HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: saxe@src.dec.com (Jim Saxe)
Subject: Chandelier story (was Re: Moscow phones (was Re: NYC phones))
Summary: Hotel guest suspects "bug," unscrews downstairs chandelier.  Origin?
Organization: DEC Systems Research Center
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92 22:25:51 GMT

In article <BtqEsp.FHI@news.cso.uiuc.edu> iam30974@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
(uncertain_future) writes:
>serge@ippi.msk.su (Serge Volkoff) writes:
>>A Soviet UL:  Americans staying in an Intourist hotel in Moscow messing
>>with these things on the ceiling [now guess what happened...] the room
>>flooded with water from the sprinkler (sp?) system.
>
>(variation:  couple spends an evening at the Watergate hotel, husband
>thinks, "hey, maybe it's still being bugged" -checks everywhere, finally
>under the carpet, a disk with four screws.  Unscrews it, puts it away.
>next day the manager walks in ... "... the couple below you complained;
>a chandelier fell on them."
>	[actually a Henny Youngman joke, but I had to stick it in
>	 here nonetheless]

Interesting.  The first time I heard the chandelier story (sometime in the
1960's) it was a supposedly true story about an American athlete visiting
the Soviet Union for some sort of international competetion.  He decides
to search his hotel room for "bugs," eventually looks under the carpet,
finds a bolt, unscrews it, and hears a loud crash as the chandelier falls
in the room below.

Some time after 1985 I heard essentially the same story (told as "true",
of course) on Paul Harvey's "News and Comment."  There were a few
differences:  In one version the guy was actively searching the hotel
room, while in the other he just happened to notice a bump under the
carpet and decided to investigate; I'm reasonably sure that Paul Harvey's
athlete had a different sport than the one in the first version I heard;
and, of course, Paul Harvey claimed to be reporting a recent incident even
though the story was at least fifteen (and probably over twenty) years
old.  [Could it actually have happened twice? :-)].

Can anyone supply specific references to early versions of this story
either as a "true" incident (e.g., a newspaper account from the 1960's)
or as a joke (e.g., a Henny Youngman recording)?

--Jim Saxe   <saxe@src.dec.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lmh@world.std.com (Larry M Headlund)
Subject: Re: Price gouging in Florida and Guam
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 23:56:29 GMT

In article <1992Aug31.202137.27111@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> bwatson@nyx.cs.du.edu (bruce watson) writes:
>I keep hearing on CNN that there is price gouging in the aftermaths
>of Hurricane Andrew and Typhoon Omar for necessities like ice 
>and food. Surely this is an urban legend like the Red Cross selling
>donuts and coffee to soldiers in Europe. I went through Hurricane 
>Camille in 1969 and did not encounter price gouging.
>
	The Red Cross did sell cigarettes during WWI though.
		(Source: _Goodbye, Darkness_ by William Manchester)

	As far as price gouging for ice,  the Wall Street Journal had
editorials justifying the $10 bags of ice cubes in the Charleston area
after their hurricane.

Larry "and of course there where the $20 showers at Woodstock" Headlund 

-- 
Larry Headlund  lmh@world.std.com    Eikonal Systems (617) 482-3345 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: vkochend@nyx.cs.du.edu (vance kochenderfer)
Subject: Re: Of Butterflys and Hurricanes
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 01:51:17 GMT

     There is an interesting short story by Ray Bradbury in which a
big game hunter goes back in time to hunt a dinosaur.  While there,
he accidentally steps on and kills a butterfly, changing history
irrevocably.  Look for it in a library near you, it's in one of his
collections...

