urban myths/legends

A solid, logical explanation to spoon bending is just bending it enough beforehand to get the metal close to breaking, and then using slight of hand and the weakened metal to achieve the desired effect. Simple, easy, and achievable. However, there used to be a rather more elaborate theory about...

Being a Doctor Who fan, I've been aware of a local urban legend about the actor behind the Second Doctor's demise, which occurred in my home state of Georgia. This is how the current Wikipedia entry on Troughton's life reports the events of the time: I wasn't at the convention, but there...

I don't recall ever hearing this UL (meme; whatever ... ) alleging Crocs are edible. This VICE article provides an extensive investigation into the history and validity of the edibility claims. FULL STORY: https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7vzqj/can-you-eat-crocs

Maybe someone can clear this up: can a tracker dog follow your scent through a river or body of water? You see it certain films, the escapee getting away because they crossed a river (apart from in No Country for Old Men, which provides a twist on that cliche), but is it true in real life? I...

Today I recalled a "fact" related to me years ago about domestic turkeys: they are so stupid that, if they are outside when it rains, they can drown because they look up in surprise at the rain coming down, and then drown because the rain gets into their lungs. Apparently this is not true, but...

In FT 386's Mythconceptions column, it claims that the smell of burnt toast when there's none about meaning you're having a heart attack or stroke is absolutely untrue. It also says chest pains are not ordinarily a symptom of a heart attack. Any comments/any more of these?

Has anyone heard this one? Some people believe that Wonder's blindness is a sham, and have various bits of 'evidence' to support their claim. Perhaps the most famous of which is this: A lot of the rest is personal anecdotes from other celebrities like Boy George and Donald Glover, who doubted...

A delightful Airbnb guest from Taiwan has been chatting away with me all evening. When I went into the kitchen for a drink of water she was perplexed, asking me "you drink tap water?! But you still have your hair!" Pardon? Tap water in Britain causes your hair to fall out, it said in the...

I got reminded about this U/L fron the supermarket/train code video I dropped in Good Stuff Online and figured it could do with it's own thread... I know it's come up here in passing before but I'm going way back and don't recall it being explored. The story is that Irish pubs in the UK cira...

A thread in "Ghosts" touched on where and when, as kids, often at slumber parties, we learned True Facts that we later learned were time honored urban legends. I think it would be interesting to see which locales were firmly fixed in our minds as kids before we learned just how universal the...

according to some conspiracy theorists at the lunatic fringe. More text and photos at Cluesform.

I am a Police Officer and today, myself and colleagues saw a high wall to a house which was embedded with glass shards in cement at the top. One colleague immediately stated that this was "illegal", however I pointed out that as far as I know, there is no actual LAW that says that you cannot do...

Here's an unusual story I heard down the way. The friend who related it swears blind that it's true, but then that's what they all say - and it did allegedly happen to a friend of a friend. My friend's friend, then, was a student in Manchester. After a night of drinking, he got his head...

I didn't know whether to put this in New Science or here, but it sounds made up to me, so here it goes. When I was in school, the teacher told us a tale about an experiment where scientists wrapped up a willing subject in so much cotton wool he couldn't feel anything, then plugged up his ears...

Hi My first post but I have been reading a lot on here especially about Purple Aki and someone who seems to be his cousin Lilac Aki Most people in the North West mainly Wigan and Liverpool will know about Purple Aki, he is a real Urban Legend but its true about his cousin Lilac Aki who...

Is there any truth to there being more calories in Spanish water than the water in other places like Britain because of the amount of bugs and beasties in it? Or is this an unfounded insult to the Spanish nation?

Has anybody else heard of this one:

Hi there, new here and thought this would be the best place to describe an UL i heard a couple of years back. It was a bout the time that the media was awash with paedophile stories following the tragic murder of of a little girl, and her parents subsequent calls for a change in law. As i recall...

Apologies if there are other george best threads but I'm just curious about how much Best has been drinking for the last 30 years. I mean I drink 4 pints of 4% lager every night, maybe 6 at weekends. I know that is more than the recomended daily amount of 1ml, but I'm sure there are people...

