HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gfowler@javelin.sim.es.com (Gary Fowler)
Subject: Re: Dead pet UL?
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 19:39:47 GMT

jamie@cs.sfu.ca (Jamie Andrews) writes:
Rabbit story deleted

>     Is there a book with this legend that I can bring to my
>friend as Evidence?  :-)

>--Jamie.
>  jamie@cs.sfu.ca
>"Standard brain-toy bullet list for any GnuAge grokabilly shopping trip"

I posted this same story when I was new to a.f.u and was promptly told
that it is recorded in on of Jan Harold Brunvand's books titled "Curses
Broiled Again."  The story is refered to as the "Hare Dryer."  I recomend
that you read his books.  They are devoted specifically to the urban legend
phenomenon.  Some of his other books are, "The Vanishing Hitch-hiker", "The
Choking Doberman", and "The Mexican Pet."

********************************************************************************
*     Gary Fowler                     *     The storm starts when the drops    *
*     gfowler@esunix.sim.es.com       *     start dropping.  When the drops    *
*     Evans & Sutherland              *     stop dropping then the storm       *
*     600 Komas Drive                 *     starts stopping.                   *
*     Salt Lake City, UT              *     -Dr. Seuss                         *
********************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pynq@quads.uchicago.edu (George Jetson)
Subject: Re: Is the electric chair an Edison publicity stunt?
Reply-To: pynq@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: D. J. Dougherty & Associates
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 15:32:21 GMT

In article <SteveWall-061092171204@hipmac1.pica.army.mil> SteveWall@aol.com (Steve Wall) writes:
>Ah, but what about all those anxious moments when they insert the IVs,
>strap you down, etc?
>
>My personal vision of humane execution is a pile-driver to the head.
>Basically a guillotine (sp?) that goes splat instead of chop!  Talk about
>instant brain death.  They could set it up in the roof of the inmate's
>cell, and then one night after he's lost all his appeals, lower the boom in his
>sleep.

The whole thing is a joke, of course.  "humane", indeed.

Anyway, I think the psychological torture is intentionally made part of
the game.

It would probably be the most humane to just slip something into their food,
with no warning, but the ACLU would scream bloody murder if something
like this were tried.

************************************************************************
A note to new readers:  the weasely :-) symbol is frowned upon in this
group.  Any questions, see Phil Gustafson who will gladly rearrange your
diodes for you.
			- From the AFU FAQ -

	- pynq@quads.uchicago.edu, who is still costing the net
	  hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, every time he posts -
************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo)
Subject: Re: Is that a boom mike in Madonna's butt?
Reply-To: styri@nta.no
Organization: Bohemians and Globetrotters, Unlimited
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 16:31:35 GMT

Talking about film goofs, wasn't there a car in the opening shots of the
latest English Robin Hood film? (Ok, you cannot see the car, but the lights
are quite visible...)

---
YuNoHoo
From: sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com (Bruce Tindall)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Collected Musical Factoids (was Re: Kirk vs. Picard)
Date: 8 Oct 92 21:21:31 GMT
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.
Originator: sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com


In article <1992Oct7.083220.2587@news.columbia.edu>, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>I believe was popular around 1980 by a group with a name like Plastic
>Bertrand or somesuch.  I believe the title or most repeated line translates
>to something like "I am the King of the divan". 

Ca plan pour moi!  Ca plan pour moi!  Ca plan pour moi, moi, moi,
moi, moi!  Ca plan pour moi!

The only other words I remember were "...sur la tete".

Bruce "With a cedilla on the 'C' and circumflexes everywhere else" Tindall
-- 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: "Lost In Space" was better (was Eskimo words for 'snow')
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 00:38:01 GMT

In article <1992Oct10.220433.24135@news.unomaha.edu> torsten@cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) writes:
>	"It's About Time" is much better than "Star Trek" and "Lost
>in Space"!


All of the following defunct TV shows are better than Star Trek or Lost in
Space:

Space Patrol

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet

Rocky Jones

A circa 1958 show starring William Lundigan (Man Into Space?)

