Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Poisonous Candy from Zwarte Piet a Hoax




NL Times [Netherlands]
28 October 2015


by Graeme Kidd

Police have confirmed that the poisonous Zwarte Piet candy being handed out is in fact a hoax. The story was spread on social media with a picture that seems to be of the police website. This photo was manipulated to look like the police site’s home screen, according to the police.

According to the hoax, it received over 250 reports of young people dressed as Zwarte Piet handing out the Dutch treat pepernoten. It states that the candy is meant to poison children and comes with the advice not to accept anything from Zwarte Piet. […]

North Tower Taller than South Tower (University of Arkansas)




The Arkansas Traveler [University of Arkansas]
28 October 2015


Sydne Tursky

[…]

When the state government decided to build a college in Fayetteville in the late 19th century, the Board of Trustees toured several Midwestern schools to find inspiration for the UofA’s first building, said journalism professor Larry Foley, who wrote a documentary about the history of the UofA entitled “Beacon of Hope.”

As a result, Old Main is an almost exact copy of a building formerly at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Foley said. However, there is one glaring difference between the two buildings: Illinois’s version features the taller clock tower on the right, and the shorter bell tower on the left.

Here at Arkansas, the towers are reversed, so the north tower of Old Main is taller than the south tower, said Charlie Alison, the executive editor of news and editorial communications for University Relations.

This would be easy to dismiss as a simple miscommunication, but a rumor mill sprang up instead.

The most popular theory was closely linked to the Civil War, which had ended a decade before Old Main’s completion.

“The legend grew up,” Foley said, “that this was a carpetbagger scheme to make sure that the north tower is taller than the south tower, to let everybody remember from eternity that the north had won the war.”

This tale turned out to be false, Alison said. After much digging, former UA Division of Information employee Don Schaefer found the specific Board of Trustees meeting minutes in which the tower switch was made.

They did it so that the clock tower would be easily visible from the downtown square, Alison said.

Admittedly, the truth is a little boring compared to the legend. After all, here in the South it’s always more fun to blame the Yankees. […]

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Elvis Fan Sneaks Out to Concert, Parents See Her Photo in Newspaper




The Kansas City Star
14 October 2015


May 25, 1956: An Elvis Presley fan is foiled

Reader Laura Willard shares a cherished family story that might sound like a tall tale — but there really is a historical photo to back it up. From Laura:

(My mother) snuck out of her mom and dad’s house when she was a young teenager and took a bus across the state line, all so she could go to an Elvis Presley concert that she was forbidden to attend. The story that was passed down to us children and grandchildren is that she thought she got away with it till she woke up the next morning with the morning paper on her plate, with her on the front page, instead of breakfast.

Laura found the clipping here, and showed it to her uncle, who remembered it clearly and picked her mother out in the crowd. Because The Star was an evening paper at the time, the photo ran at the top of the front page of The Kansas City Times, which was labeled as “The Morning Kansas City Star.”


YourHoustonNews.com
22 August 2005


By Sondra Bosse

[On 24 August 1955, Elvis Presley performed at a high school football field in Conroe, Texas.]

[…] Wanda Sue Morgan, like all the other girls in town, couldn't wait to see Elvis.

"But her mother, Jennie Mae Morgan, wouldn't allow her to go because Elvis shook his hips in a manner that was too provocative," said Stacy Morgan about her aunt Wanda Sue Morgan.

However, Morgan snuck out and went to the concert.

"Well as luck would have it, the next day on the front page of the paper was a picture of Elvis on the flatbed trailer performing and on the front row was my Aunt Wanda swooning over him," Stacy Morgan said. "So she got busted." […]