Oral Herpes Spread by Beer Pong

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/136027

East Valley Tribune [Phoenix, AZ]
27 February 2009

Herpes articles include fake Crow quote

Ryan Gabrielson, Tribune

The drinking game “beer pong” might be spreading oral herpes on university campuses nationwide, but you didn’t hear that from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And Arizona State University President Michael Crow isn’t distributing virus-free plastic cups to assist underage drinking in the dorms, contrary to online news reports this week. [...]

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:1MX1coQGg60J:www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Unprotected-Beer-Pong-May-Give-You-More-Than-a-Buzz.html+%22students,+can+cause+an+increase+in+herpes%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca

[Google cache]

KNBC-TV [Los Angeles]
25 February 2009

Unprotected Beer Pong May Give You More Than a Buzz

By ANNA CARRANZA

Play at your own risk, if you’re willing to risk a cold sore. [...]

Pedophile Ring Rumors, Ontario

http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1454545

North Bay Nugget [ON]
27 February 2009

Rumours of pedophile ring were fabrications, inquiry told

Posted By ALLISON JONES, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Murky allegations that a pedophile clan operated with impunity in eastern Ontario were cast as fabrications spread by a misguided police officer and embraced by a panic-stricken community during four days of final submissions at the Cornwall inquiry. [...]

Marion Road Designed as Emergency Landing Strip

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=2&a=387526

Post-Bulletin [Rochester, MN]
27 February 2009

Answer Man: Desk cost $4,652: Can we move on?

[...] Answer Man, as a lifelong resident of Rochester, I have heard many stories and legends of this fine city and surrounding area. One urban legend that comes to mind is that of Marion Road. There is about a mile stretch in front of the Armory that is straight and quite flat. The legend says it was designed and built that way many decades ago as an emergency landing strip for military aircraft if the need was to ever arise. Could this be true? -- Forever Lost in Legend

This one smacks of the truth, but I can't find anyone to verify it. Anyone have more information? [...]

Liberia's Water Supply Threatened

http://esteyonage.blogspot.com/2009/02/blood-water.html

Esteyonage

25 February 2009

Blood Water: Liberia Narrowly Avoids the First Plague

[Myles Estey, a media trainer in Monrovia, Liberia, reports on his blog about rumors that "all the country's water supplies would turn to blood by morning, though other variations claimed the water would become bitter, or perhaps dry up."]

http://www.theliberiantimes.com/article_2009_02_25_1612.shtml

The Liberian Times

25 February 2009

Liberia: Rumor scars Liberians of potential water shortage, citizens brave the night for water

by Michael Kpayili / Staff Writer

[The Government's Information Minister denies there is a water shortage. Widespread queuing for water may have been caused by rumors that a prophet declared that "all drinking water in Liberia would be contaminated for three days." A devastating caterpillar outbreak that has polluted drinking supplies in Liberia may be the basis for such worries.]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090205-liberia-killer-caterpillars.html?source=rss

National Geographic News

5 February 2009

Nightmarish Caterpillar Swarm Defies Control in Liberia

Karen Lange

http://www.liberianobserver.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/15466/Liberia_and_the_Liberians_with__another_prophecy_.html

Daily Observer [Monrovia, Liberia]
26 February 2009

Liberia and the Liberians with another prophecy

Sando Moore

Horseface

Jack Aspinwall, compiler, Tell Me Another! (London: Century, 1986), p. 17.

Geoffrey Dickens, JP, MP

A very ugly woman asked me for an autograph at a summer fête I had opened. Certainly -- if you care to drop me a note at the House of Commons I will be delighted to send you a photograph, I volunteered. Four weeks later a charming letter arrived from that lady and after her signature she had bravely written Horseface in brackets. Filled with admiration for the way in which she had come to terms with her repulsive looks, I entered into the spirit of things. With a felt-tipped pen I wrote on the photograph 'To My Dear Friend Horseface -- Love and Best Wishes, Geoffrey Dickens.' After it was safely in the post and on the way to my courageous constituent, my secretary informed me that she had been extremely helpful in writing Horseface after her name in case I had forgotten the lady in question.

[An anecdote also told of or by Winston Churchill, Michael Portillo, and Clement Freud, among others. -- bc]

Honking at Green Light Can Be Fatal

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/residents_95152___article.html/brownsville_seriously

Brownsville Herald [Texas]
24 February 2009

Brownsville police warn residents not to take urban myths received through e-mail too seriously.

