The Curse of Colonel Sanders

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090311p2a00m0na006000c.html

Mainichi Daily News [Japan]
11 March 2009

Tigers fans hope discovery of long-lost fast-food icon will lift 'Curse of Colonel Sanders'

A statue of Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders tossed into Osaka's Dotonbori River some 24 years ago by rowdy Hanshin Tigers fans has been discovered. […]

The Hanshin Tigers have not won the Japan Series since 1985, a fact attributed by some to the "Curse of Colonel Sanders." […]

Starbucks Logo = Queen Esther

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD227609

The Middle East Media Research Institute
10 March 2009
Special Dispatch - No. 2276

Egyptian Cleric Safwat Higazi Calls to Shut Down Starbucks in the Arab and Islamic World, Saying: Their Logo is the Jewish Queen Esther

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1236676913500&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The Jerusalem Post
11 March 2009

Egyptian cleric blasts Starbucks for 'Queen Esther' logo

By JPOST.COM STAFF

As Jews around the world are celebrating Purim, one Egyptian cleric has used the holiday to launch an attack against Starbucks, claiming that the woman in the logo of the international chain is Queen Esther, and her presence warrants a boycott of the company throughout the Arab world. […]

Children Found in Cargo Container (Trinidad & Tobago)

http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2009/03/04/children-container-hoax-shuts-down-port

The Guardian [Trinidad and Tobago]
3 March 2009

Children in container hoax shuts down port

There was a complete shutdown of the Port-of-Spain Port yesterday as rumours spread throughout the country that a container with missing children had been discovered. The airwaves of radio and television stations, along with newspaper newsrooms, were buzzing with activity, as concerned people called about the rumours. […]

http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2009/03/06/telecom-body-launches-probe-children-container-hoax

The Guardian [Trinidad and Tobago]
6 March 2009

Telecom body launches probe into children in container hoax

http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,96278.html

Newsday [Trinidad and Tobago]
7 March 2009

Police: Ignore children in container email

By NALINEE SEELAL

Police have again dismissed persistent rumours of children being found in a container as untrue and said an email being circulated that the report was not a hoax was a mischievous plot. […]

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161448686

Trinidad and Tobago Express
7 March 2009

PM slams media on 'container hoax'

Juhel Browne

Lord Mandelson: Custard or Guacamole?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5856186.ece

The Times [London]
6 March 2009

Protester throws green custard in the face of Lord Mandelson and walks away

Nico Hines

A female protester hurled green custard into the face of Lord Mandelson today before calmly walking away and evading arrest in an embarrassing security breach. […]

Lord Mandelson later treated the attack with a light touch. “Custard, was it? Not guacamole or mushy peas?” he asked, alluding to the apocryphal Westminster tale in which he once walked into a fish-and-chip shop in northern England and mistook the traditional processed pea dish for a more continental avocado dip. […]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7928328.stm

BBC News
6 March 2009

Mandelson: 'Guacamole or mushy peas?'

The Business Secretary Lord had green custard thrown in his face by a protester as he arrived at a summit on creating a low-carbon economy in London.

After cleaning up, he gave his reaction to the incident.

[Video clip]

[On the legend that Mandelson once mistook mushy peas for guacamole, see Paul Screeton, Mars Bar & Mushy Peas (Heart of Albion Press, 2008), pp. 38-48.]

15-Minute Rule

http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/busted_15-min._rule_a_myth-1.1594876

Central Florida Future [University of Central Florida]

4 March 2009

Busted: 15-min. rule a myth

William Buchanan

The clock is ticking.

Waiting for a professor to show up can be a long 15 minutes.

But wait, are students allowed to leave class after 15 minutes if the professor is tardy? [...]

Doughnuts Like Fanny's

http://www.cbs.com/late_late_show/video/video.php?cid=1015767262&pid=63vWZyJIFNfwiXVe65vo5JUXiyV9nvQ5&category=recent&play=true

["No Swearing Allowed," host's monologue on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, CBS, 3 March 2009, episode 834. My transcription of excerpt (7:30-7:56 of video clip). "Fanny" is British slang for the vagina. -- bc]

"Do you know there used to be a TV chef in Britain called Fanny Cradock, and once -- I know! -- and, and once she was doing a segment on how to cook doughnuts on the news -- 'cause that's news in Britain, apparently -- This is true, I saw it! -- and when she was finished at the end of the show the anchorman said, 'Well, goodnight, and I hope your doughnuts turn out like Fanny's.'"

