Coin Tossing (China) – Restaurant Meal Induces Labor – Cab Drivers Required to Carry Condoms (India)

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3029670/chinese-woman-fined-us28-tossing-coins-plane-cure-babys

South China Morning Post

20 September 2019

Chinese woman fined US$28 for tossing coins from plane to ‘cure baby’s diarrhoea’

A woman who threw coins onto the parking apron at an airport in southwest China in the superstitious belief it might cure her cousin’s baby’s diarrhoea was instead fined 200 yuan (US$28), local media reported. The incident happened on September 5, as the woman, surnamed Wang, and a group of her relatives arrived in Xichang, Sichuan province, after flying from Nanchang, Jiangxi province, to attend a family wedding, the Chengdu Business News reported on Friday. Wang, 23, dropped the coins through the gap between the aircraft and the jet bridge as she and her family were disembarking. […]

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https://www.swnewsmedia.com/shakopee_valley_news/news/women-give-birth-after-eating-the-labor-inducer-burger-at/article_2962b72c-a416-5058-afe0-df4541d486f4.html

Southwest News Media [Savage, MN]

19 September 2019

2 women give birth after eating The Labor Inducer burger at Excelsior restaurant

The Suburban restaurant in Excelsior never expected to be in the business of babies, but a special spicy burger has purportedly sent two women into labor unexpectedly and brought two babies into the world. […] The Suburban has seen some more pregnant women come in and try The Labor Inducer, but as far as they know, no one else has had success, [according to co-owner Cindy Berset]. […]

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https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/delhi-cabbies-fall-fake-news-start-keeping-condoms-cabs-1601563-2019-09-21

India Today

21 September 2019

Delhi cabbies fall for fake news, start keeping condoms in cabs

A bizarre rumour has taken hold in Delhi. Delhi cab drivers are nowadays mandatorily carrying condoms with them to escape challans. The cab drivers say that if they won't carry condom, they are likely to get fined. […] In response, Delhi Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Taj Hasan said, "There is nothing mentioned in the Motor Vehicles Act about condoms. We are not issuing any challan to drivers for not having condoms in their first aid kits." […]

Scary Frogs – “They shot grandma!” – Contaminated Condoms

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/portuguese-shopkeepers-ceramic-frogs-scare-roma-190203235953102.html

Al Jazeera

4 February 2019

Portuguese shopkeepers using ceramic frogs to 'scare away' Roma

Porto, Portugal - Surrounded by baskets of oranges and tangerines, a bright green ceramic frog stands at the entrance of Helena Conceicao's grocery shop. "Everybody has frogs here," she said. "It's to scare away Gypsies because they are afraid of frogs." Similar ornaments have been placed at the entrance of shops, cafes and restaurants all over Portugal. […]

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https://www.wdbj7.com/content/news/Roanoke-Co-Parks-Recreation-and-Tourism-clairfy-Facebook-poisoned-dog-treats-rumor-505311991.html

WDBJ-TV [Roanoke, VA]

4 February 2019

Roanoke leaders say there's no truth to rumors of poisoned dog treats in parks

[…] The social media post claimed a Game Warden approached a man and warned him that people placed poisoned treats along greenways. It continued to claim the Game Warden did a sweep of Green Hill Park recently and found over 70 poisoned dog treats. […]

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https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/smiley_anders/article_6216a89c-25a5-11e9-aa10-8be6d100368b.html

The Advocate [Baton Rouge, LA]

3 February 2019

Smiley: Most memorable funeral ever

Frances Pickering Billeaud says, "My dad, Jack Pickering, was with Desi Arnaz’s band (before the 'I Love Lucy' show), and the band was on tour a good part of many years. They played a Chicago theater many times and grew fond of a Catholic priest, Father Pat, who loved show people. One night, Father Pat came in on crutches with a large cast on one leg. He had officiated at the funeral of a young soldier killed in World War II. The soldier was from a very large Chicago Italian family, all of whom attended the military funeral. The emotion of it all was finally too much for the great-grandma, and she fainted, falling to the ground as the rifles fired the salute. When a 7-year-old boy shouted, 'Oh no. They shot grandma,' Father Pat, holding his prayer book to his face, could not control his laughter, and as he tried to do so, took a step forward and fell into the open grave, breaking his leg. Needless to say, it was a funeral nobody present would ever forget."

[This is a variant of a well-known joke/contemporary legend. The detail of the broken leg – a motif found in some other contemporary legends – is new to me here.]

Freeburg Tribune (IL), 2 Feb 1951, p. 10.

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John Kinsman, AIDS Policy in Uganda: Evidence, Ideology, and the Making of an African Success Story (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 84.

The advent of Uganda’s quiet condom promotion policy in 1991 marked a substantial change in the country’s overall strategy to control HIV. Condoms were then still only available via family planning clinics and some pharmacies. […]

[T]here was a great deal of opposition to the condom in Uganda at the time, with many people associating their use with promiscuity and prostitution. Furthermore, one of my respondents – a man from rural Masaka – added that, “at first, people didn’t want to use condoms. They had this belief that the bazungu [*] are very clever. They want Africans to die, so they put the virus inside the condom. And if you use it, you will get the virus, because of that oil they put on the condom. They ask, have you ever heard of these Europeans who die from AIDS? They don’t die of AIDS. We Africans are the only people who die of AIDS.”

* Mzungu is Swahili for “white person,” and is widely used in Uganda. Bazungu is the plural.