Thursday, July 31, 2008

Baby Food Poisoned

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--babyfoodhoax0731jul31,0,4056615.story

Newsday [NY]
31 July 2008

NY man arrested in baby food poison video threats

By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - A man who claimed in an apparent Internet video hoax that he had poisoned millions of bottles of baby food, some with cyanide or rat poison, because he wanted to kill black and Hispanic children was arrested Thursday, authorities said. Anton Dunn caused to be posted on the Internet three videos of himself in which he boasted that he had poisoned bottles of Gerber baby food and could not be caught, authorities said. [...]

Tijuana Shoppers' Bags Color Coded

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Blog/Kirsty-Dunphey/20080730-What-happens-in-Mexico-.html

Smart Company [Australia]
31 July 2008

What happens in Mexico...

By Kirsty Dunphey

[...] In having this discussion with friends however I was told what may be an urban myth about shopping in Tijuana, Mexico. The myth being that when you purchase something you're given a plastic bag that corresponds to your strength as a buyer.

As an example, a yellow bag may mean you're a complete push over and will pay way over market value, but a blue bag may mean you're a hard negotiator who'll drive the price down and bargain til you're blue in the face. [...]

Monday, July 28, 2008

Cops Mistaken for Strippers

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jluVm0CjpGJy_Hp8IANrQLIKgpdgD9270A7G0

The Associated Press
28 July 2008

German police officers are mistaken for strippers

BERLIN (AP) - No one had ordered strippers for the 30th birthday party - but the two policemen who arrived after midnight to quiet the raucous celebration found themselves greeted by a round of applause.

Female partygoers in western Germany mistook the real-life officers for fake ones who entertain parties by peeling off enticing man-in-uniform outfits. [...]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,568482,00.html

Spiegel Online [Germany]
28 July 2008

German Cops Mistaken for Strippers

Child Abduction Rumor, Wales

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2008/07/28/north-wales-abduction-story-just-an-urban-myth-55578-21415480/

Daily Post [UK]
28 July 2008

North Wales abduction story `just an urban myth'

by Hywel Trewyn, Daily Post

RUMOURS a missing child was found in a supermarket toilet having a hair cut in a bizarre abduction attempt have been marked down as an urban myth.

Various similar versions of the story have been circulated around the country and have most recently hit North Wales.

In one version the child is a girl, in another a boy. [...]

http://www.northwaleschronicle.co.uk/news/Supermarket-chain-quashes-Bangor-child.4334911.jp

North Wales Chronicle [UK]
29 July 2008

Supermarket chain quashes Bangor child abduction rumour

By Geoff Abbott

A SUPERMARKET has quashed rumours causing concern among Bangor parents that a that a missing girl has been found in one of their toilets with her head shaved. [...]

Wal-Mart is Evil So I Took Off My Clothes

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=444469

Bike Forums
22 July 2008

Wal Mart is Evil so I took off my clothes

[By] ReachHigher

[A Wal-Mart manager prevented a woman from parking her bicycle inside the store because the store sells bikes.]

[...] I asked her if they also sold shirts in the store. She said yes so I took off my jersey and said well then I'd better not bring this in either. She got kind of flustered and said that it was a different situation but couldn't explain why. So I said that if they also sold shorts in the store that I'd better not wear those in either and I took off my shorts. Same goes for the shoes and sunglasses. Now I'm standing there in my spandex and a sports bra and I ask here if I can leave my things behind the customer service counter where they will be safe until I finish making my purchases and she said that I couldn't come into the store without shoes on, to which i responded "but I certainly can't wear shoes into the store because you sell those here and someone might think I've stolen them." [...]

Cat Catapulted from Tree

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/tcoast/epaper/2008/07/27/m1b_tcmorrissey_0728.html

Palm Beach Post [FL]
27 July 2008

Ex-cop's books so zany it's criminal

By SHARON WERNLUND
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

[Retired homicide detective Bob Morrissey has written three books, Humorous Beat, 2nd Humorous Beat, and A Cop's Gotta Laugh.]

[...] Morrissey had his own run-in with a real life critter. While he was on routine patrol, a frantic woman rushed to his squad car and pleaded with him to rescue her cat in a tree.

He and his partner grabbed a clothesline and tossed it over the tree limb. Each grabbed an end and together, pulled the bough down. Just when the cat was nearly within reach, the clothesline snapped.