Vance Kochenderfer
vkochend@nyx.cs.du.edu

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: seanna@bnr.ca (Seanna Watson)
Subject: Re: Bathroom Embarrassment UL
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 01:50:40 GMT

Here is an account by Walter Hooper, an American biographer of British
author C.S. Lewis, about Hooper's visit to Lewis' house (from the book
_G.K._Chesterton_and_C.S._Lewis:_The_Riddle_of_Joy):

...Eventually, after what had been at least two hours of steady tea-
drinking, I asked, with that embarrassment the English find comic, to be
shown the "bathroom".  I didn't know that in most English homes the bath-
room and the toilet are separate rooms.  "Of course you may use the bath-
room," said Lewis, and he took me to his.  Pointing to the tub, he flung
down a pile of towels and laid out not one but several tablets of soap.
"Are you sure you have everything you need?" he asked before closing the
door behind him.  I stood a long time in that bathroom gazing at the tub,
towels, and soap, wondering what to do.  When I couldn't bear it any 
longer I returned to the Common Room and told Lewis it wasn't a bath I
wanted.  "Well, sir," said Lewis, bursting with laughter, "'Choose you
this day.'  That will break you of those silly American euphemisms.  And
now, where is it you want to go?"

-- 
Seanna Watson   Bell-Northern Research, 
(seanna@bnr.ca) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Opinions, what opinions?  Oh *these* opinions. | It's hard to seize the
No, they're not BNR's, they're mine.           | day when you must first
I knew I'd left them somewhere.                | grapple with the morning.
From: perry@Unify.Com (Perry Clarke)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Cellular Frequencies
Keywords: n
Date: 1 Sep 92 01:50:41 GMT
Organization: Unify Corporation

rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) wrote:
>cromar@math.rutgers.edu (Scott Cromar) writes:
>>I have a 2-year-old Radio Shack portable TV that goes all the way to
>>83.  I haven't noticed any cellular chatter, though.  Do you need a
>>descrambler or something?
>
>Nope.  However, unless you are near an extremely busy cell, your
>chances of picking up anything are slim.  There's only about a dozen
>to two dozen UHF channels in the right range, and cellular channels go
>up to 1023 (although some of them aren't used).  You'd need to pick up
>a cellular conversation that just happened to be at the frequency
>where the TV expected the voice band for the channel you are tuned
>into.  And due to frequency re-use considerations, a cell near you
>would only use a certain set of those channels.  Unless you lived,
>say, along the highway in LA, your chance of picking up cellular
>conversations is low.

Isn't it also true that each "side" of the conversation is broadcast on a
different frequency?  So to be a "master" criminal you would need *two*
"Radio Shack portable TV"s!

I remember a TV documentary in the UK about the time cellular phones began
to get popular which addressed the question: "If cell phones are just 2-way
radios with some clever connections to the phone system isn't it very easy
to listen in?".  A demonstration was given which showed that the combination
of one frequency for each direction and the fact that both frequencies
change completely (and unpredictably) when the phone (assumed to be in a
car) moves from one "cell" to another made it very difficult to get a
complete conversation.  A device the size of a suitcase with an impressive
array of knobs and dials was shown which was alleged to be a unit used by
the police to implement wire taps of cellular phones.  A short drive about
London attempting to follow the conversation of a colleague convinced the TV
reporter that the state of the art had some way to go!

Is it illegal to listen to one's neighbor's cordless phone?

BTW, in the UK some *police* bands are in the middle of the standard *FM* 
radio spectrum (i.e. between 87 and 108MHz).  It's illegal to listen to those
too :-)

