HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tperreau@zia.aoc.nrao.edu (The Mad Scot)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.startrek.misc
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: 12 Dec 92 13:40:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: zia.1992Dec12.134053.27704
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro NM

In article <11DEC92.14595294@vax.clarku.edu> mcohen@vax.clarku.edu writes:
>In a previous article, schamber@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Sylvain Chamberland) wrote:
>>In article <6u8mVB1w165w@codewks.nacjack.gen.nz> system@codewks.nacjack.gen.nz (Wayne McDougall) writes:
>>>brownea@cc.uvcc.edu writes:
>>>
>>>> 	"Mother Very Easily Made a Jam Sandwich Using No Peanuts, Mayonaise or
>>>> Glue" - 
>>>> 	Mercury
>>>> 	Venus
>>>> 	Earth
>>>> 	Mars
>>>> 	Jupiter
>>>> 	Saturn
>>>> 	Uranus
>>>> 	Neptune
>>>> 	Pluto
>>>> (in some universes)
>>>> 	Mickey
>>>> 	Goofy
>>>
>>>Only problem is that this is wrong. Pluto is closer to the sun that Neptune.
>> 
>>You're kidding!!!!!
>> 
>>Where did you get that???
>> 
>>I'm no astronomer, but back in high school, people told me Pluto is the
>>9th planet and was discovered only because of ambiguities in Neptune's
>>orbit...
>> 
>Most of the time Pluto is the outermost planet.  Because of its offset orbit 
>it is within Neptune's orbit for part of its "year".  I don't know if that's 
>currently the case or not.
>
>/--------------------------------------------------------------------------\
>| > <    Mitch Cohen * Multimedia consultant * MCohen@vax.clarku.edu       |
>|  ^          Any opinions expressed are clearly not my own.               |
>|  v     I'll come up with something intelligent to put here later.        |
>\__________________________________________________________________________/

For a portion of Pluto's orbit, it is close to the Sun than Neptune is
- this is currently the case, up to the year 1998 or 1999 (I think) -
it is interesting to note that the Voyager flyby of Neptune in 1986
visited then (then) furthest planet from the Sun.

Along with mnemonics, how about the one for the resistor color code?
Learned that one in the USAF and have not forgotten it since!


-- 
===============================================================================
Tony Perreault, High Tech Babysitter & Nanny      tperreau@banshee.vla.nrao.edu
Array Operations, Very Large Array	          All opinions expressed are my
Socorro, NM				            own and not those of NRAO
From: DPM%MRGPRE%Health_Net@mcimail.com (DPM)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Ad Council Wants Sale of Crash-Dummy Dolls Stopped
Date: 11 Dec 1992 14:38:35 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

   The Ad Council on Thrusday called on Tyco Toys to withdraw "Incredible Crash 
Dummies," one of the year's most popular toys, because the toy jeopardizes its 
campaign to get people to wear seat belts.
   The toy dummies, which fly apart when driven into a toy crash wall, resemble 
the dummies used in the council's public service announcements to remind 
motorists to use their seat belts.
   It is the first time the Ad Council, a non-profit group, has ever called 
upon a company to stop selling a product.
   Though the toy has generated scattered controversy among parents and 
educators, it is popular with boys ages 5 to 8.  It is expected to ring up 
sales of about $50 million this year, making it one of the best-selling 
Christmas toys.
   Richard Grey, chairman and chief executive officer, said he would not recall 
the toys.  He said that the toy came about as a result of negotiations between 
Tyco and the U.S. Department of Transportation, which licensed the crash dummy 
concept in an effort to encourage youngsters to buckle up.
   However, DOT reportedly pulled out of the deal because it feared that the 
safety message was getting lost.  Tyco then changed the names of the crash-test 
dummies from Vince and Larry, used by the Ad Council, to Slick and Slim.
VMSmail To information: @DIS$:AFU
Sender's personal name: snopes @ Health Net
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: scafati@incoming.med.ge.com (Victor-charles Scafati)
Subject: FBI list...
Organization: GE Medical Systems, Magnetic Resonance
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 92 19:22:37 GMT

I just plucked this from rec.pyrotechnics.  Does this scream UL or what?
I'm sure the FBI doesn't have better things to be doing with their time...