"The limb suddenly jerked up and that cat flew into the air and onto the roof," said Morrissey, whose story is aptly titled, Cat A Pult. [...]

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Jumper Cables Used to Treat Rattlesnake Bite

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/07/26/weekly_features/outdoors/top/50ot_080724_snakebite.txt

Independent Record [Helena, Montana]
24 July 2008

Snakebites: what not to do

By EVE BYRON - Independent Record

After 23 years as an emergency room physician, Dr. Mark Rabold still takes his business seriously but can’t help but wonder in amusement about some of the situations he’s encountered involving rattlesnake bites.

One of his favorite stories involves an anesthesiologist who had just recently moved to Montana. The guy ran over a rattler with his dirt bike, but the tire spun up the snake, which hit the biker in the stomach and bit him.

Then there’s the one — Rabold’s had so many patients he can’t remember if he treated this guy or just read about it — where a man was struck by a rattlesnake, and the guy’s buddy tried a home remedy to treat the wound.

“His buddy got the jumper cables and hooked him up to a giant battery for his semi, then fired up the engine. He probably had to put down his beer first to put the clamps on each side of the snake bite,” Rabold said, laughing. “The guy is screaming, yelling and seizing from this treatment; they thought it would somehow break the venom down.

“Someone actually did a study, and found that electric therapy doesn’t work. It’s just an interesting layman’s myth. This guy ended up with third-degree electrical burns.” [...]

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Misc/misc.health.alternative/2008-07/msg00038.html

Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 111-117 (2001).

Collective Review

Use of stun guns for venomous bites and stings: a review

E. BEN WELCH, PharmD; BARRY J. GALES, PharmD

Friday, July 25, 2008

POWs in Concrete

John Blashford-Snell, Mysteries: Encounters with the Unexplained (London: The Bodley Head, 1983), p. 240.

[In August, 1962, the author led an investigation into tunnels under the island of Jersey that had been built during World War II by Germans using slave labor.]

Several of the tunnels were as large as a London tube station and, lined with ferro-concrete, looked very similar. However, others had bare granite walls, dripping with water and often blocked by roof falls. There were stories of Russian prisoners of war being cemented into the walls when they died at work.

The Curse of the Crying Boy (Update)

David Clarke's article, "The Curse of the Crying Boy" (Fortean Times 234, May 2008), is now online:

http://forteantimes.com/features/articles/1308/the-curse-of-the-crying-boy.html

Salmon Surprise

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/474868.html

Anchorage Daily News [Alaska]
25 July 2008

Historic Seward rail car to get new life as a diner

SALMON SURPRISE? Rumor says president died after eating there.

By CINTHIA RITCHIE
The Seward Phoenix Log

[A railway dining car built in 1916 has been bought by two Anchorage businessmen, Jack Powers and his son Mark, who plan to convert it into a diner.]

[...] There are also rumors affiliated with the car that spice things up. As Mark Powers told it, supposedly President Harding ate in the dining car when he came up to Alaska in 1923.

"There's even a rumor that he ate tainted salmon on this dining car, got back to Washington and died," he said.

If that turns out to be true, the Powers men plan on naming a meal after him.

"Salmon surprise or something like that," Mark Powers said. [...]

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Corpse Found in Water Treatment Plant

http://www.cleburnetimesreview.com/johnsoncounty/local_story_204113754.html?keyword=secondarystory

Cleburne Times-Review [Texas]
23 July 2008

Boil water notice cancelled
Cleburne water safe to drink

By Matt Smith

City of Cleburne water customers and residents are no longer required to boil water before consumption. [...]

Because of a power surge Monday, the Cleburne water treatment plant experienced an outage in two of the four high-service pumps. The pumps were out of service for about 20 minutes, and a loss of pressure in the water distribution system occurred. [...]

Rumors circulating in town that officials discovered a body in the water near the pumps or that a body somehow caused the pumps to fail are false, city officials said. [...]

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Corpselike Smell of Rakefish

http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/07/20/norwegian-newspaper-fooled-by-fishy-tale-of-dead-body-in-paisley-78057-20655075/

Sunday Mirror [Glasgow, UK]
20 July 2008

Norwegian newspaper fooled by fishy tale of dead body in Paisley

By David Taylor

A NORWEGIAN hoaxer caused a stink in his homeland by claiming Scots police kicked in his door after mistaking the smell of his fish for rotting flesh.