Poisoned Business Cards (Halifax, NS)

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2009/03/02/hoax-hrp.html

CBC News [Canada]
2 March 2009

Halifax police embarrassed by email hoax

Halifax Regional Police are clearing the air after one of their officers fell for an email hoax.

The email hoax claimed business cards soaked in poison were being passed around, and that a woman had been drugged after accepting one of the tainted cards. [...]

The email made the rounds at Halifax Regional Police and before long, the names of several officers were attached to it, giving a perception of credibility to the hoax. [...]

http://www.halifax.ca/Police/PressReleases/index.asp

Halifax Regional Police [NS]
20 February 2009

Press Releases

Hoax E-mail

There is an e-mail presently circulating in our area warning the public to beware of individuals handing out business cards which are laced with an overpowering drug temporarily incapacitating anyone handling it.

This e-mail is a hoax, as are most like it. [...]

Store Owner Refuses to Post Flier Honoring Dead Soldier

http://www.lockportjournal.com/archivesearch/local_story_060010909.html

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal [NY]
1 March 2009

MARREN: The truth behind the ‘e-mail’

By Tim Marren
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

[An e-mail rumor falsely claims that Rumit Patel, owner of a Dunkin' Donuts store in Lockport, not only refused to post a flier in his store honoring a local soldier killed in Iraq, but put the flier on a dumpster "where the rest of our soldiers belong."]

http://www.buffalonews.com/258/story/597057.html

The Buffalo News [NY]

4 March 2009

Lockport Dunkin' Donut owner dispels Internet rumor regarding Iraq War soldier

By Thomas J. Prohaska
News Niagara Bureau

LOCKPORT - You may have seen a full-page ad in today's Buffalo News from Dunkin' Donuts, saluting Spec. Albert R. Jex, the Lockport native who was killed in Iraq Feb. 9. [...]

Buried Alive, Revived by Grave Robber

http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20090228/LIFESTYLE/902280349

The Daily Times [Salisbury, MD]
28 February 2009

A history full of holes
Unconfirmed rumors swirl around iconic Trappe church

By Brice Stump
Staff Writer

[...] More than a century ago, a tale widely circulated about the Shore of grave robbers digging up the body of Hannah Maynadier, wife of the rector (said to have been "a good liver but a horrid preacher"), who requested she be buried with a costly heirloom ring. Within hours of her burial in the early 1700s, two men dug into the grave, opened the wooden coffin and, with a knife, severed her finger to free the ring. To their horror, the amputation revived the woman who was not dead.

According to legend, she walked back to her home and husband and lived a number of years longer. Now they both are buried in the White Marsh Church graveyard. Believable or not, there were Maynadier descendants in the 1960s who claimed the story was based on fact. [...]

Tunnel Connects Fort Totten to Fort Schuyler, NY

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/02/28/2009-02-28_historians_hunt_for_civil_warera_passage.html

New York Daily News
28 February 2009

Historians hunt for Civil War-era passage that could have run from Fort Totten to Bronx

BY Clare Trapasso
DAILY NEWS WRITER

The visitors have heard the urban legend about an escape passage built between Fort Totten in Queens, to Fort Schuyler in the Bronx, where the Long Island Sound and the East River meet. [...]

Original Spanish Kitchen

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-then1-2009mar01,0,7788279.story

Los Angeles Times
1 March 2009

Tall tales concocted from the Original Spanish Kitchen

Steve Harvey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Closing up one night in 1961, workers at the Original Spanish Kitchen on Beverly Boulevard set out silverware, saltshakers and napkins at each table and neatly stacked the chairs.

And there the settings and chairs remained, unmoved for more than a quarter of a century. [...]

[It was rumored that the owner's wife, whose husband had supposedly been shot to death in the restaurant, left it undisturbed until his killer was found. It was also said that "the owner was a bullfighter and his wife was a flamenco dancer and he killed her because he didn't like her dancing."]

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.