In article <6wFmVB3w165w@tcscs.UUCP>, tcscs!zeta@src.honeywell.com (Gregory Youngblood) writes:
|> jheath@CERIS.Purdue.EDU (Jim Heath) writes:
|> 
|> > From article <1992Dec10.034233.3578@cobber.cord.edu>, by serhienk@cobber.cord
|> > > 
|> > >     What is this Anarchist's Cookbook?  It sounds VERY interesting.  Can
|> > > anybody out there in netland E-mail it to me or point me to an ftp site tha
|> > > has it?
|> > > 
|> > 
|> > The local bookstore that used to carry it will order it.  They stopped
|> > stocking it because the local anarchists would rather steal it than buy it
|> > ;-{).
|> 
|> I remember a few years ago that's not what people said. They said if you 
|> ordered it from a bookstore then you were put on a list, and they'd send the
|> list to FBI for them to check you out.  If you passed, you got the book. :)
|> 

-- 
________________________________________________________________________________
                        |     The views expressed herein do not     |    Fear
 Victor-charles Scafati |   necessarily represent the views of the  |     no 
 scafati@mr.med.ge.com  |  author, let alone his employer or client |    Art!
________________________________________________________________________________
From: tms@cs.umd.edu (Tom Swiss (not Swift, not Suiss, Swiss!))
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Another University Exam One
Date: 12 Dec 92 21:44:15 GMT
Organization: The Reality Liberation Front (pixels to the people!)

egilmour@ac.dal.ca writes:
>An other UFL to go with the BLUEBOOK exam story
>
>Sitting in my exam today the professor beat to death that we should read
>the entire exam first. This sparked a memory of a grade six science teacher
>that told us naive eleven year olds to always remember to read the entire
>exam because when he was in university they once had this really long 
>exam that went on for over ten pages. And when he turned over to seventh
>question on page six it started by saying "IGNORE ALL QUESTIONS BEFORE
>THIS ONE"

     I've been given tests along that line twice. Once in middle school and
once in high school. They weren't ten pages, but maybe about two dozen
questions.

===============================================================================
Tom Swiss/tms@cs.umd.edu  |  "Born to die"   |   Keep your laws off my brain!
     "What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?" - Nick Lowe 
                     Keep your values off my family.
     "I wasn't ready, man. I - I still believed in justice."
     "Your world entertains many quaint superstitions."
     -- Victor Milan, "Madman across the Water"
        (in _Jokertown Shuffle - Wild Cards IX_)
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Matt McIrvin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: "In Bed" - The origin of...
Keywords: in bed
Date: 11 Dec 92 20:50:07 GMT

ldoering@engin.umich.edu (Laurence Doering) writes:

>In article <1g7jacINN15l@pms706.pms.ford.com> ekimmina@pms001.pms.ford.com (Eric Kimminau) writes:
>>
>>Ive been talking with some people in a few other groups 
>>about seeing where people are adding the phrase "in bed"
>>to the end of sentances. I always thought that i was the
>>originator of this saying from one bash some friends and
>>I had at a sushi place in Dallas in the Fall of 1987. 
>>[...]

>My girlfriend says it after reading fortune cookies.  She's never
>had contact with the net, and was born in Czechoslovakia.
>I knew people who said it, again in connection with fortune cookies,
>when I went to Penn in the early 80's.

I first encountered it in connection with fortune cookies when I was
in high school, around 1985.  So there's another data point.
(I graduated in 1986.)
-- 
Matt McIrvin
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pmoloney@maths.tcd.ie (Paul Moloney)
Subject: Re: Why Not?
Organization: Somewhere in the Twentieth Century
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 11:28:39 GMT

derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Derek Tearne) writes:

>In fact I am almost sure he posted an almost identical legend about an 
>Oxford student, a glass of beer and a sword.  

Well, I heard about it here in Trinity. A student enters the Exam Hall,
and demands his glass of sherry, as laid out in the rules of College (some
versions of the story say that the rule states that your manservant
may bring you sherry, not that you can demand it from the college).

Anyway, the sherry is brought, and then the fact that he isn't wearing
his sword is pointed out. He's led off, and fined.

P.
-- 
moorcockheathersiainbankshamandcornpizzapjorourkebluesbrothersspikeleepratchett
clive  P a u l   M o l o n e y    "I'm pretty witty and you're itty bitty    pe
james  Trinity College, Dublin     And isn't it a pity the city can't see?   vr
brownbladerunnerorsonscottcardprincewatchmenkatebushbatmanthekillingjoketolkien
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.college
From: wag5@quads.uchicago.edu (john peter wagner)
Subject: Re: College Libraries Funded by the Trivial
Reply-To: wag5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 02:03:46 GMT


	Actually, the Regenstein library is more than radioactive. It IS
a zoo. A couple of issues back in the school newspaper, "The Maroon,"
there was a picture of a guy running down the center steps between levels
three and two wearing only a ski-mask.  Let's just say it was a big joke
in terms of his trying to impress anyone.                      
	Also, at the Shoreland, a large dormitory near the lake, a few blocks
east of campus, finals week the last bus had been called the 'geek bus.' It
left at like 11:30 or whatever from the Reg and everyone in the Shoreland
would yell 'Geeks' and various obscenities at the people coming in from
the bus.  Supposedly this was because the poeple studied so late. That is
of course bullshit, since few people stick to standard sleeping regimen here.
Anyway, one quarter a year or so ago a number of the students on one night's
geek bus ran out nude, and into the shoreland. I think it was winter quarter.
	There are other instances of streaking, as on other campuses.

		Gotta get back to the grind
		John
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Crazy as a $2 bill
From: leb@violet.ccit.arizona.edu (BASEL, LESLIE)
Date: 12 Dec 1992 22:11 MST  
Distribution: world,local
Organization: University of Arizona
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

In article <1992Dec10.215052.4968@pony.Ingres.COM>, bobm@Ingres.COM (Bob McQueer) writes...
>In <Bz0MCz.Eyr@unx.sas.com>,
>	dated Wed, 9 Dec 1992 23:24:35 GMT,
>	sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com (Bruce Tindall) writes:
> 
>> 1.  The $2 bill was considered to be unlucky; the way to break the
>> evil spell it cast on you was to tear off a corner of the bill. 
>> Thus the bank clerks had a very hard time accurately counting stacks
>> of the things because they were all mutilated.
> 
>Does anybody have any stories as to why $2 bills are considered unlucky?
> 
>The superstition has persisted for many years, with them never circulating
>very much.  These days, I suspect that if you wanted them to circulate, you
>would have to convince the makers of bill-changing machines and vending
>machines to buy into taking them (which of course they don't want to because
>nobody uses them ...).
> 
>Another curiosity - according to my almanac, the $2 bill is the only bill
>whose design has changed in the last few decades.  They discontinued it
>in 1966, and reissued it in 1976, taking Monticello off the back and
>substituting a picture of the signing of the declaration of independence.
>How come the treasury dept seems determined to issue the things if nobody
>wants to use them?

The way I heard it, it was the most convenient bill to use at the 2-dollar
window at the race tracks; seein' as most bettors lose, the bad luck was
blamed on the bill not the bettor's system.

Rodger Coghlan

Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:30930 rec.arts.startrek.misc:12549
From: ebp4907@ultb.isc.rit.edu (E.B. Palmer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.startrek.misc
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: 12 Dec 92 19:12:03 GMT
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Originator: ebp4907@ultb

Anyone post this one yet?

My Very Easy Method: Just Set Up Nine Planets

	--from some Space book I had when I was a kid

-- 
Erica                                        | "I co-oped for Kodak and all  |
                                             |  I developed was this lousy   |
ebp4907@ritvax.isc.rit.edu                   |  cold."                       |
erica@damage.bah.rochester.ny.us             |_______________________________|
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: tomj@monster.apd.saic.com (Tom Johnson)
Subject: Re: Amusing signs
Organization: SAIC, Reston, VA
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:23:49 GMT

warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein) writes:

>In <1gdsg3INNi8h@bigboote.WPI.EDU> bdsm@fermat.WPI.EDU (Billy Don McConnell) writes:

>>I don't know about Unknown Street, but in Austin, Texas, there is a street
>>called "Nameless Road".

>Tel Aviv has two small streets called "Simtat Plonit" and "Simtat
>Almonit", which sort of translate as "Someone-or-other's Alley" and
>"Anonymous Alley".  Another pair of small streets are "Where To? A"
>and "Where To? B"

And here in Reston, VA there's a permanent sign labeled "Temporary Road".
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson)
Subject: Re: Tidings from the Moon (was Soda Bottle Warning Source)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis, Oregon USA
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 20:33:49 GMT

system@codewks.nacjack.gen.nz (Wayne McDougall) writes:
: 
: > If nothing else, this is certainly a descriptive way to illustrate the
: > effect of the moon's gravity on the earth.  How would you go about
: > describing the fact that stuff closer to the moon is attracted more
: > strongly than the part of the earth that is farther away?
: 
: Hmm, a question in there, kinduv, so I can tie up my strand (hello Hugh!).
: 
: I expected more posts to be prompted by this statement. It seems intuitively
: wrong to me that the relative difference between the distance of the water
: on the far side of the Earth and the far side of the Earth is enough for
: the difference to be a high tide that is just as high as the difference
: induced on the other side, especially as water is more elastic than the land.

The height of the tide, when it gets to land, has nothing to do with how high
it is in the open sea.  As an illustration, on the coast of Oregon, it only
varies a few feet - in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, it varies 15 feet or more.
The tide range is even higher in the Bay of Fundy - which I believe is the
greatest in the world. 

Bill
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jeffh@pisces.sps.mot.com  (Jeff Heilner)
Subject: Re: Guess what's not in this dictionary?
Organization: SPS
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 21:44:55 GMT

In article <BzF1Mz.6D0.2@cs.cmu.edu> spok+@cs.cmu.edu (John Ockerbloom)  
writes:
> On a sudden suspicion, I picked up a "Webster's" printed by an outfit
> calling itself "P.S.I Press" or something like that, with a cover
> claiming "over 250,000 words".
> 
> Sure enough, the word "gullible" was not defined in the dictionary.


The word can also be spelled "gullable". 
Maybe it was defined under this spelling?

If not it's a pretty sorry dictionary.

-jrh


--
**************************************************************************
Jeff Heilner                      Motorola - Semiconductor Products Sector 
Software Engineer                 Network Support and Development
jeffh@pisces.sps.mot.com (NeXT)   Tempe, Arizona USA
**************** GO A'S! **** GO SHARKS! **** GO WARRIORS! ***************
   
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)
Subject: Re: chelsea clinton (was re:
Reply-To: warren@nysernet.org
Organization: Mail to News Gateway at Wang Labs
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 10:17:06 GMT

In <1992Dec9.338.24989@execnet> tom.betz@execnet.com (tom betz) writes:

    No, it's an obscure Elvis Costello song from early in his career.
    Probably predates Chelsea Clinton...

But September already happened this year, too.
-- 
/|/-\/-\       In real life, the Vice President chastises Murphey Brown
 |__/__/_/     for her morals.  Bill Clinton plays the sax on "Arsenio
 |warren@      Hall."  Though "Batman Returns" is fiction, it's not too
/ nysernet.org much stranger than truth - Caryn James, The New York Times
From: smidt@fy.chalmers.se (Peter Smidt)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Diplomat embarassment in Washington
Date: 17 Dec 92 02:06:27 GMT
Organization: Chalmers University of Technology


This have been told in a swedish newspaper of mine:

It happened in Washington.

At a large meeting/party/conference a diplomat from a foreign country
should hold a speech. But after a few moments of his speech he noticed
that the zipper in his trouseres was open. He then decided to for a moment
temporary postpone his speech and sit down
and discretly close his zipper. But when he closed the zipper, his tie
got stuck in the zipper. The diplomat then began to struggle to
free his tie. Everybody was of course looking at him and some
of the officials gathered around the diplomat and asked if he wanted
some help. He said no and now people started to laugh at the
event. After some more minutes the diplomat now begun to become
red in his face because of shortage of air supply (the tie around
his neck). People was now laughing their heads off. At last a lady
came to the diplomats rescue and reached him a scissor. The diplomat
cut his tie, raised, turned around and ran out of the place.
A piece of cloth was flappering to the floor as he ran.
He was later degraded from his diplomat work and got an
very simple job in his home country.

Has anyone heard from which country he came?