By Ildefonso Ortiz, The Brownsville Herald

[...] One e-mail that particularly ruffled the student deals with a luxurious sports utility vehicle stopping at a light and not moving forward when the light turns green. When the driver of the vehicle behind doesn't honk, the SUV occupants get out and give the driver $100 for not honking. They further tell the driver that they had made a bet and if the driver had honked they would have killed him. [...]

Pet Dog Was a Wolf (China)

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3207514.html?menu=news.quirkies

Ananova [UK]
20 February 2009

Pet dog was a wolf

A Chinese man was shocked to discover that the pet dog he had raised from a pup was actually a wolf.

Mr Li, of Xi?an [Xi'an -- bc], said he found the shivering puppy in the mountains on an excursion last year and brought it home.

He built it a den in a clearing in his village, fed it and took it for walks, reports Huashang Daily. [...]

Best-mistress Contest (China)

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200902/20090217/article_391306.htm

Shanghai Daily
17 February 2009

Best-mistress contest takes fatal turn at its finish

By Li Xinran

THE loser of a bizarre talent contest drove her former lover and the man's four other mistresses off a cliff in eastern China's Shandong Province in an apparent fit of anger, killing herself and injuring the others. [...]

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/6596198.html

People's Daily [China]
19 February 2009

Reporter fired for plagiarism in E China

A reporter whose story of a businessman's contest to decide which mistress to keep was fired after he was found to have plagiarized, according to a Wednesday statement of the local newspaper in east China's Shandong Province. [...]

Thieves Cut Purse Straps of Wal-Mart Customers

http://www.raleigh3.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=1748&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=2724&hn=raleigh3&he=.com

http://tinyurl.com/cl83fh

The Raleigh Telegram [NC]
20 February 2009

Garner Police Address Wal-Mart Robbery Rumor

GARNER - The Garner Police Department says a persistent Internet rumor that women's purses are being stolen in the store with razor blades is not true. [...]

Skull and Bones Lawsuit

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/17/AR2009021703371.html

Washington Post
18 February 2009

Geronimo Descendant Pursues Spirited Fight

By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer

[Harlyn Geronimo, great-grandson of the Apache leader, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to liberate his ancestor's skull from a Yale University secret society.]

Filipinos Make Me Puke

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/feb/17/yehey/opinion/20090217opi5.html

The Manila Times
17 February 2009

MEN & EVENTS
By Alito L. Malinao

The ugly American

My good friend, the lawyer Juliano “Jelly” Nacino, former legal counsel of the National Press Club, emailed me an open letter by a certain Art Bell, a radio talk show host from Nevada, USA, and the reply from Ms. May Muñoz, a Filipina. [...]

[The letter, entitled "Filipinos Make Me Puke," is an old hoax. The Philippine Daily Inquirer also fell for it some years ago (Leah Salterio, "US Talk Radio Host Insults Filipinos on Internet," 1 July 2001, p. 27). Mr. Malinao's column ends with this comment: "All I can add is that if Art Bell comes to visit Manila, not a few Filipinos would love to skin him alive."

[Art Bell, who in fact is married to a Filipina, was understandably angry. "I am going to sue you," he wrote. "You have made a huge mistake....You did not do your homework as a member of the press and it is going to cost your newspaper a lot of money." The Manila Times later published two retractions.]

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/feb/19/yehey/opinion/20090219opi8.html

Manila Times
19 February 2009

LETTER

Our sincere apologies to Mr. Art Bell

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/feb/19/yehey/opinion/20090219opi4.html

The Manila Times
19 February 2009

MEN & EVENTS
By Alito L. Malinao

‘Hate letter a hoax’ – real Art Bell

Ring Around the Rosy

Michael W. Dols, The Black Death in the Middle East (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977), p. 78.

As-Safadi wrote that the plague-stricken Damascenes during the Black Death "looked like roses," which may reasonably refer to those conspicuous skin blemishes. This symptom recalls, in a morbid manner, our common children's song, "Ring Around the Rosy," which originally applied to these inflamed pustules during European plague epidemics.