Captain Video and his Video Rangers

Space Academy

Dr Who

{thousands of more titles}

Now can someone kindly define what is meant by "better" ?

cj "What about Captain Midnight" l

obST-Captain Midnight reference.  Captain Midnight was played by two actors.
One was Keith Andes who played Akuta in the Vol episode with David Soul as one
of the Vol-worshippers.  The other (name?) was the actor who played Ben Finney
in the episode about Kirk's court-martial where Finney fakes his own death
to seek revenge against Kirk, etc.

obAdditional ST reference.  One of the principle guest stars in the ST:TOS
episode about the Nazi-style planet was particularly interesting: Skippy
Homeyer.  As a child actor he appeared in movies such as Hitler's Children
(with Bonita Granville nee Wrather, wife of Jack Wrather producer of Lassie)
as a victim of the Hitler youth movement.  He was briefly typecast as a Hitler
youth, so a natural for the Nazi villain role in ST.
From: linden@positive.Eng.Sun.COM (Trelford Pinkerton)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Today's conspiracy theory
Date: 15 Oct 92 17:20:23 GMT
Organization: The Mtn View Tea Party.
NNTP-Posting-Host: positive

From: schnizer@kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp (Schnizer Ansgar)
> So is there somebody missing in this newsgroup who wrote in the
> past strange things about snuff videos in the making or is
> somebody in this newgroup an undercover police agent? 

Now it can be told.
Detective Chief Inspector Peter van der Linden working undercover
using the assumed name of Peter van der Linden last week coordinated
a series of raids on Britain's largest distributor of snuff rumors.

As he was led away in handcuffs, Mr Hsr4 of Oxford was heard to shout to
waiting reporters that he had secret eveidence which would ensure
his acquittal.  He was not in a position to share the evidence with
the public at this time, but he assured them of its veracity.

DCI vdL commented "the st*pid f*ck*ng b*st*rd".


--

Trelford Pinkerton     casey@the.bat    415 555-1212

Donner Party, your table for 24 -- uh, 23 -- uh 22, is ready.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Citecheck Hell)
Subject: Stare Decisis
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 16:18:57 GMT

In article <1992Oct11.012521.7549@ulysses.att.com> smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin) writes:
>They can certainly be revoked with less pain, but hardly none at all --
>or it wouldn't have taken that many hundreds of years for the reversal.
>Popes don't reverse their predecessors for the same reason that the
>Supreme Court rarely reverses itself -- such actions tend to sow doubt
>and confusion in the ranks.  (There's even a name for that doctrine in
>the case of the Court:  stare decisis, the decision stands.  (Right,
>Terry and Ted?))

Yep.  It's what saved Roe v Wade last June, if you read the Souter/O'Connor/
Kennedy(?) opinion in Planned Parenthood v Casey.

For an interesting case of stare decisis, see Flood v Kuhn, where all nine
justices agreed that baseball shouldn't have an antitrust exemption, but
a majority of them refused to reverse a fifty-year-old incorrect decision
that said that baseball was not interstate commerce subject to the Sherman
Act.  (Luckily, the owners frittered away this exemption by their stupidity,
and we have free agency today.)

In fact, even when the Supreme Court does reverse itself, it bends over
backwards to make it seem like its being consistent with its previous
opinions.  For example, contrary to popular opinion, Brown v Board of
Education did *not* overrule Plessy v Ferguson, but merely narrowed it
to a state of irrelevance.
-- 
ted frank | thf2@midway.uchicago.edu 
also at quibeaux@uchicago.edu | standard disclaimers
the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637
ajax crypto-analyzer -- warning! remove all chicken bones first
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: hal@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Hal Wadleigh)
Subject: Re: Is the electric chair an Edison publicity stunt?
Summary: guillotines are NOT humane
Reply-To: hal@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Hal Wadleigh)
Organization: Interleaf, Inc.
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 92 14:27:23 GMT
Expires: 11/8/92

In article <SteveWall-061092171204@hipmac1.pica.army.mil> SteveWall@aol.com (Steve Wall) writes:
> 
> My personal vision of humane execution is a pile-driver to the head.
> Basically a guillotine (sp?) that goes splat instead of chop!  Talk about
> instant brain death.  They could set it up in the roof of the inmate's
> cell,
> and then one night after he's lost all his appeals, lower the boom in his
> sleep.
> 
> Steve Wall

OK, here's my second disgusting "severed heads" post in as many days:

A guillotine is NOT as humane as you might think.  The brain stays alive until
it dies of oxygen deprivation, which can be as long as several minutes.  There
is consciousness in the severed head for anywhere from 30 seconds until 2
minutes.  The French custom of picking up the severed aristocrat's head and
waving it in front of the crowd got great cheers at least partly because the
first few seconds of the procedure showed the people in front eyes that cast
around the crowd in focus and a twisted mouth that couldn't manage a scream
because it was no longer connected to lungs.