Were Corn Flakes designed by a very religious Mr Kellogg who was trying to make a food that would make you less inclined to masturbate? How was this supposed to work? :oops:

Well, they died, but there's a story that goes with their deaths that is highly unlikely. For instance, Mama Cass never died from choking on a ham sandwich, she suffered heart failure, and Elvis Presley didn't die straining on the toilet, he had a heart attack while reading on a chair in his...

Source

Worth a thread of its own. This is from the Garudian Notes & Queries 5/1/5: The Goodies death is discussed here: https://forums.forteana.org/posts/217399 Also nice to the book of lists used as a reference ;)

I've noticed that alot of places in America have minor legends about some particular place where devil worshippers supposedly congregate. I'm wonder if this came up suddenly in the 80's with the "Satanic Panic" and SRA phenomena, or if it predates it. I know alot of same types of things I've...

i heard this when i was at uni...about...9 years ago. i was studying jewellery and metalsmithing. one of my lecturers was a well known australian metalsmith, who was going to work in japan for a bit, doing lectures and stuff. anyway, he gets into japan and is pulled aside in customs by...

Hi there. I'm reading Martin Martin's account of the Hebrides of scotland in the 1690s just now. Very Fortean in places. He talks about the "King of the Otters" and mentions it as having a white spot on its breast, with a pelt much prized by soldiers. Sounds very much like other reports of...

Monopoly and other game legends What are the legends you have heard about Monopoly? Found a cool site: http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/index.html#american This site has many cool old games listed, and it even talked about the disputed origins of Monopoly (it was actually based on an...

I just got through reading the Crime Library's listing for Sweeney Todd and, in one of the graphics, it had a picture of what I took to be Sweeney Todd's actual shop. Does his shop still exist, the swivling barber's chair to drop victims to the basement, the catacombs that connected Sweeney...

was wondering if any other schools had any UL psychos (such as 'purple accie' who from my time at university found exists everywhere in the country!).

This one's been doing the rounds for ages, cult Blockbusters presenter Bob Holness is frequently reputed to have played the saxophone solo on Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street". I think this is a myth, but if he didn't, then who did?

Is there any evidence of tales wich have been dismissed and widely known as UL ever turned out to be a true tale? id be interested in hearing if you know any.

I have no idea if this tidbit of literature is an Urban Legend/hoax or not, but it's a great deal funnier than Timmy the Dog ever was. Source.

Is it witches, or just one boyband too many?? This strikes me as a FOAF tale, because it was told to me by my best friend, who was told by her brother, who no doubt heard it from someone else, but anway; You know how you often see audio tape from cassettes lying by the edge of the road...

So, what's your scariest urban legend ? Of course, this can concern most legends because so many areas have local urban myths that other places do not. It's just a shame the film URBAN LEGEND was so crap, they could have done something really scary, possibly in the RING way.

Despite UL's floating around for decades, is it not true that there has not been a single case involving a snuff film, or any films seized by custom officers or police forces. I'm not saying there isn't very nasty stuff out there but is the whole concept of snuff films just a UL.

why dont we start an urban legend then and see if we can make it on to tv or the news papers? just a thougt casio

Bogus social workers-urban myth or not? I remember there being a spate of bogus social workers stories in the 80's (you know 'health professional' turns up unannounced at house and demand to see child and/or take them away). Only last year our local rag run a front page story about one. Do...

Satanic Abuse? Thought this one was long dead and put down to overheated social workers fuelled on US horror tales. The following however appeared in the Middleton Guardian in July of this year. [**Actually it appeared on 27th July, 2000 - the site has a somewhat confusing layout and...

Hello, was just wondering if any of you know of any urban legends, folklore or myth's for your local area? To start things off I will tell you mine (footy fans may of heard about this one). The monkey hanging - It's known by all the locals in my town that we once hung a monkey. A french...

East End Disappearances 1881-1890 I am trying to find information regarding unusual disappearances which began in the East End of London in 1881 and continued unsolved until January 1890. Apparently men, women and children from all classes disappeared into a 'Fortean void', never to be seen or...