Torodd Fuglesteg duped Norway newspaper VG into publishing his bizarre story on their front page and website last week. [...]

Fuglesteg claimed police and his neighbour mistook the smell of Norwegian delicacy rakefish for a corpse. [...]

http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2008/07/17/541102.html

Dagbladet [Norway]
17 July 2008

VG -- oppslag var bløff
Lurt trill rundt av rakfisk-mannen.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Thief Robs Woman of Dead Dog

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=223742&in_page_id=2

Metro [UK]
17 July 2008

Thief robs woman of dead dog

Few victims of theft get the chance to exact revenge. But one Tube passenger certainly had the last laugh after she had her suitcase snatched at a station.

The woman, named only as Sarah, was tricked into giving up the bag with the thief unaware it contained a dead dog.

The polite, well-dressed man offered to help her carry the case up an escalator, gave her a bag weighted with stones as a distraction and then ran-off with his ill-gotten remains.

Witness Liam Carling said: 'The guy was a pro. But I would have liked to have been there when he opened the suitcase.'

The incident took place after Sarah was asked by a friend to take beloved family pet 'Sandy' who had died the night before to a vet for disposal.

But her car broke down on the way, forcing her on to the Tube. She was conned by the middle-aged man as she struggled to carry Sandy through Victoria station. [...]

Friday, July 18, 2008

Corpses from Sunken Ship Wash up on Resort Coast

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080718-149341/Boracay-belies-rumors-on-corpses-from-ship-tragedy

The Inquirer [Philippines]
18 July 2008

Boracay belies rumors on corpses from ship tragedy

By Nestor P. Burgos Jr.
Visayas Bureau

ILOILO CITY, Philippines -- Resort owners on Boracay Island are fighting off rumors that corpses from the sunken MV Princess of the Stars are turning up in the world famous strip of white sand beach.

One resort owner offered refunds to guests if any corpse from the sunken vessel was found near the island. [...]

July Riskiest Month for Patients

http://www.newsweek.com/id/144227/page/1

Newsweek
1 July 2008

New Docs on the Block

According to medical lore, July is the worst time to be hospitalized because that's when inexperienced med students start clinical training. But is summer really riskier for patients?

By Jesse Ellison

http://www.boston.com/news/health/blog/2008/07/the_july_phenom.html

Boston Globe
18 July 2008

The July Phenomenon

By Joshua U. Klein

Conventional wisdom dictates that hospitals should be avoided every July, the first month of the medical academic year. Like Cinderella in reverse, alarm clocks around the country erupt before dawn on or around July 1st (typically the last week of June), and yesterday’s inexperienced, naïve pumpkin -- medical student -- is magically transformed into Jane/John Doe, MD, the intern who will diagnose your heart attack or stroke and save your life in the emergency room. [...]

Hindu Child Burns a Koran

http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/17/nat20.htm

Dawn [Pakistan]
17 July 2008

Tension grips town over blasphemy rumours

By Our Correspondent

HYDERABAD, July 16: Tension gripped Thano Bula Khan — a remote mountainous area between Hyderabad and Karachi — on Tuesday after rumours that a Hindu child in Thano Ahmed Khan town had burnt a copy of the Holy Quran.

People gathered in the town to pressurise police to take action against the child.

Later it was revealed that the child, who works in a grocery shop, had mistakenly given a buyer some goods wrapped in a page from a textbook of Islamiyat which had a Quranic verse on it. [...]

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Poisoning Mormon Missionaries

William A. Wilson, "Mormon Narratives: The Lore of Faith," Western Folklore, vol. 64, no. 4 (1995), p. 316.

[Informant:] This is a story about two South American missionaries -- I don't remember who told it to me. As the story goes, the two missionaries were in a place where the people didn't like them very well at all. And...[these people] decided that they'd get rid of 'em quick and had some kind of poison food that they fed them. I don't remember what it was, but I think it was some kind of poison meat. And the missionaries blessed it and ate it and didn't die from it. And all the people were very impressed, ya know, and told 'em what happened and said, "Truly, you must be men of God," ya know; and they got a lot of converts from it. They went to another town and decided that they would try the same thing. And so they said, "See now we can eat poison meat, and we won't die." And they ate it, and they died. And the moral that I got from it, from the person who told me, was that "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wilson, The Marrow of Human Experience, pp. 215, 217. From the essay, "On Being Human: The Folklore of Mormon Missionaries," which originally appeared in a booklet published by Utah State U.P. in 1981.

