"Rule of Three" Celebrity Deaths

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/29/AR2009062903986.html

Washington Post
30 June 2009

For Celebs, Is Death a True 'Triple' Threat?

By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer

Rarely since Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper crashed and died more or less simultaneously in an Iowa cornfield on Feb. 3, 1959, has the Celebrity Death Rule of Three fulfilled itself with such swift efficacy. [...]

Bullet Stopped by Bible

Gerald C. Milnes, Signs, Cures, and Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2007), p. 27.

Robert Simmons [of Pendleton County, West Virginia], born in 1908, related a story to me about his grandfather, Martin Simmons. He said that during the Civil War, Martin was a conscientious objector, being of the old Brethren pacifist persuasion. When authorities came to force him into conscription, he hid under the house. Someone gave away his hiding place and he was discovered, but he attempted an escape by running across a field. He was shot in the chest as he ran by Armand Hiner, of Franklin, who, I presume, was there in an official capacity. Robert ends this story by saying that the shot never seriously hurt him, as the impact was almost totally absorbed by a small New Testament he had in his shirt pocket. Robert thinks a distant cousin still has the Testament, which "has some bloodstains on it."

Revived Corpse Slaps Pastor

http://www.news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200512633.shtml

Awareness Times [Freetown, Sierra Leone]

25 June 2009

In Sierra Leone, No Corpse Woke Up in Freetown

By Abdul Fonti & Sylvia Blyden

The Chief Executive of the Columbia Davies Funeral Home, Madam Junietta Macaulay has spoken to Awareness Times during which she completely debunked a wild rumour that spread in Freetown yesterday June 24th 2009 that a corpse of a late female school teacher (name withheld) which had been kept at her Funeral Home, woke up during the Funeral Service at the St. John’s Church in Central Freetown and proceeded to slap the Pastor. [...]

Nepalese Worker Eaten by Vietnamese

http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Qatar/10139448.html

Gulf News [United Arab Emirates]
15 July 2007

Probe launched into reports about cannibalism in Qatar

Staff Reporter

Doha: The Public Prosecution has launched an inquiry to find the source of rumours of a Nepalese worker being killed and devoured by four of his Vietnamese colleagues, Asian diplomats and legal sources in Doha said.

The Nepalese charge d'affaires in Doha told Gulf News yesterday his mission received a "confirmation" from Qatari police saying that there were no reports of missing Nepalese workers. [...]

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=299253&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

Gulf Times [Qatar]

25 June 2009

Journalists acquitted in ‘cannibalism’ case

Seven local journalists, including three editors-in-chief, were yesterday acquitted of charges of harming the relations with a friendly country and spreading hatred in society by publishing “false news”.

The seven were tried in a case related to a report that appeared in local dailies in June 2007 that four Vietnamese workers had “killed and eaten a Nepali labourer”. [...]

Ed McMahon's Mug

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19920522&id=YdMQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1YsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2931,1516908

The Free-Lance Star [Fredericksburg, VA]

22 May 1992, p. D6

New horizons for second banana No. 1

By Paul Lomartire
Associated Press Writer

[For 30 years as the sidekick on "The Tonight Show," Ed McMahon would sit in a chair next to Johnny Carson's desk and laugh uproariously at the host's wisecracks, pausing occasionally to sip iced tea from a stoneware mug. That mug, Lomartire writes, was "part of the Ed-the-jovial-Irish-drunk legend created and milked by Carson."]

[...] "That's been kind of a running gag, 'What's in Ed's cup?'," [McMahon] says. "People would take a drink and feign it was loaded with booze and they'd almost collapse, gag or choke or some people would drink it all the way down like they liked it." [...]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2009/06/when_i_met_ed_mcmahon.html

Washington Post

23 June 2009

Celebritology [Blog]

When I Met Ed McMahon

By Liz Kelly

[Sometime in 1991 Liz Kelly met Ed McMahon backstage at "The Tonight Show" the night her father was a guest. She describes McMahon as being "florid, merry and smelling a bit... spirited."]

[...] We were giddily riding back to the hotel in our NBC-provided limo when dad said that during a commercial break he'd accidentally picked up McMahon's coffee mug for a sip of water, only to discover it was filled with whiskey.

Apocryphal or on the level? Since both dad and McMahon are now dead, we likely won't know. But it does make a good story.