Perry "You never hear anything good about yourself, anyway" Clarke

--
Perry Clarke                   perry@unify.com                 (916) 928 6287
Unify Corporation, Sacramento, CA                   I speak only for Me, Inc.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: sweeney@Ingres.COM (Tony Sweeney)
Subject: Re: Sex on the Train
Reply-To: sweeney@Ingres.COM (Tony Sweeney)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501
Date: 2 Sep 92 16:48:40 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.154302.42702@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> brnt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
>In article <1992Sep1.072034.24759@echo.philips.nl>, dolf@echo.philips.nl (Dolf Grunbauer) writes:
>> nichol@asc.slb.com (Bruce Nichol) writes:
>>>	I read a short story in a recent international edition of
>>>Newsweek about a couple in a train in England.  Apparently they were
>>>having oral sex on the train and were pretty much ignored by the other
>>>passengers.  However when they were finished, the lit up cigarettes.
>>>This caused much dismay among the other passengers, some of whom
>>>complained to the conductor.  "I say, you can't smoke here!"  They
>>>were later arrested for indecent exposure or something like that.  
>> 
>> I think this is a joke. The version I heard was of a man masturbating
>> and afterwards asking the old lady next to him if it was ok if he smoked
>
>	Oh yeah, this is definitely a UL.  A few years ago Paul Harvey
>(anything heard on Paul Harvey has a 9 in 10 chance of being an urban legend)
>told a story about a couple having sex on an airplane.  About halfway through
>the act, a stewardess notice their behavior and tried to make them cease and
>desist.  The other passengers pelted the stewardess with food.
>	I don't believe a word of it.

UL maybe, happened in UK recently definitely. The couple were on the train back
from a works outing. The woman fellated the man in a first class carriage
(relatively private), then they repaired to a second class carriage,
whereupon the woman went to the toilet, removed her jeans, returned
to her partner, and had sex in full view of the travelling public.
Only when they lit up a post-coital cigarette did anyone raise a murmur.
("Hey, this a no smoking carriage!") The couple were arrested and subsequently
taken to court, where they were fined for public indecency and smoking in a 
non-smoking carriage. This was a few weeks ago, so I no longer have
my copy of the Independant to cite exact details. They were fined about #75
each. Names and addresses were published. The one quote that sticks in my
mind is from the man: "We did have a few beers at Margate." This is the
sort of detail that no-one could invent.
>
>Brent "Gosh, nothing that exciting ever happens in the seat next to me" Dyer
>

Tony "you have to make your own fun" Sweeney.
From: amconn01@ulkyvx.louisville.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Misapplied physics in advertising
Date: 27 Aug 92 18:02:42 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Louisville

In article <17135@ulysses.att.com>, smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin) writes:
> In article <1992Aug26.102011.6099@news.columbia.edu>, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>>  
>> Also, who is "responsible" for the making up of names of recent drugs,
>> such as Augmentin?  Are there any guidelines for any of these things?
> 
> That's probably a brand name, as opposed to a chemical name; it's therefore
> made up by marketing droids.

A drug can actually have up to four different names: the chemical name, the
generic name, the brand name, and the street name.

Connor/Castigat ridendo mores
From: scott@natinst.com (Scott A. Taylor)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Screaming Peaches and Terrified Eggs
Summary: Houseplants don't like pain either
Keywords: plants, screaming
Date: 25 Aug 92 17:34:04 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Distribution: alt
Organization: National Instruments, Austin, TX

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 remember reading an article years ago about an experiment in which
scientists connected houseplants to sensitive electrical instruments and
monitored them as they pulled off leaves, burned leaves and stems, and
perpetrated other atrocities on the unsuspecting greenery.  They measured
definite "reactions" to the "pain."  I believe that the plants even reacted
to the defoliation of their neighbors, although I'm not sure about that.
Sorry that I can't remember where I read about the experiment.

This could be bad news for vegetarians...

>
>
>Geoff "AIEEEE!" Miller
>
>
>-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
>Geoff Miller                    + + + + + + + +        Sun Microsystems
>geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM  + + + + + + + +     Menlo Park, California
>-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-


-- 
Scott Taylor            |
(512) 795-6837          | "                              " -Marcelle Marceau
scott@natinst.com       |
         ** NI pays me to write their code, not their opinions **
From: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Date: 27 Aug 1992 01:54:29 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: purplehaze.corp.sun.com



In article <1992Aug26.232751.15903@bbxrbk> russ@bbxrbk (Russ Kepler) writes:

>But the ultimate in Vietnam action was the Clusterfuck.  Nothing
>compared with that...  took most all of the forces and no noncoms to
>get to that level of screwup.


