LSD User Thinks He's an Orange

http://ca.complex.com/life/2016/05/acid-turn-people-into-orange-juice-urban-legend

Complex

27 May 2016

Investigating the Urban Legend That LSD Will Make You Think You're Orange Juice

By Suzannah Weiss

“A guy was running from the cops and had a sheet [of LSD] in his pocket,” goes one variation of a popular urban legend. “He knew he was gonna get busted and didn't know what to do with the stuff, so he did the whole sheet. Now he thinks he's a glass of orange juice and his biggest fear is that someone will drink him.”

Sound familiar? This LSD urban legend is well-known and widespread, and it's cited to have been around since the 1960s, perpetuating fear and becoming oral lore to future generations. Another version of this myth claims a man went permanently insane, and failed to tap out of the OJ mindset. "Because of this, he could never bend over, slept upright and did not make any sudden movements."

Everyone seems to know this guy, or someone like him. You may have heard a variation of this story from a friend who did acid, or a friend of a friend, or a D.A.R.E. counselor trying to spook you from trying it. It's a common tale that may have filled you with fear and curiosity at a young age. But is it all just made up? And if so, why do so many versions of this story exist? We talked to several experts, users, and friends of users and surprisingly, there's more truth to this myth than just hearsay. […]

Photo Caption Identifies Woman (“left”) But Not Accompanying Thing

http://www.cjr.org/first_person/true_or_false_some_favorite_newsroom_legends.php

Columbia Journalism Review

24 May 2016

Fact or fiction? Some favorite newsroom myths.

By Gerald Eskenazi

When you work for The New York Times, you become immersed in its history and its fabled writing and writers. You connect to the Pulitzer Prizes, to the war correspondents, to the drama critics. And, of course, to the urban legends.

In my 44 years at the Times, I discovered a host of newsroom myths, virtually all of them riffing off the paper’s perceived pomposity.

There was the story from the ’60s of a particular fellow in the paper’s sports department who clearly wasn’t like everyone else. He had a certain savoir faire, a mustache reminiscent of a 1930s movie dandy, and he used expressions like “What the deuce!” and “Gracious!” What the heck was he doing in the down-and-dirty sports department?

Here’s what I was told. He had been one of the editors on the “picture desk”—the spot where captions were written. One day he wrote the following under a photo:

“Mrs. John Jacob Astor, left, and her prize geranium.”

Well, since there were no other humans in the photo, who else would that be but Mrs. A? Identifying her as being on the left….So, he got demoted to sports.

I mentioned this story recently to a former colleague and I was told, no, it was not Mrs. Astor. It wasn’t even a geranium. My colleague insisted the mustachioed fellow had written “Mrs. Roosevelt, left, and her prize ginkgo.”

And then still another old-timer chimed in: It wasn’t a flower. But it was a society matron, left, and her horse.

I checked the files. No, nothing like that, for any lady, had ever been published in the Times, as far as I could find. I also couldn’t find anyone who claimed to have actually seen the offending caption. The story is probably baloney. […]

Chinese Corned Beef Sold in Africa Is Human Meat

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-05/18/c_135367773.htm

Xinhua [China]

18 May 2016

China dismisses "feeding Africa with human flesh" reports

LUSAKA, May 17 (Xinhua) -- A top Chinese official on Tuesday dismissed reports in Zambian media that China has been selling human meat as food in Africa.

Reports on social media and a local newspaper quoted an unnamed Zambian woman living in China warning people to stop buying Chinese corned beef.

The woman claimed that Chinese beef companies were collecting dead human bodies, marinating them, packing them in tins labeled as corned beef and sending them to Africa. […]