Yankee Stadium Rats

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/nyregion/22diary.html?ref=nyregion

New York Times
22 June 2009

Metropolitan Diary

[A man on a New York City train was overheard telling his young son why it's okay to throw peanut shells on the floor of Yankee Stadium. "[T]hey keep rats at Yankee Stadium, and after the fans leave, they let them in to clean up the shells."]

Having Sex in a Car Will Make It Fall Apart

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1019282

Sowetan [South Africa]
18 June 2009

Myths you just can’t shake off

Amanda Ngudle

[...] Myth: Having sex in a car will make it fall apart.

Fact: “People who generally take the risk of having sex in a car are usually young people who don’t really fret over the condition of their cars and surroundings in general. Their cars fall apart from negligence, not from the act of sex itself,” [Dr. Lebo] Maile- Maimela says. [...]

Drink Spiking Study (Australia)

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25642700-5013404,00.html

The Australian
16 June 2009

Drink spiking claims rejected

Nic White

THE nightclub scourge of drink spiking is greatly exaggerated and is more likely the result of alcohol consumed willingly by the victim than doping by a predator.

Australian researchers have found that not one of the 97 young men and women admitted over 19 months to two Perth hospitals claiming to have had their drinks spiked had, in fact, been drugged. [...]

McDonald's Staff Have Swine Flu (Bahrain)

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=253324

Gulf Daily News [Bahrain]
16 June 2009

Restaurant rumours rapped

HEALTH Ministry officials yesterday urged people to ignore rumours that staff at the popular fast food chain McDonald's had tested positive for swine flu. [...]

Abducted Teenagers (Hungarian Chain Letter)

http://www.pestiside.hu/20090616/from-the-inbox-i-hungarian-police-in-kidnapping-spree-coverup-/

[Blog]

Pestiside.hu [Budapest]
16 June 2009

From the Inbox (I): Hungarian Police in Kidnapping Spree Coverup

A chain letter calling Eger and Győr the new epicenters of kidnapping in Hungary has been making its way around Hungarian inboxes recently. [...]

[Teenagers are being abducted by people in a Mercedes.]

UA Football Team's No. 12 Jersey

http://deas.tuscaloosanews.com/default.asp?item=2389538

Tuscaloosa News [AL]
14 June 2009

THE ABC AND DEAS OF SPORTS [Blog]

Tommy Deas

Urban Mythbuster: Alabama's No. 12 jersey

Apparently there has been an urban myth going around about the No. 12 jersey on the University of Alabama football team.

The jersey, according to the myth, is somehow sacred. Only a player -- specifically a quarterback -- who is thought to be the next all-time great is supposed to be assigned that number. There's even a version that claims that to wear the No. 12, a player has to have the blessing of not only the head coach, but whoever wore it before him. [...]

Bristol Zoo Parking Lot Attendant's Scam

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/homepage/Urban-myth-Bristol-Zoo-parking-attendant/article-1073841-detail/article.html

Evening Post [Bristol, UK]
13 June 2009

Urban myth of the Bristol Zoo parking attendant

[...] Touted as a genuine news article, the tale of a Bristol Zoo parking attendant who lined his own pockets with customers' cash for 23 years before going missing with the loot has set cyberspace alight.

But the Evening Post can confirm the story, which has been emailed to thousands of people across the globe in recent months, is nothing more than an urban myth – and the real attendants say the joke is starting to wear thin. [...]

[The article notes that this legend also appeared in the Evening Post two years ago on April Fools' Day.]

Water Moccasins in Lake Sinclair?

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews&pnpID=1039&NewsID=962202&CategoryID=19733&on=1

The Baldwin Bulletin [Milledgeville, GA]
10 June 2009

Water mocassins on Lake Sinclair?

Chris McKearney

[Many people wrongly believe that venomous water moccasins live in Lake Sinclair. Pres Haslam, a marina owner, laughs at the legend that a man water skiing on the lake died from water moccasin bites. "I think it’s a story that’s told on every lake in Georgia. I’ve had people from out of town come to the marina and tell me that story. But the only difference is that the story happened on the lake back where they are from."]

Vampire Rumors at Elementary School

http://heraldnet.com/article/20090611/NEWS01/706119930

The Daily Herald [Everett, WA]
11 June 2009

Lake Stevens school quells vampire rumors

By Kaitlin Manry
Herald Writer

LAKE STEVENS -- Lake Stevens school administrators want to drive a stake through rumors that vampires -- or children making believe they were undead -- abducted and bit two Mount Pilchuck Elementary School students. [...]

[Apparently the rumors started after a seventh-grade girl hugged a fifth-grade boy.]