A friend of mine who was in the Army during the Vietnam era explained
that there were three levels, in ascending order of severity:  the
Mindfuck, the Clusterfuck, and worst of all, the Giant Bear Fuck.



Geoff


-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
"Democrats are so stupid that if one of 'em fell into a barrel full of
     titties he'd come out sucking his thumb." -- Scott A. Chasse
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: nolan@twg.com (Nolan Hinshaw)
Subject: Re: classic commericals
Reply-To: nolan@twg.com
Organization: Committee for Entertaining Advertising
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 17:46:43 GMT


Waaaaay back when, 'round ought '55 or so, Fisk Tires used to display
billboards with a graphic of a toddler in his/her Dr. Denton's with a candle
stick in one hand and a tire over the other arm. The caption was "It's time to
re-tire." One of the world's kyooooootest adverts, eh?
--
Nolan 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
From: hwt@bcarh11a.BNR.CA (Henry Troup)
Subject: Re: Imponderables (Yawn)
Reply-To: Henry.Troup@BNR.CA
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd., Ottawa, Canada
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 13:40:46 GMT

In article <1992Aug24.063234.2248@cuug.ab.ca>, thompson@cuug.ab.ca
(Bruce Thompson 272-1800(w) or 229-3370(h)) writes:

|>display with a troup of primates (I cannot remember which specific
|>primates) and the dominant male raced out and yawned at us (no, I'm

Wasn't me, must have been acousin, or my long lost half brother.
          
  Henry Troup - HWT@BNR.CA (Canada) - BNR owns but does not share my opinions
    "If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong" - R.L.S.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jdahl@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Jared Dahl)
Subject: Re: Russian dog-mines in WWII
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 22:17:59 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM Rochester

In article <Btnnyy.5tJ@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, tjz20735@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Tom Zych) writes:
|> mort@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Jeff Mortensen) writes:
|> 
|> >In alt.folklore.urban, thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes:
|> 
|> >> 
|> >> Sounds suspiciously like the bat-explosives the United States tried
|> >> during World War II.
|> >	
|> >	the base.  If the atomic bomb had not worked, this plan would 
|> >	have been used, and Japan most probably would have been burned
|> >	to the ground.  A different ending, but the result would have
|> >	been the same.  
                 ^^^^
I don't think that firebombing produces radiation burns and genetic 
defects.  Not that firebombing is a particularly pleasant thing...


|> 
|> >Morty 
|> >            
|> 
|> I think that the B29 incendiary raids did a pretty good job of burning large
|> parts of Japan to the ground, without flying mammilian help.  BTW, Dave Barry
|> wrote a column about the bats once, don't remember exactly when...
|> 
|> Tom Zych   tjz20735@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
|> 

I seem to remember the US doing the same thing to Dresden, Germany 
also.  More people were killed in Dresden and Tokyo than Nagasaki
and Hiroshima.

-- 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
| Jared Dahl             | "My heart is human, my blood is boiling, | 
| Systems Programmer     |  my brain IBM"                           |
| IBM - Rochester, MN    |              -- STYX,  "Mr. Roboto"      |
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Opinions expressed are mine, not IBM's.
From: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM (Brian Scearce)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Abandoned/Booby Trapped Aircraft hangars
Date: 3 Sep 92 17:47:39 GMT
Reply-To: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems
NNTP-Posting-Host: sector7g

In article 143748WCE2@psuvm.psu.edu, <WCE2@psuvm.psu.edu> () writes:
> There are local legends in Great Britain about caves that contain
> labyrinths or which extend from (say) Liverpool to Chester (I made that
> up, no flames please about the Mersey River); a bagpiper goes down to
> test the truth of story, promising to keep playing as he goes so that
> people up top can monitor his progress.  He gets so far, but then the
> music stops, and he is never seen again.

If only *all* bagpipers were so cooperative.

