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David Emery

Urban Legends

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Mom, Look What I Found in My Capri Sun!

Thursday February 7, 2013

Capri Sun Mold Warning

Shortly after the above picture began making the rounds on Facebook, Capri Sun manufacturer Kraft Foods, Inc. posted a statement acknowledging that consumers have, on rare occasions, found mold growing in packages of the preservative-free fruit drinks. Learn more...

'Our Lives Are at Stake Here'

Friday February 1, 2013

Ann Coulter Refuses to Board Plane with Black Pilot?

Is it true, per a "news story" making the rounds via Facebook, that conservative firebrand Ann Coulter refused to board a commercial airliner and launched into a tirade against affirmative action after finding out the pilot was an African-American woman? No.

Pumping Up the Fear

Saturday January 26, 2013

HIV Needles Found Under Gas Pump Handles?

How NOT to Detect Lead in Lipstick

Tuesday January 22, 2013

Cold Sore

A 2003 scare-o-gram falsely claiming that lead contamination in lipsticks can be detected by scratching the products with a gold ring continues to circulate via social media, now with the addition of a visual aid (see above) purporting to show a cancerous mouth tumor. Read More...

Hoax Quiz: Spot the Fakes!!!

Monday January 21, 2013

Hoax Quiz
Image #1: Photo of a preserved baby dragon
found in someone's garage in England.

Choose One: Is it Real or Fake?

Clarissa's Ghost

Friday January 18, 2013
As posted a gazillion times on Facebook and elsewhere, read the story of Clarissa, a 10-year-old girl who died in a mental hospital after murdering her own parents. Worse yet, if you don't share this, her ghost will hunt you down and kill you, too. You have been warned!

Adventures in Epithetymology

Thursday January 17, 2013

Public domain image
As the story goes...

Certain types of manure used to be transported (as everything was back then) by ship. In dry form it weighs a lot less, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a byproduct is methane gas. Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM! Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was discovered what was happening.

After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term "S.H.I.T.," which meant to the sailors, "Ship High In Transit."

Or maybe not!

Also see:
Origin of the F-Word
History of "The Finger"
The True Meaning of "Dork"

Kentucky Fried Brain? More Like a Kidney, but Still No Happy Meal

Wednesday January 9, 2013

Brain in KFC ChickenA British college student in Colchester, Essex says he was shocked and sickened to find a "horrible wrinkled foreign body" in a box of KFC chicken last month. It looked like a brain, Ibrahim Langoo told the U.K. tabloid The Sun. He has vowed never to eat at KFC again. Read More...

'Hole Punch' Auto Burglaries

Tuesday January 8, 2013

Hole punch car burglary
Viral alerts circulating via forwarded email and social media warn car owners of a "new" method of burglary: a tiny hole punched under the door handle permitting thieves to jimmy the lock. Read the details...

(Viral image via Facebook)

The Top 10 of 2012

Saturday December 29, 2012

10. The Origin & Meaning of "420"
9. Cell Phone Numbers Going Public
8. Richard Gere & the Gerbil
7. The Clown Statue
6. Mr. Rogers Was a Navy SEAL
5. Jamie Lee Curtis Is a Hermaphrodite
4. The Legend of Bloody Mary
3. Carmen Winstead (They Pushed Her)
2. Hercules, World's Biggest Dog
1. NASA Predicts "Total Blackout" of Earth!

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