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/47879422.html

KOMO News [Seattle, WA]
11 June 2009

Vampire rumors haunt Lake Stevens

By Theron Zahn

[Although school district officials say there is no evidence the girl bit him, the boy's mother insists there were marks on his forehead "that looked like they could be from her teeth."]

Stella Awards Editorial (Lebanon Daily News)

http://www.ldnews.com/alllistings/ci_12537514?IADID=Search-www.ldnews.com-www.ldnews.com

Lebanon Daily News [PA]
6 June 2009

Sad but true

We can’t begin to describe what you’re about to read. It could fall into the category of “what were they thinking,” but that language isn’t nearly strong enough. We don’t know if language has been invented yet to describe the wrongness to which we are about to subject you. [...]

[The editorial goes on to describe some infamous lawsuits that appear on a website dedicated to the "Stella Awards." Two days later, the paper apologizes for its gullibility.]

http://www.ldnews.com/alllistings/ci_12549431?IADID=Search-www.ldnews.com-www.ldnews.com

Lebanon Daily News [PA]
8 June 2009

We fell for it

[...] Jury madness is something that pushes our buttons; always has. So when we received what we thought were other egregious examples of juries gone wild, we ran with it before we stopped to vet the information. We saw red, brought our level of righteous indignation to the boiling point and fired off a lament against the legal system that had virtually no basis in reality. [...]

Red Mercury Gang Caught (Kuwait)

http://www.arabtimesonline.com/kuwaitcrime/pagesdetails.asp?nid=33127&ccid=22

Arab Times [Kuwait]
2 June 2009

Gang held selling $42m worth ‘red mercury’

KUWAIT CITY : In an incident which is believed to be the first of its kind in the Gulf region, police have reportedly arrested four men — a Kuwaiti, a Syrian and two Egyptians — for attempting to sell two grams of ‘Red Mercury’, worth $42 million, reports Al-Qabas daily. [...]

[The Syrian claims the red mercury -- a remarkably versatile substance that can be used to boost sexual potency or make a nuclear weapon -- was taken from an Egyptian mummy.]

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTEzODc0MTE1

Kuwait Times
2 June 2009

Nuke material smugglers caught

KUWAIT: The existence of the chemical substance red mercury as well as its application in making nuclear bombs has been denied by a third year student of chemistry in Kuwait University. The student explained that what is popularly known as red mercury is either mercury oxide or mercury mixed with red dye. [...]

Third-Grade Failures Predict Prison Spots

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/03/AR2009060303566.html?sid=ST2009060303653

Washington Post
4 June 2009

In Politics, Fact, Fancy Can Blur in Keystroke
Bogus Claim Linking Jail, School Raised Election After Election

By Maria Glod and Rosalind S. Helderman
Washington Post Staff Writers

[...] "Imagine if your entire future was determined by what you did in the third grade," says Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe in a television advertisement promoting his plan to expand preschool. "Did you know we use the failure rates of third-graders to help predict how many prison spots Virginia will need in 15 years?" [...]

Rumored Fate of Tamil Tiger Chief

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25498043-12377,00.html

The Australian
17 May 2009

Fate of Sri Lankan rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran a mystery

SRI Lanka is gripped by rumours about the fate of Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, who is said to either have been killed, smuggled abroad, or even be living under the sea in a survival capsule. [...]

The Eiffel Tower in Baltimore

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-md.backstory31may31,0,5119109.story

Baltimore Sun
31 May 2009

Eiffel Tower in Baltimore?

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

[An article in the New York World in 1894 claimed that a "syndicate of Baltimore capitalists" had bought the Eiffel Tower for $500,000 and planned to move it to Baltimore's Clifton Park to celebrate that city's centennial in 1897.]

Worms in Condoms

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=117&art_id=nw20090528110120721C354607

The Independent [South Africa]
28 May 2009

Free condoms 'have worms'

The fight against Aids in North West has been hampered by myths, including the belief government-issue condoms "have worms", researchers say.

The finding is reported in a study in the latest issue of the Journal of Social Aspects of HIV and Aids.

Though the "worms" myth was raised by only a few respondents in a survey conducted across the province, the researchers said it was persistent, and came up in all the focus group discussions they had held. [...]

http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/hiv/2009/05/30/what-a-can-of-worms/

The Times [South Africa]
30 May 2009

What a can of worms

Claire Keeton

The condoms and worms myth is under the spotlight again, following a report in the current issue of the Journal of Social Aspects of HIV and Aids, showing that it persists.

