all together, and you conclude that the concave side of
the visible crescent must be tilted upward, unless you're doing
a headstand or can see a crescent moon through the glare of daylight.

A "Dogpatch moon" would then be one with the concave side tilted
downward, IMHH (in my humble hypothesis).

-- 
Matt McIrvin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
From: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Gold coins (Was: Re: You are humble and loveable.  CHOMP!)
Date: 1 Sep 92 18:01:45 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

> 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.

If we're going to discuss commemorative coins, the US still mints them as well.
The US Mint comes out with gold and silver commemorative coins to celebrate
such things as the Olympics, 500th anniversary of Columbus's landing, 200th
anniversary of the US Constitution, etc.  The gold coins have a gold content of
1oz, 1/2 oz or 1/10 oz, and the 1oz ones have a legal tender value of $20, but
sell for something like $500.  The 1oz silver ones have a face value of $1 I
think and sell for about $25-$30.  They are all proof coins.

-Mike
From: f67700241@violet.ccit.arizona.edu (Greg Franklin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Eating dogs
Date: 29 Aug 92 12:05:20 GMT
Distribution: world,local
Organization: University of Arizona
Nntp-Posting-User: f67700241

In article <1992Aug28.121134.19477@nntp.nta.no>, styri@hal.nta.no (Haakon Styri) writes:
> The story is simple, in many parts of Switzerland people like dog meat,
> and they make sausages from dogs. But, and this makes me wonder if this
> may be an UL, they don't have any "official" trade - there are no dog
> butchers and dogs aren't officially sold for food. The local people use
> newspaper ads in code to offer dogs or dog meat, ie. there's some "secret"
> network of people that of course offend pet lovers in many countries.

Sadly, this sort of thing seems to be going around with all sorts of ethnic
groups.  In Phoenix, there are lots of people agitating the city on the 
premise that new Vietnamese immigrants steal pet dogs and cats for food.

The agitators were interviewed in the paper.  Tellingly, they said it
hadn't happened to them personally, but that they heard from somebody
else that it was true, all Vietnamese did this.
-- 
Greg "Mockingbird" Franklin      Interviewer: "Sir, how do you spell relief?"
f67700241@ccit.arizona.edu               Dan: "R-O-L-A-I-D-S-E."
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: grimjack@milton.u.washington.edu (Leslie Basel)
Subject: Re: Counterfeiting
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 04:12:09 GMT


Well, it has hit up here in Seattle (well, actually even further north, in 
Lynnwood).  In a 24 coin op video parlor, left to its own devices in the
wee hour the management adjusted the setting in the change machine so that
he would not be bothered by it rejecting too many one dollar bills (yep, you
can adjust the setting on them).  Some one use regular photocopies of $1.00 
bills in the machines to get a lot of change (I think they found about 30
or 40 bills in the macine (reported in the Seattle Times)

Rodger Coghlan
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Smallest denominations of paper money (was: Counterfeiting)
Date: 3 Sep 92 22:13:14 GMT
 <1992Sep3.002608.24121@news.columbia.edu> <1992Sep3.063601.27701@sq.sq.com>

msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:

>And,
>in fact, I can't think of a bill under $1 US that's still in common use
>in any country I've been to.

Like I said, I think the Italian 1000-lire bill applies.  A year
ago it was worth about 80 cents, but now I'm not sure.  I think
the US dollar fell some more.

The 1000-lire bill is certainly still in common use, though.
I don't think there's even a 1000-lire coin.
-- 
Matt McIrvin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.cascade
From: carlos@garfield.cs.mun.ca (Carlos Borges)
Subject: Re: apples to teachers - idea why
Organization: CS Dept., Memorial University of Newfoundland
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 15:42:18 GMT

thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes:
>In article <BtFA6L.E45@egsner.cirr.com> datri@egsner.cirr.com (Anthony Datri) writes:
>>>"What? Over? Did you say it's over? Nothing's over, till we decide it is! 
>>> Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!" --John Belushi
>>
>>Bill Murray.

>Winston Churchill.

Or was it Disreali?  (Duck!)
-- 
   ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
  // C. Miguel Borges               A.K.A.                Carlos M. Borges //
 // an630@cleveland.freenet.edu                 carlos@garfield.cs.mun.ca //
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
From: jjm30@diag.amdahl.com (Jeff Marr)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: flash pictures of the sunset
Date: 27 Aug 92 02:35:35 GMT
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Cupertino, CA

In article <1992Aug26.175213.24368@unislc.uucp>, dw@unislc.uucp (Dan Wright) writes:
|> Doug Landauer (landauer@morocco.Eng.Sun.COM) wrote:
|> : (Here's the folklore part:)   For some of those cameras, if you turn on
|> : the flash, the shutter will stay open a little longer.
|> 
|> This is probably true.
|> 
|> Using the typical 35mm manual camera, shutter speed should be set to
|> 1/60 for flash pictures.  Without flash, at this slow speed, the
|> motion of your hand as you jerked the trigger would smear the image.
|> But the flash can be counted on to freeze the motion.  The slow speed
|> 1/60 provides a large window of time for the shutter and flash to
|> synchronize in.
|> 
|> It may well be that pocket automatics use a slow shutter speed with
|> their flashes, for the same reason.  You would expect the shutter
|> speed on those little cameras to be highly variable, since they depend
|> on it so heavily for exposure control (I doubt the tiny "fixed-focus"
|> lenses have adjustable apertures).
|> 
|> It would be hard to find out for sure.  Owners manuals are written at
|> dunce level, photo experts don't waste their time studying exactly how
|> cheap tourist cameras work, and it would be hard to set up an
|> experiment to prove those cameras use the slowest shutter speed
|> when they decide to flash.
|> 
|>   -- Dan Wright

As a kid (late 60's, early 70's) I remember my folks using a burnt out
flash cube on the cheapo camera as a means to get better low light pictures. 
Anyone else remember that?

Jeff "Smile and wave" Marr
-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
| Jeff Marr | Amdahl Corp | Disclaimer: I don't represent Amdahl    |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
From: llama@pooh.cc.utexas.edu (sine nomine)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Pencil in Priorities
Date: 31 Aug 92 03:54:43 GMT
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

macphil (IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU) wrote:

: mjg51721@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Michael James Gebis) writes:
: >IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU (macphil) writes:
: >>1) Not everyone will vomit from syrup of ipecac.  I have several friends
: >>   who are not vulnerable to it.
: >Just out of curiosity, do you know this by hearsay or by experimentation?
:  
: I'm a skeptic on many things unless I'm the one conducting the
: situation.  Experimentation, of course!

aieeeeeeee. are those in your experiment who were vulnerable still
your friends?? <grin> i've had ipecac once. it made me more violently
ill than i ever remember having been before or since. incidentally, i
was told afterward that sometimes it doesn't work unless you drink
water after taking it, but that sounds suspicious to me. anyone know
for sure?

--
sine nomine
debbie martinson
"fat cat, green mind, red tongue, white milk
and august the most peaceful month" -- wallace stevens
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pdt@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Peter David THOMPSON)
Subject: Re: You are humble and loveable. CHOMP!
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 01:46:59 GMT

bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM (Brian Scearce) writes:

>In article 12825@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu, me@csri.toronto.edu (Daniel R. Simon) writes:
>> I find this explanation quite implausible.  Gold coins haven't been in
>> common circulation for a very long time (if they ever were),

>Indeed, but have you ever seen a person bite into a coin?  It seems to
>me that it's one of those bits of cultural luggage that long outlives
>its applicability, but still gets lugged along -- like outhouses having
>crescent moons cut into the doors.

Why would outhouses have crescent moons cut out of the doors?
When was the last time someone presented an apple to the teacher?
Was is a 2 or some later apple?

>> The idea is similar to that of "silvered pennies", meant to be mistaken
>> for dimes, of which I have actually seen an example in my lifetime.

>I'm pretty sure that there were a series of chrome pennies (or cents)
>minted in Canada (or the US) around 1943, due to copper shortages.  Are
>you sure it wasn't one of these you saw?
>Brian Scearce                               bls@sector7g.eng.sun.com

Well, down hyar in Australia we recently (i.e. within the last 5 yrs or
so) introduced $1 and $2 coins. I've "heard" of cases of people putting gold
foil on 10 or 20c peices and passing those off.

Also lurking in my memory is the case of the people who use a color photo
copier on the $100 note. (The color scheme is sort of pale green and blue on
a light grey background, somewhat similar in color to the finnish 1000 mark\
note, but much paler). One side douglas mawson, antarctic explorer; other
side some dude who was involved in astronomy. Sorry, but I don't have a note
here to check (although I wish I did...).
* These opinions belong to pdt@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU unless otherwise specified.
You were expecting an intelligent, witty, and articulate .signature? Ha!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: nolan@twg.com (!Edward Steichen)
Subject: Photography (was Peter? What Peter?)
Reply-To: nolan@twg.com
Organization: Pix-R-Us
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 17:37:14 GMT


In article <1992Aug26.124958.6530@nntp.nta.no>, styri@hal.nta.no (King Haakon) 
Asks the 64 centime question:

|>Why would anybody have a mirror in a darkroom?

For the image reversal process! Sheesh! Whatta photodope!

--
Nolan "Bug-of-the-Shutter-Variety" Hinshaw
Internet: nolan@twg.com			Dingalingnet: (415)962-7197	
"If you don't know how to do something, you don't know how to do it
 with a computer." David Wittenberg, in Risks Digest 13.70
"Boy, was I in for a dose of reality." Randall K. Abler
"... necrophilia doesn't really hurt anybody."  Rick Gordon
"Well, first of all, your stance is too wide"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Why crescent moons? (was Re: You are humble and loveable. CHOMP!)
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
Date: 27 Aug 92 12:07:39 GMT

phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) writes:

>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.

It, um, sounded like a joke to me.

(Of course, I have now taken the bait for Phil Gustafson's
counter-joke.)
-- 
Matt McIrvin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Chef Boy-Ar-Dee commercial
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 06:02:05 GMT

In article <dickson-240892132823@130.13.155.96> dickson@mbir.mnet.uswest.com (Steve Dickson) writes:
>juicy meatballs - all ready
>sauce with cheese
>from chef boy-are-dee's

I remember the 60's version with these lines.  The rest is too fuzzy.

As to rerun commercials:

I have seen many "recycled" commercials that are the same tired old ad copy
used 5 or more years back "revisited" several times for a "lifetime" of
as much as 15 years.

And what about political commercials for long-term incumbents:

The "worst offender" here in NY State I can think of is Roy Goodman.  While
I haven't seen anything from him yet (a little early; tune in next month or
so) he has been using this rather dated copy of his original compaign
commercial.  The guy doesn't even look today anything like his pictures in the
ad, yet he always runs the same exact ad.

Then there is the occasional trend for ads to show "home movies" where they
view a piece of a '50's ad for the product.  Especially corny for products
with animated "characters" in the ad copy.  I recently saw a Nestles ad
showing someone watching a Nestles commercial with Jimmy Lydon and Farfel
doing the "N-E-S-T-L-E-S Nestles makes the very best - CHOCOLATE! <clunk>"
bit.  (In B&W.)

There is a particularly obnoxious local Manhattan nite club that runs the
same tired old ad now complete with the dated disco-era clothing and dated
disco music theme.  The ad copy changed about 6 years ago slightly: they
did the exact same voiceover present at the beginning of the commercial
before the music starts, except it's done by another announcer.  (Maybe
the copy wore out :-).)  This ad is only seen on local TV very late night
mostly on weekdays.

Then there are the relatively recent retread commercials for those obnoxious
900 lines.  The ad copy is the same, the bimbos are the same, but the phone
numbers and rates/minute are quite different.  In some shabby commercials, 
you can see the area where the previous phone number was is now
"whited out" with a rectangle of another color blocking the old number, and
overlayed in white with a new number.  The same porn-movie quality music,
the pathetic patter from the girls or offscreen, etc. are unchanged.  They
fit right in with the newer ones, including the ones that are "only"
$4.95/minute.

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: styri@hal.nta.no (Haakon Styri)
Subject: Swiss Hot Dogs (not Tom Swiss)
Reply-To: styri@nta.no
Organization: Norwegian Telecom Research
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 12:11:34 GMT

One of the fun items in some Norwegian broadcasts and newspapers yesterday
was a story about the Swiss people having a taste for dogs. The story was
supposed to come from a German tv station called RTL+ and it may have some
ULish features.

The story is simple, in many parts of Switzerland people like dog meat,
and they make sausages from dogs. But, and this makes me wonder if this
may be an UL, they don't have any "official" trade - there are no dog
butchers and dogs aren't officially sold for food. The local people use
newspaper ads in code to offer dogs or dog meat, ie. there's some "secret"
network of people that of course offend pet lovers in many countries.

No mention of the dogs being raised on a veggie diet btw.  :-)

Anyone out there with more information?

---
YuNoHoo  "I'm sure the make cheese from goats"
From: tms@cs.umd.edu (Tom Swiss (not Swift, not Suiss, Swiss!))
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What makes an urban legend work?
Date: 2 Sep 92 21:16:23 GMT
Organization: The Reality Liberation Front (pixels to the people!)

bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM writes:
>In article 60023@mimsy.umd.edu, tms@cs.umd.edu (Tom Swiss (not Swift, not Suiss, Swiss!)) writes:
>> Of course there's a natural B-12 source that's not derived from meat.
>> B-12 isn't produced by animals, it's produced by microbes found in the
>> soil.
>
>Those are animals, aren't they?

     Nope. Fungi, protists, or bacteria. Bacteria, I think, although
is might be fungi (yeast is a fungi, and some yeasts contain B-12).

===============================================================================
Tom Swiss/tms@flubber.cs.umd.edu| "Born to die" | Keep your laws off my brain!
     "What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?" - Nick Lowe 
          This is a .signature antibody. Vaccinate your .sig!
     "Certainly, I know what to do, and when I am Vice President -- and
      I will be -- there will be contingency plans under different sets of
      situations and I tell you what, I'm not going to go out and hold a news
      conference about it. I'm going to put it in a safe and keep it there!
      Does that answer your question?"
      -- Vice President Dan Quayle when asked what he
         would do if he assumed the Presidency,1988
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jfreter@triton.unm.edu (The Myth)
Subject: A new UL? Plastic engine bolts
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 00:20:59 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

A close firend from high school called today and said that she was going
to buy a new car.  We were talking about what cars are nice and could be
fun to have, when I jokingly suggested that she buy a used Yugo.  She'd 
replied, "no way.  Aren't the engines in those things held in place (to
the frame, I guess) by plastic bolts?"  I didn't know the answer to that.

I've heard the plastic bolts were also used to fasten down the engines
in Hyundais (sp?), Suzuki Samurais, and in Toyotas.  Now, I'm certain
the Toyotas (at least the trucks) don't use plastic bolts since I helped
a co-worker rebuild the engine in an 84 4X4 truck.

Has anyone heard of this?  Is it a UL or does it have a factual basis
(i.e. ceramic, not plastic, mounting bolts)?  I know that some turboes
are ceramic and I know that companies have experimented with ceramic
blocks and pistons.  I also know that plastic (phenolic resin) is used
in the distributor cap and other, non-structural parts.
From: pirinen@cc.helsinki.fi
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Why crescent moons? (was Re: You are humble and loveable. CHOMP!)
Summary: The moon waxes from the west
Keywords: moon, equator
Date: 28 Aug 92 20:52:15 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

In article <1992Aug27.155044.18720@nntp.nta.no>, styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo) writes:
> In article <25798@dog.ee.lbl.gov>, Terry Chan writes:
>> Naah, this is all wrong.  The moon looks one way from the northern
>> hemisphere and the other side from the southern hemisphere.
> Every time this thread reappears I insert a question about the moon
> as seen from the equator.
A simple visualizing exercise in 3-D geometry: Which half of the waxing
moon is toward the sun doesn't of course depend on where you observe it:
it's always the western side (earth west, that is; lunar east).  The
moon's orbit lies more or less over the equator (+/-30 degrees?), so in
the southern hemisphere when you look at the moon in the north, the
western side of the moon is to your left; in the northern, the moon is
usually south of you, so the western side is to your right.  In the
equatorial regions, it depends on whether the moon happens to be north
or south of you at the moment -- if it's directly above you it's a
little hard to decide whether it's illuminated from the left, right,
top, or bottom. 
__
Pekka P. Pirinen            pekka.pirinen@helsinki.fi
Current album:   Sting: The Dream of the Blue Turtles
Current song:    Moon Over Bourbon Street
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: rodney@magritte.ipl.rpi.edu (Rodney Peck II)
Subject: Re: The Flat Earth Society???
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Distribution: alt
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 18:35:35 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.113121.14999@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> flaps@dgp.toronto.edu (Alan J Rosenthal) writes:
>
>A friend tells me of a rumour that there exists an organization known as The
>Flat Earth Society, whose members "still" believe that the earth is actually
>flat, in the ancient tradition.
>
>I find this hard to believe.  Why would they form an organization?  Why would
>they believe that the earth is flat?  Why would they care about it so
>strongly?

I find it hard to believe that anyone _hasn't_ heard of the flat earth
society.  There are wackier groups that believe that all the space missions
where hoaxes done in television studios.

the Flat Earth Society isn't a UL.  You can easily find out more about them
by going to a good bookstore that stocks strange books and asking the clerk.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban