Paging Lisa Birgit Holst
February 22, 2010 6:38 PM Subscribe
Can anyone find evidence of a "Lisa Birgit Holst" or a PC Professional mag listed as a source on a Snopes article?
In the article about the human eating on average eight spiders a year in their sleep it cites a 1993 article from PC Professional by Lisa Birgit Holst called "Reading is Believing."
Problem is, nobody can find a mag named "PC Professional" and calls and research to both the German mag PC Professionall and the UK mag PC Pro found nothing.
The other cite on Snopes is legit but doesn't mention anything about the 1993 article.
Was there ever a PC Professional or is Snopes pulling our leg? A posting on the Snopes message board asking about this gets deleted.
In the article about the human eating on average eight spiders a year in their sleep it cites a 1993 article from PC Professional by Lisa Birgit Holst called "Reading is Believing."
Problem is, nobody can find a mag named "PC Professional" and calls and research to both the German mag PC Professionall and the UK mag PC Pro found nothing.
The other cite on Snopes is legit but doesn't mention anything about the 1993 article.
Was there ever a PC Professional or is Snopes pulling our leg? A posting on the Snopes message board asking about this gets deleted.
The fact that your comment was deleted makes me think there's an ulterior motive in retaining it. Perhaps it's a Mountweazel to trap copyright violators? Or an object lesson in always verifying your sources? Some of the wording on the page ("an example of the absurd things people will believe simply because they come across them on the Internet.") suggests that it's deliberate.
posted by Paragon at 7:14 PM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Paragon at 7:14 PM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Perhaps, but they've got a whole section of fake articles to teach you to always check sources. This one is not included in that section.
posted by A 90s Kind of Guy at 7:20 PM on February 22, 2010
posted by A 90s Kind of Guy at 7:20 PM on February 22, 2010
Here is an article from someone claiming to have looked into a little more deeply.
It is a mystery to me why Snopes has it up still.
posted by SLC Mom at 7:33 PM on February 22, 2010
It is a mystery to me why Snopes has it up still.
posted by SLC Mom at 7:33 PM on February 22, 2010
Another not-an-answer, but you might try asking on alt.folklore.urban. I don't hang out there any more, but a few years ago (and maybe still) there was a lot of overlap between AFU and Snopes.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:44 PM on February 22, 2010
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:44 PM on February 22, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by sallybrown at 6:55 PM on February 22, 2010