Urban Legends - The Art of the Prank

October 19, 2008January 15, 2019

Urban Legend: ACORN Election Fraud

A Mighty Hoax From ACORN Grows
by Michael Winship
Truthout.org
October 18, 2008

ACORN and election fraud. Hang on. As soon as I can get the alligator that crawled out of my toilet back into the New York City sewers where it belongs, I can turn my attention to this very important topic.

You see, the ACORN “election fraud” story is one of those urban legends, like fake moon landings and alligators in the sewers, and it appears three or four weeks before every recent national election with the regularity of the swallows returning to Capistrano. First, the basics: ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is an activist group working with low- and moderate-income families to, among many other things, register voters. To do this, they hire people to go around signing up the unregistered, killing two birds with one stone – giving employment to people who need it (some with criminal records) and providing the opportunity to vote to members of minority communities whose voices all too often go unheard.

What happens is that some of those hired to do the registering, who are paid by the name, make people up. As a result, you’ll discover that among the registrants are such obvious fakes as Mickey Mouse and the starting line-up of the Dallas Cowboys, among others.

This is where the Republican meme kicks in. As they have in past elections (although now louder and more angrily than ever), the G.O.P. has made ACORN the red flag du jour as the party tries to mobilize its conservative base and, allegedly, attempts to suppress the vote and distract attention from accusations of election tampering made against them, too. Continue reading “Urban Legend: ACORN Election Fraud”

May 9, 2008January 15, 2019

Myth of Absinthe Outted

Fabled absinthe all a hoax, German scientists say
The Earth Times
May 6, 2008

Karlsruhe, Germany – Absinthe, the green liqueur flavoured with aniseed which reputedly used to drive artists mad, was a hoax, a team of scientists said Tuesday, adding that it was only the strong alcohol in the drink that was damaging to health.

Absinthe was banned in Europe for much of the 20th century because of fears it contained large amounts of thujon, which is toxic to the nerves. Not so, said scientists at the CVUA laboratory in Karlsruhe, Germany, who did the study with US and British colleagues.

They tested old bottles of the beverage nearly 100 years old.

“Its psycho-active effect is just a fairy tale,” said scientist Dirk Lachenmeier. The liqueur had contained only minimal thujon.

Users claimed the wormwood liqueur could trigger hallucinations or epileptic fits. The Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh is supposed to have cut off his own ear under its influence. Continue reading “Myth of Absinthe Outted”

February 2, 2008January 15, 2019

Urban Legends of the Super Bowl

From David Emery of About.com on Super Bowl Sunday urban legends, February 1, 2008:

In an LA Times article a few years back, renowned folklorist Alan Dundes ventured to explain why Super Bowl Sunday has become the focus of so many larger-than-life “urban beliefs” in the United States “” beliefs such as:

Every year on Super Bowl Sunday the water systems of major cities are in danger of collapsing because of so many simultaneous toilet flushings at half-time (FALSE).

More women are physically abused by spouses and boyfriends on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year (DISPUTED).

Two-thirds of all the avocados sold yearly in the United States are purchased during the three weeks prior to the Super Bowl for making guacamole dip (EXAGGERATED).

There are more pizza deliveries made during Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year (TRUE).

Disneyland becomes a veritable ghost town on the day of the Super Bowl because so many Americans are planted in front of their TV sets (FALSE).

The stock market predictably fluctuates up or down the Monday after the Super Bowl depending on which league wins (PARTLY TRUE).

Wrote Dundes: “Every culture’s legends express that culture’s values. Super Bowl legends usually involve numbers and a sense of enormity. The idea of big numbers, of being bigger than other people, is very American.”

Or maybe we’re just prone to exaggerate. Who isn’t? Read on here.

image: Sahara pizza

January 28, 2008January 15, 2019

Bermuda Triangle, New York Style

Empire State Building car zap mystery
by Richard Weir
Daily News
January 27, 2008

Several cars a day get bizarrely stranded in a five-block ‘Bermuda Triangle’ near the Empire State Building.

In the shadow of the Empire State Building lies an “automotive Bermuda Triangle” – a five-block radius where vehicles mysteriously die.

No one is sure what”s causing it, but all roads appear to lead to the looming giant in our midst – specifically, its Art Deco mast and 203-foot-long, antenna-laden spire.

“We get about 10 to 15 cars stuck near there every day,” said Isaac Leviev, manager of Citywide Towing, the AAA”s exclusive roadside assistance provider from 42nd St. to the Battery. “You pull the car four or five blocks to the west or east and the car starts right up.”

Motorists like Russell Valeev, 25, learn about it the hard way.

“The lights work, the horn works, everything. But it won”t start,” Valeev, a driver for Golden Touch Transportation said one recent evening as he sat in his 2005 Ford van with the hood propped open on E. 35th St., between Lexington and Park Aves. “It”s my job. No money.”

Continue reading “Bermuda Triangle, New York Style”

January 22, 2008January 15, 2019

Alfred, We Hardly Knew Thee!

A comprehensive, although theoretical, exhibition of the history of Alfred E. Newman, Alfred, We Hardly Knew Thee! continues through Feb. 7 in the Ford Gallery in Ford Hall at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. Ford Hall is north of Cross Street at the intersection of Normal Street. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon. and Thursday.; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday. Information: 734-487-0465.

Mad for Alfred:
A new exhibit shows Mad magazine’s poster boy has a shadowy past
by Tahree Lane
The Toledo Blade
January 20, 2008

Mad magazine’s lovable poster boy is as emblematic of the last half of the 20th century as any cartoon character.

But the face we know as Alfred E. Neuman has a storied past that reaches back 200 years and has its roots in discrimination.

“The image is fluid and flexible and has been with us from George Washington to W. Bush,” says John E. Hett, publisher of the intermittent The Journal of Madness. Continue reading “Alfred, We Hardly Knew Thee!”