White Van Fear (Springfield, OH) – NY Sewergators – Impregnation by Sperm in Swimming Pool (Indonesia)

https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/crime--law/video-shows-someone-van-trying-lure-teen-inside/YmcDf4WEXR5TFxZXWtIrBP/

Dayton Daily News [OH]

18 February 2020

VAN VIDEO: Springfield man claims teen girl in danger; police say ‘we’ve never had a complaint’

A video has been shared thousands of times on social media. Behind the camera is a Springfield man who said he witnessed someone inside a van trying to lure a teenager inside, but police claim they have not had a single complaint. […] “We’ve had this for probably about a year, people saying there is a white van trying to pick up females,” Lt. Lou Turner of the Springfield Police Division said. “We have never had a complaint saying somebody tried to pick them up.” […] When police check up on such incidents, Turner said, “it’s always ‘it did happen’ and then you go talk to them and it’s ‘oh, well it happened to a friend’ or ‘i heard this from a friend.’” […]

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/nyregion/alligators-sewers-new-york.html

New York Times

26 February 2020

The Truth About Alligators in the Sewers of New York

Sightings over the decades have lent an air of legitimacy to the century-old urban myth. Here’s how it all started.

They are big. They are vicious. Some say they are albinos, because of a lack of sunlight. They are the alligators that supposedly infest New York City’s sewer system, slithering through the bowels just under the street level, feeding on rats and rubbish and terrorizing sewer workers armed with guns for self-defense. These gators may be the city’s most entrenched urban myth, one that has permeated pop culture and has become a recurring theme in books, television shows and movies. […]

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https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/02/23/child-protection-commissioner-apologizes-for-saying-strong-sperm-could-impregnate-women-in-swimming-pools.html

The Jakarta Post [Indonesia]

23 February 2020

Child protection commissioner apologizes for saying ‘strong sperm’ could impregnate women in swimming pools

An Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) commissioner has apologized for claiming that women could get pregnant from swimming in the same pool as men. KPAI commissioner for health, narcotics, and addictive substances, Sitti Hikmawatty, conceded that she had made an “inaccurate statement”. […] Sitti made the statement during an interview with tribunnews.com, saying that women should exercise caution when swimming in a public swimming pool with men or risk getting pregnant. “There is an especially strong type of male sperm that may cause […] pregnancy in a swimming pool,” Sitti said in the interview. “Even without penetration, men may become sexually excited [by women in the pool] and ejaculate, therefore causing a pregnancy.” […]

Child Uses Bad Language Learned from Workers to Describe Bricks

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-peril-of-the-round-table-20200116-p53rx4.html

Sydney Morning Herald [Australia]

16 January 2020

Column 8

[…] A tale from Jo Rainbow of Orange that illustrates the important life lessons that children can learn from being put to work (C8). "My neighbour was having an extension built and her four-year-old granddaughter would help by supplying the builders with biscuits during their break. With approval from Grandma, the builders provided the granddaughter with her own little pay-packet. This was proudly presented at the local lolly shop with the explanation that she was helping build a house. The shopkeeper asked: 'When will it be it be finished?' And was told ‘Depends’. Oh, depends on what? 'Depends when the f---ing bricks arrive from Watford'.” […]

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/zen-and-the-art-of-e-commerce-algorithms-20200120-p53swz.html

Sydney Morning Herald

20 January 2020

Column 8

[…] Jo Rainbow of Orange stands accused by Owen Dally, also of Orange, of “...blatantly plagiarising the yarn concerning the young girl helping out builders next door (C8) and the delay regarding bricks. The exact story appeared in Bill Bryson’s Down Under. I am afraid [she] has blackened the good name of our city,” concludes Owen, pithily. Orange you glad you wrote in, Jo?

“The joke about the child ‘working’ for construction workers was old when Granny first picked up her knitting needles,” adds a needlessly hurtful Irving Warren of Riverview. […]

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/what-s-that-in-cubits-tom-20200121-p53tae.html

Sydney Morning Herald

21 January 2020

Column 8

[…] Jo Rainbow responds to accusations that her builder's story was plagiarised (C8): “My apologies to Mr Bryson and to all those who wrote in. In future, I will use the prefix “YAFSWPIHNQ” – Yet Another Family Story Whose Provenance I Have Never Questioned.” […]

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Bill Bryson, In A Sunburned Country (Toronto: Anchor Canada, 2001), 124-5. Also published under the title Down Under.

[Catherine Veitch, who lived in Melbourne, Australia, was a friend of Bryson’s.]

In the 1950s a friend of Catherine’s moved with her young family into a house next door to a vacant lot. One day a construction crew turned up to build a house on the lot. Catherine’s friend had a four-year-old daughter who naturally took an interest in all the activity going on next door. She hung around on the margins and eventually the construction workers adopted her as a kind of mascot. They chatted to her and gave her little jobs to do and at the end of the week presented her with a little pay packet containing a shiny new half crown.

She took this home to her mother, who made all the appropriate cooings of admiration and suggested that they take it to the bank the next morning to deposit it in her account. When they went to the bank, the teller was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her own pay packet.

“I’ve been building a house this week,” she replied proudly.

“Goodness!” said the teller. “And will you be building a house next week, too?”

“I will if we ever get the fucking bricks,” answered the little girl.