[Informant:] There were two elders who were tracting, and one woman invited them into her home and said she was looking for a true church. And she fed them. They made an appointment to come back and teach her some time later. As soon as they came back, and she saw who they were at the door, she invited them in and said, "I want to be baptized," without even talking to them. And they asked her why, and she said that she had read that the true servants of the Lord could eat poison things and they would not be harmed. And then she told them that what she had fed them last week had been poison.

[...]

In one instance that recalls the story in which missionaries were poisoned as a test of their power, two missionaries called on a Protestant minister.

[Informant:] He said, "Gentleman, I have here a glass of poison. If you will drink this poison and remain alive, I will join your church, not only myself but my entire congregation." And he said, "If you won't drink this poison, well, then I'll conclude that you are false ministers of the gospel, because surely your Lord wouldn't let you perish." And so this put the missionaries in a kind of a bind, so they went off in a corner and got their heads together, and they thought, "What on earth are we going to do?" So finally, after they decided, they went back over and approached the minister and said, "Tell you what -- we've got a plan." They said, "You drink the poison, and we'll raise you from the dead."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
J. Michael Hunter, Mormon Myth-ellaneous (American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, Inc., 2008), p. 148.

[T]wo missionaries were invited in by a woman who accepted the first discussion. Since it was such a hot day, she gave the missionaries some lemonade. She then invited them back for a second visit. Before leaving, they admonished her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. When the missionaries returned for the second visit, the woman acted surprised and demanded to be baptized. Why? She had never expected to see the missionaries again: she had poisoned their lemonade.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eric A. Eliason, The J. Golden Kimball Stories (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2007), p. 121.

Once when two missionaries were tracting, they came across a smart aleck who said, "Hey it says here in the Bible that true believers will drink poison and not die. Tell you what, I have got some poison here, if you drink it and don't die I'll get baptized in your church."

The missionaries thought for a second and then one said, "I've got a better idea. Why don't you drink the poison, then we'll raise you from the dead and baptize you if you are interested."

[Informant: Professor, male, Provo, Utah, 1995.]

Tattooed Jews Can't Be Buried in Jewish Cemeteries

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/fashion/17SKIN.html?ref=fashion

New York Times
17 July 2008

For Some Jews, It Only Sounds Like Taboo

By KATE TORGOVNICK

[...] By the time Ms. Kaplan's daughter Liz Carnes, 49, had teenage daughters who wanted body art, Ms. Carnes knew how to dissuade them.

"I'd say, `If you get a tattoo, you can't be buried in a Jewish cemetery,' " said Ms. Carnes, the owner of a video equipment company in Carlsbad, Calif. "For no real reason, just that's what my parents told me." [...]

[Eight rabbinical scholars contacted by the reporter refuted the belief that tattooed Jews are barred from burial in Jewish cemeteries.]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/07/27/m1a_tattoos_0728.html

Palm Beach Post [FL]
27 July 2008

For Jews, tattoo yearning pits pride against faith

By ANDREW ABRAMSON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

[...] Many Jews have been reluctant to get tattoos because of a long-standing belief that the deceased can't be buried in Jewish cemeteries if they are tattooed.

However, even Orthodox rabbis like [Shlomo Uminer of the Chabad Jewish Center of Martin and St. Lucie Counties] say that's a myth.

The Star of David of the Palm Beaches cemetery in West Palm Beach has no policy regarding tattoos, and Mount Sinai Memorial Park - an Orthodox cemetery in Miami - doesn't have its employees view the body before it is buried. [...]

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

American Tourists

Sydney Morning Herald [Australia]
16 July 2008

Column 8

[...] "Yesterday an American pilgrim being interviewed on TV was surprised but happy to find that our Mass was the same as theirs in the US," reports Robyn Lewis of Raglan. "It reminded me of an incident in St Paul's (Anglican) Cathedral in London. My husband and daughter were at Morningsong, enjoying the ambience and music. During the Lord's Prayer an American exclaimed 'Golly Gladys, this Lord's Prayer is the same as ours!"' [...]