-- 
+=======================================+
"The whole valley is like a smorgasbord."
					-- TREMORS
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:31049 alt.folklore.college:3278
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.college
Subject: Re: College Libraries Funded by the Trivial
From: derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Derek Tearne)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 02:24:12 GMT
Organization: Fujitsu New Zealand

In article <1992Dec13.025333.20653@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:

>I'm curious whether this is true, or just an urban legend of its own.
>
>The reason I ask is because I was told as a credulous student at Brandeis
>that the Gerstenzang Library was funded by the man who invented Q-Tips.
>
>Do other colleges have libraries allegedly funded by the inventors of the
>mundane?  Are either of these stories true?  

Wasn't Yale funded by a lock manufacturer?

Derek "You can always pick them" Tearne



-- 
Derek Tearne.   --   derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz   --    Fujitsu New Zealand   -- 
 _______
 _______} This is a Usenet condom<tm>.  Roll the condom over the .signature 
	  file before posting to protect yourself from .sig retro-virii
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.college,uchi.general
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: College Libraries Funded by the Trivial
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.college
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 02:53:33 GMT

In article <1992Dec12.211326.10263@midway.uchicago.edu> N.W. Choe <nwc1@midway.uchicago.edu> writes:
>The Regenstein Library here at the University 
>of Chicago (home base of Nobel Prizes) was 
>paid for by the Regenstein Family... who 
>invented/made those enveloped with
>clear plastic windows in them... 

I'm curious whether this is true, or just an urban legend of its own.

The reason I ask is because I was told as a credulous student at Brandeis
that the Gerstenzang Library was funded by the man who invented Q-Tips.

Do other colleges have libraries allegedly funded by the inventors of the
mundane?  Are either of these stories true?  

Ted "they never let me into the Reg because law students never carry
     their registration cards because the law library isn't anal" Frank
-- 
ted frank                     | thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu 
standard disclaimers          | void where prohibited
the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637
From: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us (S. Mudgett aka little gator)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: "Tabloid Readers Not Dumb"
Summary: A.F.U. Collective Sigh of Relief
Date: 15 Dec 92 15:18:58 GMT
Reply-To: scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us
Organization: gators 'r us
X-Software: HERMES GUS 1.04 Rev. Sep  5 1992

In <27973@dog.ee.lbl.gov>, Terry Chan writes:
>In a story from the _Orlando Sentinel_ which I found in the 
>10 December 1992 _SF Examiner_, they review a book with some 
>pertinent insights to a.f.u.
(stuff deleted)
>
>(the reviewer) makes an effort not to make judgments, and concludes with
>the following:
>
>"We all have outlets for fantasy....It may be classic novels,
>highbrow films -- but we're still doing it (escaping from
>reality).  To say the tabloid readers' form of escapism is
>cheap, low and nasty, and mine is somehow better is a real
>value judgement."

wouldn't that depend on what hers is?
-- 
-- 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: styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo)
Subject: Re: Amusing signs
Reply-To: styri@nta.no
Organization: Bohemians and Globetrotters, Unlimited
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 13:40:36 GMT

In article <1992Dec13.032407.21721@midway.uchicago.edu>, thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes:
|> In article <t7R=Jf#@engin.umich.edu> ldoering@engin.umich.edu (Laurence Doering) writes:
|> >I noticed some weird street signs last summer when I was in Berlin.  
|> >It was odd, but about one out of every three streets seemed to be
|> >named "Einbahnstrasse."  I have no idea how Berliners find their
|> >way around.  
|> 
|> I didn't know jelly doughnuts migrated.
|> 
|> Ted "ich bin ein deux trois" Frank

I used to travel around in europe with a guy who was a real pathfinder.
During one trip in England he suggested that we should visit a friend of
him. He'd lost the phone number, but he knew the street name: Cul de Sac.
Boy, I miss those trips.

---
YuNoHoo  "hey folks, we're supposed to have lunch in a nice town called
	  Ausfart. I've forgot to bring a map, so if anyone spots the
	  sign I'd like you to yell out."
From: egilmour@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Another University Exam One
Date: 11 Dec 92 17:12:00 -0400
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

An other UFL to go with the BLUEBOOK exam story

Sitting in my exam today the professor beat to death that we should read
the entire exam first. This sparked a memory of a grade six science teacher
that told us naive eleven year olds to always remember to read the entire
exam because when he was in university they once had this really long 
exam that went on for over ten pages. And when he turned over to seventh
question on page six it started by saying "IGNORE ALL QUESTIONS BEFORE
THIS ONE"
Anyone else heard this one?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban