Hotel's Early Morning Bell

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/column-8/column-8-20110530-1fcw1.html

Sydney Morning Herald
31 May 2011

Column 8

[...] "The Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath is due to reopen next year," we're told by Ross Langford-Brown, of Randwick, who asks: "Is there any truth in the story that in times gone by, a bell would ring early in the morning to ensure that visitors would return to their correct rooms?"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/column-8/column-8-20110531-1femh.html

Sydney Morning Herald
1 June 2011

Column 8

[...] Equally devoid of scandal and innuendo is the explanation offered for the Hydro Majestic Hotel by Jo McGahey, of Belrose: ''My mother-in-law, whose father built and owned the Hydro, was most insistent that the (in)famous ringing noises in the early am originated from the ancient plumbing system. I guess that may have been possible.''

But maybe we're too far along the Great Western Highway. ''No, Ross Langford-Brown, it wasn't the Hydro Majestic,'' insists Michael Morton-Evans, of Mosman, ''but the Carrington Hotel in Katoomba, which had a notice at the top of the stairs on the first floor, which read: 'Guests are requested to be in their own rooms by the breakfast gong.''

Free Condoms Contain Sperm

http://news.am/eng/news/61397.html

NEWS.am [Armenia]
31 May 2011

Armenian Red Cross denies rumors on sperm-contaminated condoms

YEREVAN. – Armenian Red cross association denied the rumors that condoms provided by association contain sperm.

“Condoms are not out of date and are not sperm-contaminated,” informed program coordinator on preventing HIV/Aids Ekaterina Vardanyan in her interview with Armenian News NEWS.am.

Earlier Armenian Red Cross offered condoms to the young couples for free in the Yerevan Lovers’ Park without age discrimination. According to the rumors, those condoms were out of date and contained foreign sperm.

Turkey Neck

[Stitches: The Journal of Medical Humour (formerly Punch Digest for Canadian Doctors) was a Toronto publication which ran from 1990 to 2007.]

John Cocker, compiler, Stitches: Off-the-Wall Tales from the Doctor's Office, Hospital, and Operating Room (Toronto: Stoddart, 1993), pp. 23-4.

He Swears This Is True!

During a quiet moment on call one Christmas, a colleague related an experience that had occurred exactly a year earlier. A young lady had presented herself at the ER with a gash on her forehead and a rather sheepish grin on her face. On the way to the examining room the nurse had determined that the patient had struck her head on the coffee table, and then had pressed for details.

"It's all rather embarrassing, really," the patient said. "My husband John and I had come to spend Christmas with his sister Cathy here in Inverness, Nova Scotia. He was all tired out, so he went to take a nap on the couch while we were getting supper ready. Anyway, we ran out of poultry seasoning, so I went out to get some more.

"Now, you see, Cathy's full of the devil, right? She took the neck of the turkey and snuck down to the living room, pulled the zipper of John's pants open, and stuck the turkey neck there proud as a flagpole.

"The last thing I remember before coming to was walking through the door, seeing Johnnie sound asleep, and the cat gnawing away at that piece of turkey!"

Honest to God, this is true!

-- Dr. John Levine [director of palliative car in Inverness, Nova Scotia]

How Robbers Mark Your House (South Africa)

http://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/how-robbers-mark-your-house-1.1075708

The Independent [South Africa]

30 May 2011

How robbers mark your house

STAFF REPORTER

A STRAY cooldrink can in front of your property could be a potential marker for robbers, according to the Western Cape Provincial Police Board.

The board said criminals using coded markers was a reality, and was not just urban legend. [...]

Poison Gas Attacks on Beijing Subway

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2011-05/27/content_22652221.htm

China Daily

27 May 2011

Beijing police dispel rumor of subway poisoning

Police in Beijing have dismissed rumors of a poisoned gas attack on the subway system, urging commuters to stay calm after false reports circulated on the Internet, Beijing News reported on Thursday.

Reports that men are roaming subway lines 4 and 10 targeting young women with poisonous gas released from cell phones have spread widely on social networking sites sparking panic. [...]

Stolen Wheelbarrows

Harry Hershfield, Laugh Louder Live Longer (New York: Gramercy Publishing Company, 1959), p. 166.

One of the better Communist stories. Every night, after factory hours, one of the workers would come out with a wheelbarrow filled with rubbish. The guard would examine it, find nothing and then let him pass. However, the guard was suspicious; that the fellow was stealing something, but he saw no proof. After months of the same procedure, he again examined the rubbish in the wheelbarrow and found nothing of value. The guard then said to him: "I know you're stealing something every night, but I can't discover what it is. Now, I'm being transferred from here to another city tonight, so I don't care anymore; but for my own sake, tell me, what are you stealing?" "Wheelbarrows," came the confession.

Tickets from a Burglar

Harry Hershfield, Laugh Louder Live Longer (New York: Gramercy Publishing Company, 1959), pp. 162-3.

In their mail came two tickets for a hit-show. It was anonymously sent. The husband and wife tried to figure out as to who sent them. They called up all their friends, but they denied sending them. The husband then reported the situation to the box-office of the theatre. And was told: "If there has been a mistake in mailing them to you, the real owners of the tickets will also tell us about it. But if nobody reports by 8:15, then you have a legitimate right to use them." On that night, they waited in the lobby of the theatre, but still wondering to themselves: "I wonder who sent them to us?" All through the show, which they were now seeing, they still wondered: "From whom -- from whom?" After the show, and after a bite, they arrived home. Their place was a shambles, drawers scattered all over the place -- were completely burglarized. And on the table was a note, reading: "NOW YOU KNOW FROM WHOM."

Crying Child Lures Women

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/17/nation/8698156&sec=nation#13056570377341&if_height=291

The Star [Malaysia]
17 May 2011

Bakri: SMS about crying kids is a hoax

PETALING JAYA: Police say the SMS messages circulating about a syndicate which uses crying children to trap unsuspecting women in order to rob or rape them is fake. [...]

Secret Tunnel Under Wizard's House (Atlanta)

http://neighbornewspapers.com/stories/Tunnel-remains-mystery,171363?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=&sub_type=stories&town_id=&page=

Neighbornewspapers.com [Georgia]
11 May 2011

Peachtree Battle tunnel remains mystery

By Thornton Kennedy

[The house at 306 Peachtree Battle Ave. in Atlanta was built for Hiram Evans in 1935.]

[...] Evans was a former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and there have always been rumors of a secret tunnel. My father, Alfred Kennedy, said he heard the tunnel connected the house to the Cotton Exchange building just off the Buckhead triangle. Someone else said that the tunnel led to Bobby Jones Golf Course. I always heard the tunnel connected to the house across the street. The one constant in all the urban legends was that there was definitely a hidden tunnel. [...]

Soldier Refused Service (Klamath Falls, OR)

http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/article_aa22cf3a-7ad1-11e0-8d9f-001cc4c03286.html

Herald and News [Klamath Falls, OR]

10 May 2011

Rumors about gas station persist

By LEE JUILLERAT
H&N Regional Editor

Steven Graham said he was wearing his Army combat uniform when he walked up to the counter of the AMA Mini-Mart and put a can of beer on the counter and asked for a can of Copenhagen chewing tobacco.

"He said, ‘We have the right to refuse anybody,' then he pointed at my U.S. Army tag. He pretty much laughed at me so I left," said Graham, a member of the Oregon Army National Guard. [...]

Hotel's Broken Flagpole Not Meant to Honor bin Laden

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42930061/ns/us_news-life/

MSNBC
6 May 2011

Ohio hotel: Half-staff US flag not mourning bin Laden

An Ohio hotel has been fending off angry phone calls because a broken rope on its flagpole led some to think the business was mourning the death of Osama bin Laden.

The rope left the U.S. flag stuck at half-staff outside a Hampton Inn in Springfield in western Ohio two days before bin Laden was killed, its assistant general manager Connie Smith told msnbc.com.

However, people started noticing the flag and assuming its position was in honor of bin Laden on Tuesday. [...]

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/springfield-news/hotels-broken-flagpole-not-meant-to-honor-bin-laden-1153594.html

Springfield News-Sun [OH]
5 May 2011

Hotel's broken flagpole not meant to honor bin Laden

By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer

Girl Escapes Abductors (Philippines)

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/05/06/11/girl-escapes-abductors-cdo

ABS-CBN News [Philippines]
6 May 2011

Girl escapes abductors in CDO

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – A kidnapped girl in Cagayan de Oro was able to safely escape her abductors early Thursday.

Reports said the girl was snatched on Wednesday by 2 women wearing masks along a road in Barangay Carmen.

Onboard a black van, the abductors took the girl to a construction site in Barangay Camaman-an.

Reports said that according to the victim, she went unconscious after one of the abductors covered her nose with a handkerchief.

When she woke up, the girl said she was already in a house being constructed. Other kidnapped children were with her in the house. [...]

Authorities are investigating if the incident had a connection with the rumor of kidnapped children whose internal organs were being snatched and sold. [...]

Warning of Attack on Paris Metro

[This seems to be a garbled variant of the Grateful Terrorist, with the terrorist handing over the lost wallet.]

http://www.expatica.com/fr/news/french-news/police-seek-origin-of-paris-attack-rumour-officials_147253.html

Expatica
6 May 2011

Police seek origin of Paris attack rumour: officials

French police said Friday they were investigating the origin of a rumoured plan to attack the Paris metro which spread across the city amid tension after the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Paris police officials who asked not to be named said the rumour started when a metro user was warned on Thursday by a fellow passenger of an impending attack.

The fellow passenger handed the man his lost wallet and told him not to use the metro on Friday because an attack was going to take place. [...]

Dead Cat Found in Restaurant Freezer

http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/9001511.Cat_rumour_could_ruin_restaurant_business/

Salisbury Journal [UK]
5 May 2011

Cat rumour could ruin restaurant business

By Morwenna Blake

A FAMILY is facing the ruin of their business because of a malicious rumour being spread about their restaurant business.

Xu Qiau Wu and her husband Cai Ming have run The Dragon Chinese restaurant in Fisherton Street, Salisbury, for the past 11 years.

But the couple, who have a son at school in the city and a daughter at university, have been left devastated and unsure of the future after a rumour that a dead cat was found in their freezer.

Despite having no basis in fact, the rumour has spread like wildfire and has led to business dropping off by a third in just two months. [...]

Bin Laden's Body Washes Ashore

[File under unintended consequences. Dispose of Bin Laden's body at sea to prevent his burial place from becoming a shrine, make possible rumors of his body washing ashore.]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/Osama-rumour-has-Rajkot-in-a-tizzy/articleshow/8162641.cms

The Times of India
4 May 2011

Osama rumour has Rajkot in a tizzy

Kulsum Yusuf, TNN

RAJKOT: Rumours that Osama Bin Laden's body had been washed ashore in Mandvi led journalists and policemen on a wild goose chase on Tuesday. [...]

Kidney Hunters in Malaysia

http://www.mmail.com.my/content/71180-police-body-hunters-kuching-merely-rumours

The Malay Mail [Malaysia]
3 May 2011

Police: Body hunters in Kuching merely rumours

Bernama

KUCHING: Police advised the people here not to panic over the circulation of a SMS or postings in social networking website Facebook claiming that body hunters are hunting for kidneys and livers in the city. [...]

Did Mumbai Get the Wrong CST Station?

http://www.mid-day.com/specials/2011/may/010511-mumbai-heritage-buildings-victoria-terminus.htm

Mid Day [Mumbai, India]

1 May 2011

Did Mumbai get the wrong CST station?

By: FIONA FERNANDEZ

According to a rumour fuelled by a few Australian websites, in the late 1800s, the plans of Bombay's Victoria Terminus (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) might have been swapped with those of Melbourne's Flinders Street Station. Sunday MiDDAY sets the record straight by throwing open the controversial subject to some of the city's most respected historians and architects [...]