Sydney Morning Herald
18 July 2008

Column 8

[...] "The surprise and delight of American tourists on finding that Mass and the Lord's Prayer in other English-speaking countries are the same as 'back home'," writes Ken Vincent, of Buderim, Queensland (Column 8, of late), "reminded me of my first visit to Hong Kong. I booked a half-day mini-bus tour to see the main sights quickly. Passengers were collected from several Kowloon hotels and two American ladies got in and announced that they came from Hawaii. After driving through the New Territories, with balconies festooned with lines of laundry, one of the ladies said, 'Say, driver, will this tour take us through China Town?' "

It gets worse, naturally. Laurie Wigney, of Huntleys Cove, reports: "A Bridge Climb guide told me of an American tourist, on one of the dusk climbs, who asked, 'Is that the same moon as we see in the USA?' On the way down, after a North Shore train thundered past, his wife said, 'Gee, you Aussies are so cute. You even give names to your trains. That one was called Gordon.' " [...]

Sydney Morning Herald
19 July 2008

Column 8

[...] There seems to be no end to anecdotes concerning Americans' knowledge, of lack thereof, of the brute facts of geography (Column 8, since Wednesday). "In 1981," writes Lynne Smith, of Empire Bay, "my husband and I worked on Hayman Island. One day an American gentleman was complaining (very rare) and declared (very loudly) that he was leaving. No problem - except there was a two-hour wait for the next boat. His reply? 'Not good enough! Call me a taxi NOW!' " [...]

Sydney Morning Herald
21 July 2008

Column 8

[...] Jeremy Tonks, of Bundanoon, has come to the defence of American tourists asking inane questions (Column 8, for some days) "'Is that the same moon as we see in the US?' is a fair question," Jeremy insists. "It certainly looks different, as I discovered while visiting my sister in Sweden, where the moon is viewed upside down." Point taken. We are also pleased that Jeremy makes it clear that it is the Swedes (and by extension, the Americans) who view the moon upside down. We see it the right way up, of course.

Nonetheless, still they come, and while we should really knock it off, we can't go past this one, from Hugh O'Keefe, of Elizabeth Bay, who writes "Some years ago my friend Ric was in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Of course, everyone was looking at the ceiling. An American woman tapped Ric on the shoulder and said 'What's gonna happen? It's gonna open or sump'n?"' [...]

Monday, July 14, 2008

Whoopi Goldberg on "Voting Rights Bill for Black Folks"

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/justin-mccarthy/2008/07/14/whoopi-goldberg-airs-false-claims-about-voting-rights-act

Newsbusters
14 July 2008

Whoopi Goldberg Airs False Claims about Voting Rights Act

By Justin McCarthy

The right of African-Americans to vote in the United States is not permanent according to "View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg. On the July 14 edition, Whoopi echoed the popular internet rumor a few years ago that voting rights for African-Americans was set to expire in 2007.

"Do you know that we are the only people in the United States who have to have their voting rights okayed every couple of years? Did you know that they have to vote on the Voting Rights Bill for black folks? Can we just, can one of you candidates -- can we just take care of that so I don’t have to worry every year, my God am I not?" [...]

Sen. McCain's New Version of P.O.W. Story

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/in-pennsylvania.html

ABC News
10 July 2008

Political Punch [Blog]
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper

In Pennsylvania, McCain Tells a New Version of Heroic P.O.W. Story -- Subbing the Pittsburgh Steelers for the Green Bay Packers

[Sen. John McCain told Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV that when he was interrogated as a P.O.W., he "named the starting...defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron mates." In other previous versions of this memorate, he recalled that the players he named were the offensive line of the Green Bay Packers.]

http://kdka.com/video/?id=43538@kdka.dayport.com

KDKA-TV [Pittsburgh, PA]
9 July 2008

Uncut: One-on-One With Sen. John McCain

[Video]

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Perfume Spraying Leads to Arrest

http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20080712/ARTICLES/807120312/1211/NEWS01&title=Perfume_spraying_leads_to_arrest

The Courier [Houma, LA]
12 July 2008

Perfume spraying leads to arrest

By Naomi King
Staff Writer

HOUMA -- A woman who police say sprayed cologne on at least local two men, leaving them feeling ill and light-headed, has been arrested.