I first heard it nearly 10 years ago when I was speaking to workers at a gold mine in Carltonville, near Joburg, and then again at a coal mine near Witbank. [...]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS
http://www.sahara.org.za/index.php/Journal/SAHARA-J.html

Hurricane Ike Baby Boom (2)

http://www.wlwt.com/health/19509710/detail.html

WLWT-TV [Cincinnati, OH]
20 May 2009

Hospitals Expecting Hurricane Ike Baby Boom
Doctors Say 50 Percent Birth Increase In Coming Weeks

CINCINNATI -- It's been nearly nine months after the winds from Hurricane Ike blew through, leaving thousands in the dark for days, now another storm is brewing.

The power was off but apparently things were still heating up in some Tri-State homes as local hospitals are preparing for the beginning of a major baby boom. [...]

http://www.wlky.com/news/19530181/detail.html

WLKY-TV [Louisville, KY]
21 May 2009

Hurricane Ike Baby Boom Hits Louisville
Expectant Mothers Say They Conceived During Power Outage

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The windstorm from Hurricane Ike blew in nine months ago, but many of the consequences are just now coming out for the first time.

A mini baby boom could hit area hospitals in June, but some “Ike babies” have already started making their debut. [...]

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/did-septembers-windstorm-cause-mays-baby-boom-138301.html

Dayton Daily News [OH]
29 May 2009

Did September's windstorm cause May's baby boom?
Local hospitals seeing more births 9 months after windstorm caused lengthy power outages.

By Jordan Pridemore
Staff Writer

Last September the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through Ohio, leaving thousands of homes and businesses without power for days. Now, nine months later, residents are bracing themselves for another brush with forces of nature. [...]

http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/06/22/BABY_BOOM.ART_ART_06-22-09_A1_55E8IP6.html?sid=101

Columbus Dispatch [OH]
22 June 2009

Generation Ike
At Mount Carmel St. Ann's, June births are running 36 ahead of average, a 16 percent increase

By Jeffrey Sheban
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The power went out and the sparks started flying.

Nine months after the remnants of Hurricane Ike disrupted electricity to hundreds of thousands of central Ohioans, maternity wards are bulging with newborns. [...]

Jewish Woman Responds to Bovine Insults

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1243346496010&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FshowFull

Jerusalem Post
28 May 2009

Hebrew Hear-Say: Where the moo's takes me

By LIAT COLLINS

[...] Urban legend tells of a group of Israeli guys sitting on a London Underground train making rude remarks in Hebrew about a woman who was - how should we put it? - horizontally challenged. The comments became ever meaner, including: me-eizeh refet hi ba'a? (what cowshed did she come from?) to: "nimkor ota leTnuva vena'aseh ktzat kesef" (Let's sell her to the Tnuva dairy factory and make some money - talk about a cash cow, para holevet). Over the years, the legend has, of course, grown - as, indeed, has the reported size of the woman and the number of people who swear this happened to a friend of theirs. The punch line, however, remains the same: The woman sat impassively amid the Hebrew insults but as she stepped through the sliding doors when she got off, she looked back over her shoulder and said: "Moooo!"

The suitably humbled guys went chalk white (lavan kesid) before going red with embarrassment. [...]

Man in a Van Rumors (Riverview, NB)

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/front/article/680167

Times & Transcript [Moncton, NB, Canada]
27 May 2009

Suspicious van report fuels fiction, fears
Man in van story based on fact, but Riverview incident grows into an urban myth

Brent Mazerolle

[...] The e-mails -- there are at least three versions with different details -- have spread through every workplace in the community and have been repeated by worried parents on every schoolyard. By yesterday, an initial story about a child or children being approached by a man or men in a van that has been variously described as red, burgundy, wine-coloured and purple -- with the man or men enticing the child or children with offers to pat either pet rats or pet rocks -- had devolved into verbal accounts of a Riverview girl actually being abducted and murdered by a man in a van. There has, of course, been no abduction or murder in Riverview this week. [...]

Abducted Child Has Hair Cut

http://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/content/yarmouthmercury/news/story.aspx?brand=GYMOnline&category=news&tBrand=GYMonline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED26%20May%202009%2014%3A50%3A52%3A793

Great Yarmouth Mercury [UK]
26 May 2009

Supermarket quashes abduction rumour

A supermarket chain has quashed rumours that have caused concern among parents in Great Yarmouth that a missing girl was found in the store with her hair cut.

