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Americans: Was your town a [rumored] Cold War missile target?

jeb — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:55:23 -0800

Americans: Was your town a [rumored] Cold War missile target? I grew up in New Jersey. When I lived there, people would sometimes say, "You know, after [DC|New York], our area is the number-two target on the Soviet nuclear ICBM list, because of Bell Labs." I didn't really think about this too much at the time, and it seemed at least somewhat plausible. But as I've gotten older, I've heard people from all over the country say, "You know, [my town] is #2 on the Soviet missile target list because of [$feature]."

I had a text file of them for a while, I was collecting them because I think they are interesting bits of folklore, but I can't find it now. I'm curious as to where this rumor got started, where people claim to find this information, etc., because it must be false, right? I mean the whole MAD strategy was predicated on the idea that the Soviets and the USA could pretty much totally wipe each other out in one go, so there were probably dozens or hundreds of places with equal target priority.

Mostly, though, I'm interested in these rumors. The commonalities are:
1) #2 target. There's always a credibility-adding reference to a clearly more-valuable target. In the Northeast, this is generally DC, the Pentagon, or New York.
2) A specific reason that points to some local feature as being of strategic import, and often one that you wouldn't immediately think of, like Bell Labs (really? A lab? that's going to be ahead of a SAC HQ?)

So my question is did you hear this about the place where you grew up or lived? What was the reason your town was supposedly targeted? What was the reference target of greater import?

A priest and his own stolen plates. Folklore?

leticia — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:05:54 -0800

Have heard a story told to me as a "true" story that someone supposedly has personal knowledge of, but I could swear I've heard this before, either as urban legend, or maybe from the plot of a movie or book. Does anyone recognize this story? It's been a while since I heard the story, but here it is in broad strokes:

A good-hearted priest goes to work in a poor community. Everyone tells him to beware of this community because they are beggars and thieves, but he brushes off the warnings, and goes ahead to work with them and live among them. He embraces them and does not judge them harshly, and treats them very well. One day the community decide to have a party for him, to thank him for all the good and kind things he's done for them. He goes to the party, and they serve him a cake they have made in his honor, but they serve the cake to him on his own plates -- which they have stolen from him.

When this was told to me, it just felt so familiar. I am almost sure this is either something from a story or fable, or just an urban legend that might be told about any looked-down-upon community in any culture. However, I don't have the first idea how I could possibly search for this online.

Does this story sound at all familiar to anyone?

Thanks in advance!

Sourcing a Michael Jackson Urban Legend

whoaali — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:54:02 -0800

Trying to figure out the story behing what I assume is a hoax/urban legend about Michael Jackson. Either Friday or Saturday I heard on the radio (cannot remember which one since I assumed it was real at the time) in Los Angeles that the 13 year old boy who had settled out of court with Jackson in 1993 had come forward after his death and said he lied. He reportedly said his father made him lie to get the money and that he was coming forward now because he feels horrible now that Jackson has died.

I was expecting to see it all over the news, but heard nothing and after I was able to find nothing on google I figured it must be a hoax. However, I couldn't find anything on snopes about it either.

Does anyone know where this story came from? I don't know why it has stuck in my mind, but I'm really curious where it came from.

They're not just for apples anymore!

freshwater_pr0n — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:09:13 -0800

I am researching the best way to accomplish this task: make life-sized, edible, realistic replicas of a razor blade, suitable to bring to a Halloween party next year. What sort of candy medium would work bestl?

"The night was dark, and also stormy..."

greytape — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 05:45:15 -0800

"Who's got a good ghost story?" This question has come up more than once in my life, usually while sitting around with friends in the dark. How do you guys respond to it?

I'd love to have a killer ghost story that would scare the bejeezus out of proper adults to hand, but I don't, and my searches for one have been fruitless. A literary ghost story isn't any good, I need a tale that is intended to be relayed orally. If anyone can point me to a repository of such stories, give me the outlines of a few or just give me tips on how to tell such stories well in this situation, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks.

Drugs cause 45-pound weight gain in 5 days?

commander_cool — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:07:23 -0800

MetaMediFilter: Did the LA Times get snookered? From an LA Times article, the following anecdote seemed questionable:

In September, the gregarious soccer player swallowed 20 Coricidin pills in pursuit of a cheap high while the rest of her family slept. Her mother found her vomiting the next morning and took her to the emergency room.