Patches Wegmann, 22, 1449 Spanish Oaks Drive in Harvey, is charged with simple battery and unlawful solicitation. [...]

The incident remains under investigation, and authorities say it’s not clear that anything other than perfume was sprayed on either man. [...]

Both incidents are remarkably similar to an urban legend that has been circulated via the Internet for years. [...]

Friday, July 11, 2008

The Serenity Prayer

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/us/11prayer.html

New York Times
11 July 2008

Serenity Prayer Stirs Up Doubt: Who Wrote It?

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Generations of recovering alcoholics, soldiers, weary parents, exploited workers and just about anybody feeling beaten down by life have found solace in a short prayer that begins, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change."

Now the Serenity Prayer is about to endure a controversy over its authorship that is likely to be anything but serene. [...]

[Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr claimed he wrote the prayer sometime in the 1940s, but Fred Shapiro, a law librarian at Yale, has found versions of it going as far back as 1936.]

http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2008_07/serenity.html

Yale Alumni Magazine
July/August 2008

Who wrote the Serenity Prayer?
The inspiring text -- long attributed to an eminent theologian -- may have deeper roots than we thought.

by Fred R. Shapiro
[Elisabeth Sifton's response follows Shapiro's article.]

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

"Tramp" Turns Out To Be Church Minister

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2008/07/09/prestatyn-tramp-turns-out-to-be-church-minister-55578-21309349/

Daily Post [North Wales]
9 July 2008

Prestatyn 'tramp' turns out to be church minister

By Gareth Hughes

A SHOCKED congregation spent a service ignoring a tramp who wandered in off the street - but then he whipped off his wig and revealed himself to be their minister.

Yesterday as members of Trinity Methodist Church in Prestatyn were still talking about his performance, the Rev Derek Rigby said he was delighted to have got his message of acceptance across in such a graphic way.

Churchgoers looked aghast as a scruffy down-and-out huddled in the church doorway as they arrived for morning service. [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_east/7497411.stm
BBC News [UK]
9 July 2008
Flock shocked by 'tramp' minister

[Cf. Jan Brunvand, The Baby Train, 318-21. See also
http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/compassion.asp ]

Monday, July 7, 2008

Kim Jong the Second

http://www.slate.com/id/2194921/

Slate.com
7 July 2008

Farewell to a Provincial Redneck
Jesse Helms' stranglehold on U.S. foreign policy was a national embarrassment.

By Christopher Hitchens

[...] It was a scandal that a man with so little knowledge of the outside world should have had such a stranglehold on American foreign policy for so long. He once introduced Benazir Bhutto as the prime minister of India. All right, that could have happened to anybody. But what about the hearings on North Korea in which he made repeated references to "Kim Jong the Second"? In order to prevent any repetition of this idiotic gaffe, Helms' staff propped up a piece of card on which was clearly written the pronunciation "Kim Jong ILL." The senator from North Carolina duly made the adjustment, referring thenceforth to the North Korean despot as "Kim Jong the Third." [...]
~~~~~~~~~~
Christopher Hitchens, "Farewell to the Helmsman," Foreign Policy, no. 126 (Sep./Oct., 2001), p. 69.

In March 1995, reading a prepared statement on North Korea, he had some harsh words for a man named "Kim Jong Two." Embarrassed staffers spun this as a pun on the monarchical succession from Kim Il Sung but took care to annotate Helms's next script with the phonetic spelling "Kim Jong ILL." Like a champ, the old warhorse got to this passage and declared: "We are entitled to know the nature of President Clinton's commitment to North Korean dictator Kim Jong the Third."
~~~~~~~~~~
http://rwrld.blogspot.com/2008/07/jesse-helms-and-kim-jong-third.html