The Mercury was contacted by a reader this week who said he understood a two-year-old girl reported missing in the Tesco store on Pasteur Road last week was found with two men after a search.

Her hair had been cut and her clothing had been changed. [...]

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Shopping-centre-hits-urban-legend/article-1041713-detail/article.html

The Herald [Plymouth, UK]
2 June 2009

Shopping centre hits out at urban legend

FALSE rumours about a child being kidnapped in the city's Drake Circus mall have led its management to issue a statement reassuring shoppers.

The urban legend centres on the terrifying story of a young girl being abducted while in a large store, her hair cut and dyed and her clothes changed to disguise her as a boy, before she is then smuggled out of the premises past unsuspecting security guards and police. [...]

Child Abduction & Organ Theft Rumors (Vietnam)

http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/Law/2009/5/71019/

Saigon GP Daily
25 May 2009

Police dismiss kidnapping rumor

A mob in Gia Lam District, Hanoi, captured a man, who they alleged was trying to steal a boy’s bicycle and kidnap him, and marched the man to the commune’s People’s Committee on May 23.

Thousands of locals demanded the police let them punish the man, as rumors that children in the district had been kidnapped for internal organs have been circulating for some months. It has led to a tense environment in the area, with many parents concerned about kidnappers, despite continued denials by local authorities. [...]

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2009/05/849572/

VietNamNet Bridge
25 May 2009

Nearly 100 policemen mobilised to break up “lynch mob”

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01TAL270509

Vietnam News [Hanoi]
27 May 2009

Talk Around Town

Urban legends stir up real fears

by Thu Giang

[...] Two weeks ago, a rumour went around that a common grave for seven children without organs had been found at Dang Xa and Phu Thi communes in Ha Noi’s outlying district of Gia Lam. The story raced from mouth to mouth that there were people kidnapping children to get their organs. [...]

White Vans

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/16/2572552.htm

ABC News [Australia]
16 May 2009

Man in white van 'an urban myth'

By John Stewart for Lateline

In recent years, many media reports about men in vans attempting to snatch children off the streets has played on a parent's greatest fear.

But criminologists say most of the reports are false, and the story about the man in the white van has become an urban myth. [...]

Kansas Church Ruins Are a Gateway to Hell

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/may/16/gateway-150-long-subject-urban-legend-stull-church/

Lawrence Journal-World [Kansas]
16 May 2009

Gateway to 150: Long subject to urban legend, Stull church opens new center for sesquicentennial

By Sarah Henning

For decades, the former home of Stull United Methodist Church was the destination of thrill seekers around northeastern Kansas, who came to the abandoned building perched above a cemetery enraptured by stories of the old church being one of the “seven gateways to Hell.” [...]

'Women Arrest Law' (S. African e-mail)

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2517243,00.html

News24 [South Africa]
15 May 2009

'Woman Arrest Law' e-mail a hoax

Johannesburg - Police urged the public on Friday to ignore a "hoax" e-mail about women's rights when being arrested, with the subject line: "Woman Arrest Law".

Director Sally De Beer said the hoax e-mail was being circulated at an increasing rate in South Africa and could have far-reaching effects if not disputed.

"The e-mail claims that between 18:00 and 06:00, a woman under arrest has the right to refuse being arrested by a male police official, even if an arrest warrant has been issued against her," she said in a statement.

The e-mail adds that a woman can only be arrested by a woman officer and be held at an "all women" police station. [...]

Swine Flu Resulted from Lab Accident

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/health/policy/15flu.html?_r=1&ref=health

New York Times
14 May 2009

Swine Flu Not an Accident From a Lab, W.H.O. Says

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

The swine flu virus did not result from a laboratory accident, the World Health Organization said Thursday, working to debunk rumors started by an Australian virologist and circulated by news outlets all over the world. [...]

Fate of Victims of Prudential Building Bombing (Hull, 1941)

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/Secret-file-sheds-light-blitz-raid/article-994142-detail/article.html

Hull Daily Mail [UK]
15 May 2009

Secret file sheds light on blitz raid

The discovery of a top-secret document has shed light on the infamous air raid attack which reduced a city centre building to rubble.

The main bulk of the Prudential building in King Edward Street, overlooking Queen Victoria Square, was bombed in May 1941, leaving only an ornate tower standing precariously on its own.

A number of residents were killed after taking shelter in the building, but the exact number of deaths was not known and a gruesome belief began to emerge that the bodies had been left there and covered with quick lime. [...]

[It was also rumored that the people in the building were "drowned by water from fire hoses."]