Doctors there were baffled by her malfunctioning liver and struggled to pinpoint the cause. Four days later, after Lucia had fallen into a coma, a friend pulled a nurse aside and told her about the pills.

It was too late. She died less than a day later, on Sept. 17. At the funeral, her parents left the casket open so the hundreds of teens in attendance could see how the pills had swelled Lucia's athletic, 125-pound frame to a bloated 170 pounds.

Can someone explain how twenty pills can add 45 pounds of weight in five days?

Have you read/heard of a story about an Irish man travelling in Tibet who gets buried according to Finnegan's Wake?

Kattullus — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 11:45:22 -0800

A story has come to me through the telephone game that is society that has piqued my interest. Does anyone have a source for the following story, which I presume is fictional: An Irish man dies while travelling in Tibet, and the only piece of literature they have about Ireland and Irish funeral customs is Finnegan's Wake.

Baseball commissioner warned before fatal heart attack?

staggernation — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 06:44:05 -0800

Did a doctor see Bart Giamatti on television and warn him he was about to have a heart attack? A. Bartlett Giamatti, baseball commissioner, Yale president, Pete Rose antagonist, Paul's dad, died of a heart attack in 1989.

Someone told me the following apocryphal-sounding, or at least embellished-sounding, anecdote: The day before Giamatti's death, he appeared in a television interview. A physician who happened to be watching could tell, "from the way he was holding his cigarette," that he was in the early stages of cardiac arrest. He tried to contact Giamatti, but either couldn't get in touch with him, or the warning wasn't heeded.

Is this true, or partly true? Here's what I've been able to find:

This abstract of a CBS News segment seems to indicate that a Sloan Kettering doctor had written a letter offering to help Giamatti quit smoking. Could this be the origin of the more dramatic story?

This version of the story: A doctor saw him on TV, smoking a cigar, and from his swollen fingers suggested he had heart problems. The doctor warned Giamatti to give up cigars and seek treatment, which he did, but he died of a heart attack shortly thereafter.

That's all I've got. Has anyone heard any version of this?

"Come to a sleepover. Bring your mom's Pretty Woman video and a coin."

crabintheocean — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 23:07:32 -0800

I started thinking about what I guess you'd call "Urban Legend Rules of Thumb", The kind of stuff people (especially teenagers) make up and pass on to answer nagging questions like "How can I tell if my boobs are saggy?" and "How big can an age difference in a relationship be before it's creepy?". I'd like to hear some more. When I was in high school, this kind of stuff was absolutely authoritative and inarguable. You weren't supposed to be able to hold a coin between your thighs when your knees were pressed together, and you had to have had three (3) sexual partners. These were the rules about what was normal and ok, neatly packaged. I'm sure there are a million more. Where do they come from? Do they change over time, or from place to place? Tell me one, and tell me where and when you learned it.

The answers to the dilemmas above are:

You should not be able to hold a coin under a boob (but this one is contradictory, it was also said that you could tell if you were ready for a bra with this test - and what's with all the coins? and what kind of coin?).

You should not date someone younger than half your age plus seven. Therefore an 18 year old may not date anyone younger than 16, or a 30 year old anyone younger than 22.

ID this song? Heard this other song recently?

kimota — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 20:38:33 -0800

Two simple music questions.... 1). Know of a (country/novelty) song based on this urban legend? A friend swears he remembers something, circa early-to-mid-70s.

2). When was the last time you heard "Billy, Don't Be A Hero" on the radio in the US? I'd always dismissed it as schmaltzy 70s bubblegum but realized it's decidedly anti-war, and I'm curious to know if in ClearChannel/Support the Troops America it's getting any play at all.

Glass Dynamics

interrobang — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 17:40:23 -0800

I heard a long time ago that glass in old houses is thicker at the bottom of the pane because it's essentially a (very slow) liquid, and over time, it "melts" down to the bottom. Then, I heard that the story of glass "melting" was an urban legend. I thought I read this in "The Straight Dope", but I can't find it. Can anyone point me toward a definitive statement on this?

Shocking TV

angry modem — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 11:29:24 -0800

Has anyone shocked while tampering with their television really been thrown across the room into/through a wall?