R World [Blog]
5 July 2008

Jesse Helms and Kim Jong the Third

Ron Davison

[...] But perhaps my favorite example of how inappropriate was Helms in the role as head of the foreign relations committee, he referred to North Korea's leader as Kim Jong the third (Kim Jong III). When an aid pointed out his error, Helms then refered to Kim Jong-il as Kim Jong Ill. [...]
~~~~~~~~~~
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E3DB1E31F934A15753C1A9669C8B63

New York Times
27 October 2000

Lazio Criticizes President For Weak Foreign Policy

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

[...] With less than two weeks left in his campaign for Senate against Hillary Rodham Clinton, [Representative Rick] Lazio gave one of the most detailed speeches of his entire campaign, a tough-talking address that echoed the criticisms of the White House made by George W. Bush this year. [...]

Indeed, Mr. Lazio seemed comfortable and in command, both in delivering the written speech and in answering questions from students and faculty, on issues ranging from the role of the United Nations (limited) to how much influence members of Congress should have on the nation's foreign policy (fairly extensive). He ran into difficulty only at one point, referring to the leader of North Korea as ''Kim Jong the Second.'' Mr. Lazio apparently misread the text, which correctly named the North Korean leader as Kim Jong Il. [...]

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Collecting Bottle Tops for Charity

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/north-east-news/2008/07/06/top-efforts-were-all-in-vain-79310-21269426/

Sunday Sun [UK]
6 July 2008

Top efforts were all in vain

by Ruari O Toole, Sunday Sun

PEOPLE all over the North have collected thousands of plastic bottle tops to help a charity to buy wheelchairs . . . but it turned out to be an urban myth.

Some conscientious collectors have ended up with garages full of lids and nowhere to send them. [...]

http://blog.sundaysun.co.uk/2008/06/milk_bottle_tops_lots_of_milk.html

Sunday Sun [UK]
25 June 2008

Milk bottle tops - LOTS of milk bottle tops

Posted by Tony Hitchens

I've got some milk bottle tops can you do anything with them - said the email.

I know that last week I wrote that I would continue my examination of my waste and recycling but that was before I received an interesting email from someone who had been collecting lots of milk bottle tops. [...]

http://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/2328320.m5ec/?from=ec&to=2328320&l=recycling_our_milk_bottle_tops

Kidderminster Shuttle [UK]
11 June 2008

Letters

Recycling our milk bottle tops

FOR some time now we have been collecting plastic milk bottle tops for various charities.

Mainly they sell the plastic for re-cycling and the cash then goes to provide wheelchairs. [...]

Friday, July 4, 2008

Dunedin Doctor Fails Digital Exam

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/entertainment/hoax-prostate-doc-fools-kiwis/2008/07/03/1214950907100.html

Brisbane Times [Australia]
3 July 2008

Hoax prostate Doc fools kiwi's

A story about a Doctor in New Zealand who misdiagnosed patients with prostate cancer due to a small lump at the end of his left index finger has been revealed to be a hoax.

The story reported that 20 men in the New Zealand city of Dunedin had received a scare after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The alleged Doctor, Issac Rooney, said he had a harmless skin growth on the tip of his finger and diagnosed 20 cases of nodular prostate following rectal examinations during Prostate Awareness Week.

http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?l=1&t=0&id=23542
Infonews.co.nz

Inflatable Bra Explodes

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91943477&ft=1&f=100

NPR [National Public Radio, USA]
27 June 2008

StoryCorps: Recording America

A Bra's Tale: Detour On A Daughter's Trip Abroad

[Betty Jenkins recounts how her inflatable bra exploded during an airplane flight, causing the alarmed co-pilot to rush into the cabin with his gun. Text and audio clip.]

http://scienceblogs.com/terrasig/2008/07/storycorps_producer_responds_t.php

Terra Sigillata [Blog]
3 July 2008

StoryCorps producer responds to NPR exploding bra doubts

by Abel Pharmboy

[StoryCorps Senior Producer Michael Garofalo defends the dubious story.]

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Laxatives in Campus Dining Hall Food

http://www.bupipedream.com/pipeline_web/display_article.php?id=8289

Pipe Dream [Binghamton University, NY]
2 July 2008

Bear+cat=bearcat? BU myths debunked

By Courtney Kates, Release writer

[...]

Are there laxatives in the dining hall food?
FALSE

A chopped onion, a teaspoon of salt and a laxative? Many students believe that the food they are eating at the campus dining halls, whether it is the soup of the day or chocolate chip pancakes at breakfast, are loaded with laxatives. The reason for this, according to many students, is that if there is something wrong with the food a laxative will prevent it from remaining in your stomach long enough to harm the body. Bob Griffin, head of marketing for Sodexho, has heard this story one too many times. "I just can't help but laugh every time I hear that," Griffin said. "It's one of the silliest things I've ever heard. Why would we do that?" [...]