Tag Archives: urban legends

Have You Heard the One About the Boy and the Penguin?

Not too long ago my husband told me an outrageous story a co-worker had told him about a boy who smuggled a penguin out of an aquarium in his backpack. He swore up and down the story was true, and he believed it was, but I wasn’t falling for it. I told him I was going to check it out on Snopes and that’s exactly what I did. The result? It’s as I suspected. An urban legend. The Premise It’s told in different forms. The version Wayne told me was of a little boy who’d snuck off and had somehow … Continue reading →

Warning: Grapes and Raisins Deadly to Dogs Not an Urban Legend

Earlier this month a friend of mine (Lee, the dad of Mocha) sent me an email with this in the subject line: “If you have a dog…PLEASE READ!” That certainly caught my attention so I of course read it. The Warning The email was about a dog whose owners had to have him euthanized after he ate raisins, suffered raisin toxicity, and developed acute renal failure. The bulk of the email was rather technical and laced with veterinary jargon. Even so, the average dog owner could discern the gist: raisins and grapes are a big no-no treat for dogs. It … Continue reading →

Identifying E-Mail Hoaxes: Protecting Yourself

Do you know how to protect yourself and your family from an e-mail hoax? Some hoaxes are time wasters that clutter your inbox, while others are more dangerous hoaxes that may cost you money or compromise your safety. If you missed it, you might want to check out Identifying E-Mail Hoaxes. Here are some ways to snoop out the phony stuff. When in doubt, delete it out. If you get an e-mail from someone you don’t recognize, the easiest thing to do is to simply delete it. You can also create filters in your e-mail program that only let in … Continue reading →

Identifying E-Mail Hoaxes

With the popularity of the Internet has come the popularity of the Internet or e-mail hoax. Some hoaxes are harmless but annoying, while others can even be dangerous. These hoaxes are very convincing and often very believable, so how can you protect yourself and your family? Read this article to learn more. What is an e-mail hoax? An e-mail hoax is a message that you get, usually forwarded by someone you know. It can also be called a urban legend. The purpose of the hoax can be to sucker you in to believing that something is true. Sometimes, the goal … Continue reading →

Marriage Myths – Let’s Chat

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It’s Saturday morning and it’s time to take it easy for the weekend. My daughter asked me today why don’t I ever take a holiday? The library was taking a holiday today – in fact it’s taking a holiday for the entire weekend. So she wanted to know why we never took holidays too. I don’t know why I’m telling you this story, except that it illustrates the problem we have when we make assumptions about things. One of the things we make assumptions about are the marriage tales we hear or the urban legends that surround marriage. Although, urban … Continue reading →

Don’t Work too Hard – No one Notices Anyway

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I was just browsing online, when I came across this immensely hilarious, but also terribly tragic story (located here) where a gentleman is dies at work while sitting at his desk–heart attack–and no one notices for five days. How could this possibly happen? From the article: “George was always the first guy in each morning, and the last to leave each night, so no one found it unusual that he was in the same position all that time and didn’t say anything. He was always absorbed in his work and kept pretty much to himself.” Yes, well, dead people tend … Continue reading →

Urban Legends – How Do You Know What’s True?

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Did you hear the one about the driver that was not going to avoid a large paper bag in the middle of the street? At the last moment, he swerved around it and when he looked in his rear view mirror, there was a baby crawling out of it! Okay, that is not true, but we still love to spread tales like that, known as urban legends. What exactly is an urban legend? It is a tale that may have at one time been based on fact, but as it was told and told and told again, the details were … Continue reading →