If that one doesn't give you the willies, you probably thing Steven King
writes comidies.
From: john@gu.uwa.edu.au (John West)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Australian sense (was: Canadian pennies)
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 01:35:31 GMT
Organization: University Computer Club --- Perth, Western Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: mullet.gu.uwa.edu.au

Somebody who got their name deleted writes:

>> Can you imagine the U.S. government passing legislation requiring
>> retailers to round prices to the nearest 5 cents?  It seems
>> like an impractical way to handle the situation.  This Australian
>> phenomenon is really surprising, and qualifies as "news of the weird".

Funny. Us Australians don't find it all that weird. But there seems to be
a small misunderstanding here - the prices don't get rounded at all.
If you're not paying by cheque or one of those little plastic cards, then
the *total* is rounded to the nearest 5c (thats whats recommended. Some
places round down).

John West
-- 
For the humour impaired: Insert a :-) after every third word
From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: William Safire and the Bee Gees
Date: 9 Oct 92 16:50:20 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories

In article <Bvtn63.2Lu@unx.sas.com>, sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com (Bruce Tindall) writes:
> 
> Reminds me of the column William Safire (a conservative newspaper
> columnist, for the American-Culture-impaired) wrote some years back,
> containing the UL or conspiracy theory or whatever that the rock
> band "The Bee Gees" were an evil part of the drug culture because
> "Bee Gee" was an abbreviation of an alleged slang term for heroin,
> "Boy & Girl".  
> 
> Anybody know where he might have gotten this, or did he think it up
> out of his own head?  Anybody with any familiarity with the Bee Gees'
> music would know that the only drug they've ever experimented with is
> Saccharine.

Safire is a conservative, but he's not, in general, a nut-fringe,
commie pinko conspiracy conservative.  And his writings on etymology
are generally quite good, and fun to read, even for card-carrying
liberals like me...

		--Steve Bellovin
From: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Radar Cars (was: stupid cop tricks & t)
Date: 9 Oct 92 19:11:32 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

In article <1992Sep29.174649.171@nntp.nta.no>, styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo) writes...
>Funniest speed speed trap (?) I've seen was a radar connected to a sign
>that lit up the text "SLOW DOWN!" whenever somebody passed too fast.

There is/was one of these things on the Maine Turnpike.  There was also
one in Latham NY, this one is gone.

Some stories I've heard regarding the one in Maine:  Supposedly it _used_
to display your speed if you passed it at faster than the speed limit.
They changed it to a binary display (speeding or not) after too many people
blew through the sign at a high rate of speed to see how high they could
get it to read.

Some other people supposedly did weaving manuvers in front of it at a high
rate of speed to try to get at least 2, and hopefully all 3, lanes to light up
when they were the only ones around.

-Mike
From: schnizer@kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp (Schnizer Ansgar)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Arrest on the net
Date: 15 Oct 92 09:22:20 GMT
Distribution: alt.folklore.urban
Organization: Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto, Japan.

I read the story in the newpaper. Its rather recent, a few weeks
ago or so. Somebody on the net (I don't know which net) pretended
to be an average user but in fact was an undercover police officer!
Somebody told him the story that he wants to kidnap a young
child to make a snuff video. I don't know if this was a desperate
alt.folklore.urban reader who got sick of reading all that mail
of people who don't believe in snuff videos, but he might as well
have been. 
 Anyway the newspaper said that he got a 30 years prison term.

So is there somebody missing in this newsgroup who wrote in the
past strange things about snuff videos in the making or is
somebody in this newgroup an undercover police agent? 

Ansgar


--
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Oranjelo
Date: 9 Oct 92 18:49:13 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <BvtMx9.2CK@unx.sas.com> sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com (Bruce Tindall) writes:
>
>The American Kennel Club won't let you register a dog whose name
>contains the word "Dog".  So when I sent in the name of my new
>Sheltie as "Sir Raging Pooter the Wizard Dog" they eliminated the
>last word before registering him.  


I won't rest until I know.  Just what kind of dog is this, Bruce?



-- 
The trick of reason is to get the imagination to seize the actual world --
if only from time to time.     -- Annie Dillard, "An American Childhood"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Subject: Re: Garbled anecdotes (was: late talkers)
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 01:51:18 GMT

cromar@math.rutgers.edu (Scott Cromar) writes:

>davol@twinheadmeiko.co.uk (David Wilson) writes:
>> stern6@husc10.harvard.edu (Michael Stern) writes:
>[Actually, I wrote it.  Why should Mike get credit for it?]
>> > ObUL:  Churchill's first words were "In the morning I'll be sober, and
>> > you'll still be overdone."

>: The way I heard this one was: 
>...
>: "Madam, you are ugly. But in the morning I'll be sober."

>Whaddya think?  I think I caught this one cold.

I think alt.folklore.urban needs a 'Trolling for Newbies' game, much like we
had in alt.fan.warlord.  I wonder if George McQuary would volunteer to keep
score?

-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@geovision.gvc.com or {uunet,revcan}!geovision!pt
(This is not an official opinion of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
"You can't grep dead trees" - Unknown
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:25860 alt.folklore.science:3758
From: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us (S. Mudgett aka little gator)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: Language and wrongness (was Re: Metrication and "norm
Date: 16 Oct 92 10:44:54 GMT
	<1992Oct13.215751.15162@fid.morgan.com>
	<1bfj5gINN2o7@iskut.ucs.ubc.ca>
Reply-To: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us
Organization: gators 'r us
X-Software: HERMES GUS 1.03 Rev. Apr 14 1992

In <1bfj5gINN2o7@iskut.ucs.ubc.ca>, Derek K. Miller writes:
>
>KIL-ometer and kil-OM-eter are equally valid, and trying to use logic to
>decide one over the other is futile.

do you mean few-tile or fewtill?
-- 
-- 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: jamie@cs.sfu.ca (Jamie Andrews)
Subject: Dead pet UL?
Organization: CSS, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 18:57:37 GMT

     Heard this from a friend who *insisted* that it happened to
her co-worker's cousin.  Seemed like such a classic format for a
UL that I had to check it out here.  Anyone heard it?

     FOAF is renting nice house.  Doesn't want to get kicked
out.  His dog barked all night one night, neighbours complained,
FOAF was told to keep control of dog.  One day, FOAF comes home
from work early, finds dog in neighbours' yard, tossing rabbit
up and down.  Quickly goes over and finds rabbit dead and very
dirty.  "Oh no", he thinks, "neighbours will have a fit, they're
Chinese and very superstitious." [*]  Neighbours not back yet.

     FOAF takes dead rabbit back to his house, bathes it and
blow-dries it (! - this is really what she said!), takes it back
to neighbour's yard and puts it back in hutch.  A couple hours
later, neighbours come back, FOAF hears screaming of little girl
coming from yard.  Parents, little girl gather in yard.
Screaming continues a long time.  FOAF finally goes over, tries
to calm them down: "Rabbits are very sensitive, they have heart
attacks very easily and just die."

     The kicker:  neighbour responds "But the rabbit died two
weeks ago."

     (Shocked reactions from the listeners, discussion about how
the dog must have dug up the buried rabbit, etc.)

     Is there a book with this legend that I can bring to my
friend as Evidence?  :-)

[*] I include this somewhat racist remark only because such
remarks are so common in ULs.

--Jamie.
  jamie@cs.sfu.ca
"Standard brain-toy bullet list for any GnuAge grokabilly shopping trip"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: mikkelson%rwtms2.decnet@consrt.rockwell.com (snopes)
Subject: Re: Error in FAQ: Gerbils
Organization: Will pay money for food.
Date: 13 OCT 92 22:44:08    


In article <26806@dog.ee.lbl.gov>, 
  twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan) writes...

>Want to double-check that Terry?

 Which Terry are we supposed to double-check?

 - snopes

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|              "Facts are stupid things"  - Ronald Reagan, 1988               |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: ins769v@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Veltyen)
Subject: Re: "Normal" body temperature
Organization: Monash University
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 03:35:12 GMT

Sea Wasp (seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu) wrote:
: In article <1992Oct8.004405.21216@nezsdc.icl.co.nz> derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Derek Tearne) writes:
: >>   degrees C      Meaning
: >>    -40           -40 Fahrenheit                      -40 F -- BFC
: 						(Ball-Freezing Cold)

				You can say that again!

: >>    -20           Very cold				-4 F
: 			(not THAT cold. REALLY cold doesn't begin until -10.
: 			  Windchill factor can be a bitch, though.)
			
			-20 C _not_ cold. Where do you live. One of the poles?
			Sheeesh I live in Melbourne (Far South Australia) and
			we think it's bloody cold if the degrees hit zero (c)

: >>      0           Freezing				+32 F
: 			("Freezing" for water -- i.e., ice forms. Not
: 			  very cold though.)
			
			Depends where you live matey.
 
: >>     20           Room temperature			+68 F
: 			(Well, CLASSIC Room Temperature is 72 degrees F, 
: 			 actually, or about 22.22 C)
		
			22.0 C +/- 1.0 C is classic control temps
			22.0 C +/- 0.1 C for clean room conditions
			( these are from memory and approximate.)
: 
: >>     30           Hot					+86 F
: 			(Depending on humidity, this can be just warm or
: 			 it can be SCORCHINGLY hot)

			30? Hot? No wonder you think -20C is "mildy cold"
 
: >>     40           Very hot				+104 F
: 			(Unless the humidity is near-0, this is blasting
: 			 heat. Fatal. Lie around, do nothing, turn the
: 			 air conditioner up and pray the power stays on.)

			Wimp!

-Veltyen
-Adding Bandwidth
-Confusing Understanding
From: derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Derek Tearne)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Feets too big
Date: 13 Oct 92 23:58:07 GMT
Organization: Fujitsu New Zealand

In article <1992Oct12.033828.1707@u.washington.edu> starfish@stein.u.washington.edu (Sarah Skovronsky) writes:
>Here's a story I'd heard a long time ago, and now that I find myself wearing
>a neat (but too large) pair of shoes, I wonder at its truthfulness:
>
>The way I heard it, if you wear shoes that are too big for you, your feet
>will *grow and spread to fill your shoes,* thus increasing your shoe size
>*permanently* to the over-large size you were so carelessly wearing.  

Quick tell all the people in the third world who have no shoes that their
feet are going to spread out to fill the whole continent if they're not 
careful...

Think about this for a moment and you will realise that there is a much 
simpler and more plausible scenario.  If you wear shoes which are too small
for your feet their growth will be restricted.  If you wear shoes which are
large for your foot size they will grow until they reach their natural size.

After you reach adulthood your bone structure is more or less fixed. The
only thing which will subsequently affect your shoe size is how fat you are.

Here in New Zealand (and in Australia) children tend to spend a lot of time 
barefoot due to the amenable climate.  Because of this the average foot shape 
is wider and larger than an equivalent population in somewhere cold and grim 
with broken glass/snow/dog shit on the pavements, like Britain.

Derek "And my favourite band is Little Feat..." Tearne


-- 
Derek Tearne. -- derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz --  Fujitsu/ICL New Zealand -- 
Some of the more aware dinosaurs were worried about the environmental
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.  
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.
From: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Oranjelo
Date: 9 Oct 92 19:29:47 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


In article <91856@netnews.upenn.edu> crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:
>
>Nothing tops the Philippines for great names.  A few people I met when I
>lived there:
>
>Bam Boom Hippolito
>Strawberry Shortcake
>Ding Dong Delacruz
>Boy
>Girl
>Girlie (these people were middle aged)
>Bong Bong (President Marcos' son; I didn't actually meet him)

My brother-in-law is named Scott.  So what you say.  Well, his twin brother
is named Peary.

No I don't know their parents' reasons for naming them after Explorers of Very
Cold Places.

-Mike