(As-Safadi died of plague in 1363. It is unlikely the nursery rhyme refers to the disease. --bc)

Digitally Operated Sonic Generator

Sydney Morning Herald
14 February 2009

Column 8

[...] Stuart Prosser, of Otford, chimes in with more techno jargon (NASA, etc, Column 8, Thursday): "In the early days of CERN operations in Europe, when scientists used to let their hair down with riotous evenings singing along to music hall favourites, some younger blades were desperate to get their hands on a piano. Knowing that the beancounters had no appreciation of good music, or scientific jargon, they submitted a request for a 'digitally operated sonic generator' that was urgently needed for brainstorming sessions. I'm not sure if the Steinway they requested was ever delivered." [...]

Ernest Borgnine Lost Look-alike Contest

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/14/nyregion/14metjournal.html

New York Times
13 February 2009

The Taco Joint That Loves Ernest Borgnine

By MICHAEL WILSON

[For seventeen years Tortilla Flats, a Mexican restaurant in New York's West Village, has held an Ernest Borgnine look-alike contest in honor of the uglesome actor.]

[...] There is an urban legend that Mr. Borgnine once entered the look-alike contest -- and lost. "That's the kind of publicity I have down there," Mr. Borgnine said. [...]

Shoe Tree, Florence, Alabama

http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090210/NEWS/902090297/1011/NEWS?Title=Forget_the_fruit___this_tree_bears_shoes

The Times Daily [Florence, AL]
10 February 2009

Forget the fruit - this tree bears shoes

By Lisa Singleton-Rickman
Staff Writer

CHEROKEE - There's a shoe-bearing tree on the outskirts of town, alongside U.S. 72, that through the years has gained the attention of all who pass it. [...]

"I heard one child say the tree was there to provide shoes for poor people, and perhaps it has served that purpose," said Cherokee resident Martha Couch, the town's authority on shoe trees since photographing one with hundreds of shoes hanging on it in Utah three years ago.

Couch laughs at rumors that the tree, with its dozens of shoes draped over its branches, is a marker for gang turf.

"That's ridiculous to me because there are plenty of high heels and even baby shoes on that tree," she said. [...]

Right-click

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126943.200-the-unluckiest-pig-in-the-world-and-more.html

New Scientist [UK]
4 February 2009

Feedback

[...] THE mother of a friend of Dave Higginbottom was trying to get the hang of her daughter's computer. After a while, she shouted to her daughter: "What do you do when a squiggly red line appears under a word?"

"Just right-click," replied her daughter from the next room.

A moment later the mother replied: "I've written 'click' but it makes no difference. I just get the word 'click' after the word with the squiggly line." [...]

The Inescapable Package

James Kirkup's booklet, Modern American Myths, consists for the most part of retellings of stories from Brunvand's The Vanishing Hitchhiker, but it does contain one humorous personal experience story.

James Kirkup, Modern American Myths: The Folktales of the Young Today in America (Tokyo: New Currents International, 1985), p. 52.

[I am reminded] of an experience I once had in Japan, when I was trying to get rid of a parcel of dirty old clothes. I wrapped them up neatly, and tried to leave the parcel in the Tokyo subway: but just as I was leaving the train, a kind lady ran after me with the parcel, and handed it to me, smiling and bowing: I had to pretend to be grateful. I left it in a coffeeshop, but a waitress came running after me in the street with the parcel. Finally I threw it into Lake Yamanaka, but it was washed up on the shore. The parcel was taken to the local police, who suspected that the clothes must belong to a suicide. So they checked the dry-cleaner's marks on the clothes, and found the cleaning shop where I usually had my clothes dry-cleaned. You can imagine my surprise when the delivery boy from the dry-cleaner's brought me the parcel of clothes one morning -- all freshly washed and cleaned!

Jealous Cats Deliberately Smother Human Babies

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/features/6245009.html

Houston Chronicle
3 February 2009

Cats kill babies? Bunk, experts say

By LANA BERKOWITZ

[In Families Today, a syndicated column by Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, he wrote that cats "have been known to be jealous of new babies as if the new arrivals were siblings! Some cats will seek out the babies' mouths and noses and lie on them to smother them."]

La-a (Child's Name)

http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/3319266/department-of-pronunciation.thtml

The Spectator [UK]
3 February 2009

Department of Pronunciation

Alex Massie

A friend's wife was conducting a teacher training session in Anacostia, Washington DC the other day: [...]

[In one of her classes there was a child named Bukat (pronounced Bukuhtee, as in Booker T. Washington) and one named La-a (pronounced Ladasha).]

UPDATE: In the comments Corey points out that Snopes have investigated La-a previously and classified it as "undetermined". Well, all I can say is that I trust my friend's wife. If she says there's a kid named La-a in Anacostia, I reckon there is such a kid.

