All the things that we have lost

Urban Legends

Urban Legends have been fooling people with their believability since the early 20th century, when a Russian newspaper published one as honest-engine truth, and many of the current ULs we know actually have roots stretching into the middle ages and earlier. We've all seen them, and we've all passed them on, but how can we recognize an urban legend before we send it on? It's not 100% effective, but here are some tips:

1) WARNINGS
Typically, ULs will serve up a warning, usually in a tacit manner. Sometimes, these are warnings against some new technology which has hidden side-effects, such as the diver caught in the water scoop of the forest fire fighting plane. Others will remind us away from behavior we already know is bad, such as accepting drinks from a stranger in a bar - which surfaces in the famous kidney scam UL. Still others will warn us to be very careful in situations that shouldn't be dangerous, such as warning us that criminals will use scams that prey on our kindness, leading us unsuspecting into danger (such as the "Help! My baby is in my car and she's stopped breathing" scam supposedly common around the holidays). Any story that suggests unsavory things lurking in the back of your favorite fast food restaurant should be questioned, especially if there hasn't been a word about it in the press. Virus warnings are also usually ULs - most people don't realize that the warning IS the virus, albeit a fairly harmless one. ANY email you get that is a warning should be immediately suspect.

2) NO NAMES and FOAFs
ULs will often include no names, or only partial names. The former will often claim that the UL happened to a Friend of a Friend (FOAF), such as "the wife of my neighbor's boss," or "my son's friend from school." When names are given, they will often be only partial, such as "Sgt. Smithson at County HQ," or some other official sounding title that turns out to be impossible to trace. Generally, if you couldn't possibly find this person, the story is probably false. Sometimes, names will be obvious jokes, such as Lirpa Loof (April Fool spelled backwards.) An easy test is to ask someone exactly who the event happened to, and then ask that person - who will inevitably say, "No, it was MY college roommate's cousin," etc, etc, etc.

3) VARIATION
One hallmark of all folklore is the existence of variation, and it surfaces in urban folklore as well. If you've heard a really similar story before, you may be reading/hearing a variation. There are several variations of the Neiman Marcus/Mrs. Field's Cookie Recipe story, including one told about a Waldorf Salad Recipe, and another for Red Velvet Cake. Craig Shergold's story has 2 or 3 variations, occurring in either the UK or the US, and involving children of either gender, with various medical conditions. (BTW: Craig is alive and well and in his 30s now...)

4) PASS IT ON
Almost any email/fax you get that requires you to pass it on to everyone you know should be suspect. Ditto any email that claims to need you to sign it and send it to your 50 closest friends (which, some ULs claim, are actually used by bulk mailer companies to collect email addresses... but I don't buy that, either!), or ones that say that if it gets a million forwards, you may win something from Bill Gates/Disneyland/whomever.

5) TOO BAD TO BE TRUE
If a story just seems too gross, to embarrassing, too horrific, too amazing to have happened - there's a good chance it didn't. MOST of those stories about gerbils, vacuum cleaner mishaps, insect infestations, mall abductions, needles in coin slots, rat urine, and other hard to believe tales did NOT happen. Period.

6) IT'S LISTED AS AN URBAN LEGEND BY A RESPECTED SOURCE
If you think something might be a UL, check it out on one of the following sites, which all have search capabilities:


    FOR FURTHER READING
    Jan Harold Brunvand, who teaches up at the University of Utah, has a number of excellent, readable, and very fun books out, including The Vanishing Hitchhiker, The Choking Doberman, and The Mexican Pet.

A FINAL NOTE ABOUT PASSING ON ULs
There's nothing inherently wrong with passing on a UL, especially to people like me who just love to read 'em (even the gross ones), but be aware that you may be using unnecessary bandwidth and causing unneeded terror in your friends if you pass them along without the warning, "This is a UL; take it with a grain of salt."

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