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# Urban legend

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An urban legend is a type of modern folklore story, endlessly circulated by word of mouth, repeated in news stories and distributed by email. They are frequently recounted as having happened to a `friend of a friend'. Some of the stories are very old, having been only slightly modified over the years, as in the story of a woman killed by spiders nesting in her elaborate hairdo. Others are new, as in the story of the man on a business trip being seduced by a woman and waking up the next morning with a kidney surgically removed for transplant. (But why would the organ thieves stop at a single kidney?)

Some urban legends are actually based on true events, such as the case of the young man doing target practice on a large [saguaro cactus]?. He was killed when his gunfire severed the trunk, resulting in his being crushed by the falling plant. Even when essentially true, however, the stories are often distorted by the many retellings from the original event. There is a thriving newsgroup, news:alt.folklore.urban that discusses these stories. The newsgroup's [Frequently Asked Questions] page summarises the truth or otherwise of thse stories, so far as this can be determined. A similar list may be found with The Urban Legends Reference Page at [snopes.com]. For online urban legends, a good source is [[Virus Myths]]; another is [[the Darwin Awards]] site, which also showcases a few stories each year that are not apocryphal, though one might wish they were.

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Last edited July 26, 2001 3:34 pm (diff)
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