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Wives Tales, Myths, and Urban Legends.

michaelskis

michaelskis

Cyburbian
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If you drink room temperature water, you will stay cooler in hot, humid weather.
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*not true, cooler water well help to keep your body temperature from rising.

In NYC, there are alligators in the sewers.
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TRUE... kind of... back in the 30’s there was a person who brought a small pet alligator back from FL, and when it got too big they let it loose in the sewers. Because of the steam, it stayed warm, ate rats, and grew. A few months later, some kid was reaching into a grate and got big. They hunted the alligator down and killed it, but it made the news... That was the only one.

What wives tales, myths, and urban legends do you know of? Are they true or false?
 
"If you keep doing that you will go blind!" This has got to be a myth...(Although I recently had to buy strong glasses and a braile keyboard). :);-)
 
Snopes is usually my initial go-to place when I wish to investigate an urban legend or wive's tale.

I don't know about you, but reading this thread fills me with the urge to go to the bathroom. I'll make sure to clean off the toilet seat real thoroughly first, though - don't want to catch the Clap, you know!
 
You don't grow up in Southern Appalachia without hearing all kinds of wives tales. Apparently, like the tides, everything from when to plant different crops, to when you should have surgery or the temperament of your newborn is determined by different lunar cycles. There are literally dozens of wives tales I heard from various family member growing up, which strikes me as odd since these are by and large religiously conservative people who hold beliefs that anthropologist would be inclined to categorize as folk magic.


As for urban legends, I think that's a whole different subject that probably deserves a separate thread. I just know that I'll be using snopes a lot now that election season is fast approaching. I can't wait to have to look up substantiating evidence when I get that first mass email about Obama being in a terrorist sleeper cell, or Hillary eating babies. :r:
 
Creole/Voodoo Wives Tale, Myth...or just all around BS

Women - if you want to ensure that your man remains faithful to you, mix a bit of your "womanly flow" in his spaghetti sauce. I don't know of any women who've stooped to such a low, but I know some guys who are pretty leery of spaghetti sauce. +o(
 
biscuit said:
As for urban legends, I think that's a whole different subject that probably deserves a separate thread. I just know that I'll be using snopes a lot now that election season is fast approaching. I can't wait to have to look up substantiating evidence when I get that first mass email about Obama being in a terrorist sleeper cell, or Hillary eating babies. :r:
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Hey Mskis - did you hear that Hillary eats babies?!?:-D
 
My wife doesn't use the phone during a storm. It's something that her Mom told her not to do growing up. I tried to tell her that the phone and the electricity are completely separate systems.
 
the north omaha star said:
My wife doesn't use the phone during a storm. It's something that her Mom told her not to do growing up. I tried to tell her that the phone and the electricity are completely separate systems.
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Actually, I think they tested this on the Discovery Channel program Mythbusters, and found that you can get shocked by using the phone during a storm... Anyone else remember this episode? I love that show.
 
For a good read on this topic look up teh big book of urban legends. it is a graphic novel and is pretty good and funny to read.
 
Mud Princess said:
Actually, I think they tested this on the Discovery Channel program Mythbusters, and found that you can get shocked by using the phone during a storm... Anyone else remember this episode? I love that show.
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That show's a bit sciency for my taste- I like to know if particular events ever happened, (the serial killer who slashes girls' achilles tendons, etc)
 
I heard of this urban legend where mskis spelled every word he posted correctly.





michaelskis said:
......A few months later, some kid was reaching into a grate and got big. They hunted the alligator down and killed it, but it made the news...
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I guess that myth is busted.:r::r::r::r::r::r::r::r::r::r::r::loser::s:
 
Rumpy Tunanator said:
I heard of this urban legend where mskis spelled every word he posted correctly.
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Don't be too quick to discount that urban legend, I believe every word was spelled correctly even if it wasn't the word he intended to use. Ma finners don aways het te rat keys eider.
 
Fat Cat

"I heard the owl hoot":-c
Means you cheated death;)

Heard this a few times when I was growing up but have never heard it since;):-D
Do not have the desire to find out if it is true:-D:-D
My county of origin are a superstitious people:-D:D
 
A few false myths:
Humans can significantly alter the climate
9/11 was the work of our own government
The government intentionally spies on the telephone conversations of non-suspicious civilians
Stepping on a crack will break your mother's back
That some sort of "curse" exists that prevents the Cubs from winning the World Series.
 
Having had my telephone blasted twice during lightning storms, I'm inclined to follow North Omaha Star's mother in law's advice.

But seriously, are all myths false by definition? ... if so, is a "false myth" true? I heard somewhere that snopes.com itself is an urban legend. ;):r:

And having been in the guy's change room after a football game, I'm inclined to believe that humans can affect the climate! ;-):-x
 
Mud Princess said:
Actually, I think they tested this on the Discovery Channel program Mythbusters, and found that you can get shocked by using the phone during a storm... Anyone else remember this episode? I love that show.
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Does anyone even use corded phones at home anymore? I would be very surprised.
 
jmello said:
Does anyone even use corded phones at home anymore? I would be very surprised.
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Yep, I do. They still work when the power goes out, whereas cordless phones don't. Not a very common occurrence, but after we got stuck without a phone for a few days in the big blackout a few years back, we've made sure to keep on corded phone around.
 
jmello said:
Does anyone even use corded phones at home anymore? I would be very surprised.
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I do, too. In fact, we have two (and one is a rotary :-c). We also have a cordless, but yes, the corded phone works when the power goes out and it was only a buck at the thrift store. It has one of those 800 foot long cords so you can get all tangled up in the kitchen, fall, and hurt yourself. Great fun.
 
Here are a few....

"Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning." Probably some truth to this, relative to atmospheric conditions, etc.

"Look at how big his feet are. You know what that means." Probably some truth to this, relative to a just-plain larger body.

"He'll ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston." Ask The Kingston Trio.

"In Toledo they roll up the sidewalks at 6:00 PM." Not true. They roll them up at 5:00 PM.

Bear
 
More folk wisdom:

- If onion skins are very thin, then winter's mild when coming in, but if onion skins are thick and tough, winter comes in cold and rough
- lucky in cards unlucky in love
- if she smokes she pokes
 
the north omaha star said:
My wife doesn't use the phone during a storm. It's something that her Mom told her not to do growing up. I tried to tell her that the phone and the electricity are completely separate systems.
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Actually, this one is true, as Mud Princess noted. There is a small current running through the phone lines, but I think the main issue is that it consists of wires and so if lightning strikes a telephone pole, those wires may transmit the charge long the lines. I knos I blw out a modem some years ago during a storm.

Here is the Snopes page: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/phone.asp

They say at least one person is killed a year from lightning while talking on the phone (worldwide? in the US? they don't really say...)
 
Planderella said:
Creole/Voodoo Wives Tale, Myth...or just all around BS

Women - if you want to ensure that your man remains faithful to you, mix a bit of your "womanly flow" in his spaghetti sauce. I don't know of any women who've stooped to such a low, but I know some guys who are pretty leery of spaghetti sauce. +o(
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Voodoo.

Know a woman who used to do some strange things that wouldn't make sense unless it was something like that. She also had an affinity for dropping hints about voodoo upbringing. What she would tell me seems to jive with various sources from different places.

I just hope it was cooked food in which I ate it :-c. Cooked is better than fresh! :a: Either way, I think I have eaten worse stuff than that in my life! :D
 
I knew a woman who kept a hair jar with her hair and nail clippings. She put it under her bed. Why?

Its a common African and African American belief (especially in the south) that one must hide these clippings from those who could use black magic to cause illness, misfortune, etc. In order to pull it off, they (the witches) need these items.

I had heard about this in the US and then when I was in Uganda, a teenager told me a story that his dad's girlfriend was trying to kill him (the dad). He said he had found a container with some of his father's clippings buried in the threshold below the front door (this is a common way of implementing the bad fortune). He was saving up money to hire another mystic type person to protect he and his father as his dad had fallen ill. Crazy stuff.

I learned later that this belief that hair and nail are linked to the spirit or soul of its originator is something of a worldwide phenomenon, but I don't know if other cultures save it and hide it under the bed. But you do find that particular tradition in the American south, West Africa and Cuba.
 
An old Italian wive's tale I heard is that if a pregnant woman wants a certain food and doesn't eat it the child will be born with a birthmark shaped like that food. I guess its a roundabout way of letting pregnant women indulge their cravings.
 
Seabishop said:
An old Italian wive's tale I heard is that if a pregnant woman wants a certain food and doesn't eat it the child will be born with a birthmark shaped like that food. I guess its a roundabout way of letting pregnant women indulge their cravings.
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A common Latino notion is similar, but that the baby's face will be shped like whatever food. Let me quote my good friend, Carmen: "Choo take her some avocado if she wanns it. Choo don wanna hava babeeee dat gotta avocado face! Dat's uuuuugly!" :)
 
The two wives tales I always heard from my mom were that:

Getting wet and being out in cold weather would cause a headcold. That was, of course, debunked, and as a result, Listerine had to stop advertising it could prevent colds.

Keeping hair short would cause it to become thicker. And I had to walk around with a "Pixie" haircut my entire childhood, even though my hair was obviously not getting thicker. :r:

Re the lightning/phone thing: I have twice seen every phone in a house fried by a lighning strike. When I was a kid, one hit a tree next to our house and fried the corded phones, along with every other thing in the house that was plugged in. About 10 years ago, a strike on a pine about 75 feet from the house bounced into the house, and blew the corded and cordless phones, along with both t.v.s.
 
Seabishop said:
An old Italian wive's tale I heard is that if a pregnant woman wants a certain food and doesn't eat it the child will be born with a birthmark shaped like that food. I guess its a roundabout way of letting pregnant women indulge their cravings.
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Since my is shaped like a blob, I wonder what my mom was craving?:-c
 
Fat Cat said:
"I heard the owl hoot":-c
Means you cheated death;)

Heard this a few times when I was growing up but have never heard it since;):-D
Do not have the desire to find out if it is true:-D:-D
My county of origin are a superstitious people:-D:D
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Must be some truth to this one. If you didn't hear the owl hoot, you were probably already dead, or at least deaf.
 
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