Not-So-Terminally Ill NY Boy Inundated with Christmas Cards
Thanks to an overblown chain email and a flurry of online notices, 4-year-old Jacob Hadcock of Mexico, New York has received upwards of 25,000 Christmas cards from total strangers this past week. Far from being "terminally ill," however, Jacob is responding well to treatment for his leukemia, his parents say, and is otherwise quite healthy. Read more...
See also: Christmas Cards for Nathan Elfrink
'National Gang Week' Email Is a Hoax
NASHVILLE - An email transmission that is being circulated with claims of recent gang activity cannot be supported by current Department of Correction intelligence. The email appears to have been forwarded by a department employee but is not an official TDOC statement. The email states that gang members are using a new method to target women that involves sitting a baby car seat on the side of a road and attacking women as they approach.While the TDOC recognizes the gang element that extends to members housed in state correctional facilities, we cannot substantiate any claims made in the recent email transmission. Therefore, the public is advised to use caution when forwarding emails that do not appear to be official documents.
AirTran: Flight 297 Emailer Wasn't Even on the Plane
(UPDATED) The "eyewitness" who wrote a viral email describing a minor passenger disturbance aboard AirTran Airways Flight 297 in the Atlanta airport November 17 as a "terrorist dry run" wasn't even on the plane, airline officials said in a statement quoted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday.
Tedd Petruna was booked on Flight 297, the statement confirmed, but his connecting flight from Akron arrived too late for him to board the Houston-bound plane. (NOTE: Petruna has responded that he was, in fact, on the plane and has a boarding pass to prove it. See update below.)
'Twas the Spoof Before Christmas
NOTE: The Al Sharpton story is here. My apologies for the broken newsletter link.
If there is a more parodied poem in the English language than Clement Clarke Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (more popularly known as "The Night Before Christmas"), I don't know what it could possibly be. The meter of "St. Nick" is infectious, its rhyme scheme cheery and simple, its homespun, nostalgic imagery ripe for spoofing. In celebration of the holiday season, I give you a collection of links to some of the wittier (and, in some cases, just plain strange) homages I've stumbled upon online. Read on...
Further reading:
• Clement C. Moore: The Reluctant Mythmaker
• Are All of Santa's Reindeer Female?
• Christmas History, Traditions and Folklore
• Test Your Christmas Folklore IQ
The Urban Legends Slide Show
A gallery of odd and arresting viral images -- some real, some fake, some persistently enigmatic -- as circulated on the Internets! Start here...
Thanksgiving, De-Mythologized
The Pregnant Turkey
To tell you the truth, I don't know how any mortal being would find the time to play a prank like this while cooking a Thanksgiving meal, but here, along with a couple of amusing variants, is a seasonal practical joke requiring only a turkey, a Cornish game hen, and a gullible loved one to pull it off. Read more...Play the Urban Legends Name Game!
Question #1: Decades after my death, my private parts are still on display in a jar of formaldehyde at the Smithsonian. Who am I?
| • Adolf Hitler |
| • John Dillinger |
| • Clark Gable |
| • Albert Einstein |
| • Milton Berle |
Why Friday the 13th Is Unlucky
The sixth day of the week and the number 13 have foreboding reputations said to date from ancient times, and their inevitable conjunction from one to three times a year portends more misfortune than some credulous minds can bear. Here's why...
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Among the colorful myths surrounding the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington Cemetery and its 24-hour-a-day Honor Guard are the claims that the guards' permanent residence is a barracks under the tomb itself and that they're forbidden to drink alcohol, on or off duty, for the rest of their lives.
Colorful, but untrue.