Barbecue Cat Kerfuffle

http://www.canada.com/Life/story.html?id=1236554

Canada.com
30 January 2009

Hello kitty: Grit aide grilled for BBQ cat comment

By David Akin, Canwest News Service

OTTAWA - A Vancouver Conservative MP on Friday demanded Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff fire his top campaign aide after Warren Kinsella made a comment on his blog the member of Parliament says is racist.

Alice Wong told the House of Commons Friday that Kinsella joked that Chinese restaurants serve “barbecue cat.” [...]

Gang Initiation: Beating Up Car Occupants

http://ourtribune.com/article.php?id=6491

The Tribune [Humble, Texas]
28 January 2009

Humble police say e-mail about gang activity near U.S. Highway 59 is a hoax

Robert Kleeman

A widely-distributed e-mail that warns readers about a violent gang initiation at the FM 1960 and U.S. Highway 59 McDonald's and Toys R' Us is fraudulent, Humble Police Department Lt. Jay Wrobliske said.

The message describes an activity in which a gang targets an unsuspecting driver in a parking lot or drive-thru late at night by blocking him or her in on both sides with SUVs. The gang members then capture the driver and any passengers and beat them so badly that their faces are unrecognizable when they are sent to the area hospital. [...]

[Two e-mail texts are included in the article.]

http://ourtribune.com/article.php?id=6509

The Tribune [Texas]
2 February 2009

E-mail about gang bump-and-rob a hoax

Robert Kleeman

A widely-distributed e-mail that warns readers about a violent gang initiation at the FM 1960 and U.S. Highway 59 McDonald’s and Toys R’ Us is an embellishment on a road rage incident that happened in the area, Humble Police Department Lt. Jay Wrobliske said. [...]

Cello Scrotum

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5601050.ece

The Times [UK]

28 January 2009

Cello scrotum? It's a load of . . . nonsense, admits Baroness Murphy

Will Pavia

Until this week cellists worldwide had reason to fear a terrible malady. Worse than fiddler’s neck, flautist’s chin or even the dreaded guitarist’s nipple was the condition known as “cello scrotum”. [...]

[The nonexistent malady was noted in a letter published in the British Medical Journal in 1974 by Dr. Elaine Murphy (now Baroness Murphy).]

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/jan27_4/b288?ijkey=5f4bd3a7f7ab7d9f87ad6a748b805848a14fe0d2&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

British Medical Journal
BMJ 2009;334:b288
27 January 2009

Letters

Cello scrotum confession

St. Francis Prayer is a Modern Invention

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j8pVl_73kYREC_3w45ijdI5AMl7AD95SU5AO0

The Associated Press
23 January 2009

St. Francis prayer was modern creation

By ARIEL DAVID

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A simple prayer for peace attributed to St. Francis, widely quoted by leaders and cherished by many Christians, probably had nothing to do with the medieval friar.

The Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, reported this week that the prayer that begins with "Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace," first appeared in France at the start of the 20th century and became popular during World War I. [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/world/europe/23italy.html?_r=1&ref=world

New York Times
23 January 2009

Truth About a Prayer: A Saint's Name, but Not His Words

By RACHEL DONADIO

Rumors in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/16690

Kansas City Star
22 January 2009

SURVEY: Obama Muslim rumor widespread

COLUMBUS -- About nine in 10 Americans heard the rumor that Barack Obama is a Muslim, making it possibly the most prevalent rumor of the 2008 presidential campaign, according to a nationwide survey.

However, only 22 percent of those surveyed said they actually believed that Obama is a Muslim.

[The article summarizes a report by R. Kelly Garrett and James N. Danziger called "Rumors and the Internet in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election." [pdf]

Sneakers on Wires Have Lost Their Meaning

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-shoefiti_city_zonejan22,0,7233589.story

Chicago Tribune
22 January 2009

Sneakers on a wire

'Old-school' symbols of gang turf, drug dens and death, have lost their meaning, some say

By Ofelia Casillas

Tribune reporter

The Hokey Cokey

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/12/22/singing-the-hokey-cokey-could-land-football-fans-in-sectarian-bother-86908-20989183/

Daily Record [UK]
22 December 2008

Singing the Hokey Cokey could land football fans in sectarian bother

By John Ferguson

POLICE have vowed to crack down on football fans singing the Hokey Cokey -- after claims the song is sectarian.