Brian "Ask me what Eric Partridge says about 'bagpiping'" Scearce
---
Brian Scearce                               bls@sector7g.eng.sun.com
        The above does not necessarily represent Sun policy.
          It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: dooley@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Kevin Dooley)
Subject: B12 (was Re: What makes an urban legend work?)
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 00:58:38 GMT

In article <1992Aug29.092638.22717@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>obfactoid:  Some "health food" people stay away from meat for years and slowly
>get B12 deficiency.  They have children who die soon after birth from the
>complications of total B12 deficiency because unlike the parents, the infant
>never had a B12 store to slowly use.  There is an ongoing debate as to whether
>there is a "natural" B12 supply not derived from meat, and a "quest" for an
>alleged vegetable source that is an obscure plant, etc.

I'll just add a little to that factoid:
B12 is not known to occur in any vegetable matter.  It was thought for
a while that some sorts of seaweed had B12 in it, but it turns out that
it was another chemically similar molecule which, unfortunately, didn't
have any nutritional benefit to humans.  Some fermented products such
as miso and tempeh have also been rumoured to contain B12, but it turns
out that if you make it under sanitary conditions as required to sell the
stuff anywhere in North America, and probably Europe also, the bacteria
which actually generated the vitamin never gets a chance to `contaminate'
it, so you can't use that as a B12 source.  However, there are some excellent
sources of B12 which are not from meat.  In particular, there are B12
tablets which are derived from a bacteria which generates copious quantities
of the stuff and also certain types of yeast are reasonably good sources
of B12 (but not very good for making beer or bread... life is full of
tradeoffs, eh?).

ObUL:
The beef and dairy boards conspired to prevent the US Dept of Agriculture
from coming out with a new 'pyramid' food group chart to replace the old
'four basic' food groups.  In the new scheme meat and dairy products are
optional.  Actually, this one's true.

Kevin Dooley
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 05:48:25 GMT

In article <1992Sep2.184834.22198@pmafire.inel.gov> geoff@pmafire.inel.gov (Geoff Allen) writes:
>
>Geoff ``Still waiting for the three-sided record of the Gilligan's
>Island theme'' Allen

Wasn't there a version of Led Zep's Stairway to Heaven except the words were
about GI?

ObGIfact:  The first version of the GI theme, sung by the Wellingtons,
mentions Gilligan, the skipper too, the millionaire (and his wife), the movie
star, and the rest.  Apparently when the theme was recorded, the characters
of the Professor and Maryann had not been finalized yet.

cj (but what about Maynard G Krebs?) l
From: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM (Brian Scearce)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What makes an urban legend work?
Date: 3 Sep 92 19:01:27 GMT
Reply-To: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems
NNTP-Posting-Host: sector7g

In article 26996@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu, gfm@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (George Francis McBay) writes:
> If it's true, it is pretty sick.  I doubt highly that it's some
> coincidence either.

OK, George, here's the WingDings mapping for the upper-case letters
(courtesy of Joe Morris).  I'd like for you to come up with an
alternate mapping, and then we can all have fun exhibiting *your*
hidden agenda.

40  @  handwriteleft              50  P  pennant
41  A  handv                      51  Q  airplane
42  B  handok                     52  R  sunshine
43  C  thumbup                    53  S  droplet
44  D  thumbdown                  54  T  snowflake
45  E  handptleft                 55  U  crossoutline
46  F  handptright                56  V  crssshadow
47  G  handptup                   57  W  crossceltic
48  H  handptdwn                  58  X  crossmaltese
49  I  handhalt                   59  Y  starofdavid
4a  J  smileface                  5a  Z  crescentstar
4b  K  neutralface                5b  [  yinyang
4c  L  frownface                  5c  \  om
4d  M  bomb                       5d  ]  wheel
4e  N  skullcrossbones            5e  ^  aries
4f  O  flag                       5f  _  taurus

Brian "This oughta be good" Scearce
---
Brian Scearce                               bls@sector7g.eng.sun.com
        The above does not necessarily represent Sun policy.
          It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.