Catholic church leaders believe the old time children's ditty pokes fun at priests. And they fear it could be hijacked by bigots. [...]

Peter Kearney, a spokesman for the Catholic church in Scotland, said: "This song does have quite disturbing origins. It was devised as an attack on, and a parody of, the Mass. If there are moves to restore its more malevolent meaning then consideration should perhaps be given to its wider use." [...]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1229/1229728603894.html

Irish Times
29 December 2008

Hokey Cokey' gets red card at Rangers

DAN KEENAN, Northern News Editor

SATURDAY'S "OLD Firm" clash between Glasgow's two soccer giants took place without the strains of the Hokey Cokey rising from the Rangers supporters.

The tipsy party ditty has joined the list of songs banned on the grounds of alleged sectarianism amid claims that it is a bigoted take on the Latin Mass. [...]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2058a612-e0e1-11dd-b0e8-000077b07658.html

Financial Times [UK]
13 January 2009

Capitalism's enemies have the best tunes

By Brian Groom

[...] But now Alan Balfour says his grandfather, a 1940s London band leader called Al Tabor, wrote the song and that it is about ice-cream. Tabor was going to call it "hokey pokey", a nickname for ice-cream, but changed it to "hokey cokey" at the suggestion of a Canadian officer who thought it would sound better because "cokey" was a slang term for crazy in Canada. Somehow I doubt this will end debate about the song's origins. [...]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2b90ab7c-e692-11dd-8e4f-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

Financial Times [UK]
20 January 2009

Letters

Hokey Cokey was founded on a traditional Canadian song

[Jimmy Kennedy, Jr., says his father wrote the song, basing it on a "Canadian children's game called the Cokey Cokey." The title supposedly refers to "drugs taken by the miners in Canada to cheer themselves in the harsh environment where they were prospecting."]

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=1202503
Canada.com
21 January 2009
Canada's Hokey Pokey cause of England dust up
Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service

Obama Baby Boom

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1126128/Will-Obama-baby-boom.html

Daily Mail [UK]
21 January 2009

Post-inauguration euphoria sweeping America could result in an Obama baby boom

By Graham Smith

The outpouring of euphoric optimism currently gripping the U.S. following the inauguration of Barack Obama may yet result in a baby boom towards the end of this year. [...]

The Bug under the Rug

Jim Taylor, "Hello, Sweetheart? Gimme Rewrite!" My Life in the Wonderful World of Sports (Madeira Park, B.C.: Harbour Publishing, 2008), pp. 107-8.

[Jim Taylor, a sports reporter with the Vancouver Province, went to Moscow to see the final four games of the Canada-USSR hockey series in 1972.]

My memories are snapshots, some significant, some not, but all vivid...

[...]

The classic search for electronic listening bugs by two Team Canada players in their assigned room. They look behind pictures, under the mattresses and finally under the rug, where they discover a flat metal disc, unscrew it, and hear a horrendous crash in the room below. They have unbolted the chandelier.

Mirror, Mirror

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/category/just-weird/page/21/

Mechanix Illustrated, August 1950

Spooks on the Airways

By Irv Leiberman

[...] Another similar incident happened in Jackson Heights, New York. One morning, after a gay and alcoholic night before, a man wearily trudged into the bathroom to shave. He was just about deciding to jump back into bed and forget about work that day when a disgustingly wide-awake voice shouted “Look sharp! Be sharp! Use . . .” The poor fellow almost fainted. Engineers later blamed it on a peculiar arrangement of lead on the glass and tin in the cabinet. [...]

[That item comes from an article about various objects that have unexpectedly become radio receivers. Jeffrey Sconce, in Haunted Media (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2000, p. 68), mentions a suspiciously similar incident in which a woman "fainted one morning in the bathroom after her mirror greeted her by saying hello (apparently the lead and glass in the bathroom had served as an antenna for a nearby station)." His source is Alden Armagnac, "Weird Electrical Freaks Traced to Runaway Radio Waves," Popular Science Monthly, June 1935, p. 11. -- bc]

Bush Breaks Tecumseh's Death Curse

http://www.slate.com/id/2208520/

Slate
14 January 2009

Bush's Legacy: He Survived!

Reagan broke Tecumseh's Curse, but Bush may have killed it altogether.

By Steve Friess

Historians will be debating George Bush's presidency for decades to come -- in fact, they've already started -- but in one area, at least, he leaves an unambiguous legacy: He will break, once and for all, Tecumseh's Curse. [...]