From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Subject: TOURBUS -- 27 FEBRUARY 1997 -- DEBUNKING URBAN LEGENDS
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TODAY'S STOP: DEBUNKING SOME MORE URBAN LEGENDS
TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://www.legends.org.za/arthur/craig01b.htm
http://www.wish.org/wish/craig.html
http://www.cancer.org/chain.html
http://www.mayo.edu/about/parkin.html
Hi, kids! It is time once again for another journey of our little bus of
Internet happiness. But first a quick word from the nice folks who help
to keep the 'Bus rolling:
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DEBUNKING SOME MORE MYTHS AND URBAN LEGENDS
-------------------------------------------
With all of the chain letters and urban legends that are floating around
the Internet, most people's e-mail boxes are starting to look like war
zones. Well, your fearless bus driver is about to give you some ammunition
to help you in this battle.
We've talked about this a lot recently, but today's TOURBUS post is going
to explain the *truth* behind a lot of the Internet's biggest urban legends
and hoaxes. My hope is that today's post will give you enough information
to help you make an informed response the next time someone sends you an
urban legend.
In short, I hope that you will repost the information in this letter
whenever and wherever you feel it to be necessary and relevant. If you do
repost any of this information, however, I have two small requests:
1. Give credit where credit is due; and
2. Please include TOURBUS' subscription information (the stuff at
the bottom of today's post) at the bottom of the stuff that
you redistribute.
With that said, let's start with the biggest urban legend of them all ...
THE FATHER OF ALL INTERNET URBAN LEGENDS
----------------------------------------
If you have been a TOURBUS rider for any amount of time, you'll know that
one of the worst urban legends floating around the Net is the story about
Craig Shergold:
Craig Shergold is seven years old and suffering from terminal
cancer. It is his ambition to be included in the Guinness Book of
Records for the largest number of business cards ever collected
by one person...
[Quoted from http://www.legends.org.za/arthur/craig01b.htm]
What the "Craig letter" does not tell you is that Craig is alive and well,
he's cured, he's now well into his teens, he made it into the Guinness Book
of Records years ago, Guinness has retired the "most cards" category, and
HE DOESN'T WANT ANY MORE BLOODY CARDS!
A few years ago, someone thought it would be funny to change the Craig
letter a little so that the letter now requests that you send your cards to
the Make-A-Wish foundation (instead of to Craig's home in England). Here
is what the Make-A-Wish foundation has to say about that:
"The chain letter claims that Make-A-Wish is involved," stated
James E. Gordon, Chairman of the Board of the Make-A-Wish
Foundation of America. "That is not true. Our organization is
not, and has never been associated with the letter. The Make-A-Wish
Foundation requests that people please stop sending business cards
or greeting cards to Craig Shergold."
[Quoted from http://www.wish.org/wish/craig.html]
If that isn't bad enough, someone else thought it would be funny to
completely rewrite the Craig letter and change the name "Craig Shergold" to
"Jessica Mydek":
LITTLE JESSICA MYDEK IS SEVEN YEARS OLD AND IS SUFFERING FROM AN
ACUTE AND VERY RARE CASE OF CEREBRAL CARCINOMA. THIS CONDITION
CAUSES SEVERE MALIGNANT BRAIN TUMORS AND IS A TERMINAL ILLNESS.
THE DOCTORS HAVE GIVEN HER SIX MONTHS TO LIVE.
AS PART OF HER DYING WISH, SHE WANTED TO START A CHAIN LETTER TO
INFORM PEOPLE OF THIS CONDITION... FURTHERMORE, THE AMERICAN CANCER
SOCIETY AND SEVERAL CORPORATE SPONSORS HAVE AGREED TO DONATE THREE CENTS
TOWARD CONTINUING CANCER RESEARCH FOR EVERY NEW PERSON THAT GETS
FORWARDED THIS MESSAGE. IF THERE ARE ANY QUESTIONS, SEND THEM TO
THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY AT ACS@AOL.COM
[Quoted from http://www.cancer.org/chain.html]
Here is the American Cancer Society's response:
As far as the American Cancer Society can determine, the story of
Jessica Mydek is completely unsubstantiated. No fundraising
efforts are being made by the American Cancer Society in her name
or by the use of chain letters. Furthermore, the email address
ACS@AOL.COM is inactive. Any messages to the American Cancer
Society should be instead sent through the American Cancer
Society website at http://www.cancer.org.
[Quoted from http://www.cancer.org/chain.html]
Our next urban legend of the day is this little letter, which has been
clogging up the Net recently:
From: Anthony Parkin
Subject: My dying wish
My name is Anthony Parkin, and you don't know me. I'm 7 years
old, and I have leukemia. I found your name using gopher, and I
would like for you to carry out my dying wish of starting a chain
letter. Please send this letter to five people you know so I can
live forever.
Unfortunately, neither the "Mayo Hospital" nor the domain
"MayoHospital.health.com" exist. There is a Mayo Clinic, however, and here
is what they have to say about the Anthony Parkin chain letter:
[P]lease be advised that the letter did not originate from a
valid source. The address "Parkin@MayoHospital.Health.Com" is
fictitious, as are the particular details of that letter.
The plight of children or adults suffering from leukemia,
however, certainly is not fictitious. It is understandable that
such a letter can generate a great deal of sympathy, but
forwarding chain letters is not an appropriate response to the
situation. If you would like further information about how you
can help the real victims of this terrible disease, please take a
look at the Leukemia Society of America world-wide-web server [at
http://www.lukemia.org/].
[quoted from http://www.mayo.edu/about/parkin.html]
By the way, one of the things that tipped me off that the Anthony Parkin
letter was a hoax was that he used a .COM address. Most teaching hospitals
-- like Mayo, Hopkins, etc. -- are in the .EDU domain.
Folks, if you receive a letter telling you that Craig Shergold, Jessica
Mydek, Anthony Parkin, or ANY other sick/dying kid wants you to send them
business cards, get well cards, e-mail letters, or anything else, DON'T
BELIEVE IT! These stories not only betray the public's confidence, they
cause damage to legitimate organizations like the American Cancer Society
and the Mayo Clinic.
IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN
-------------------------
This one comes from Peter Langston, the owner of the Fun-People list (which
we visited back on December 12th -- check out
http://www.tourbus.com/archives.htm if you want to see that post again).
You may remember that a couple of months ago, congress talked about
slashing funding for both National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public
Broadcasting System (PBS). A petition was distributed across the Internet
urging congress to protect NPR and PBS.
Peter writes:
Today, when I did a quick search on the WWW for "npr funding
petition," I came up with the appended correspondence on the
Bananafish Archives page at:
> http://slf.gweep.net/~sfoskett/jds/online/archive/9609/118.html>
... %< snip snip snip %< ...
****UPDATE FOR PBS/NEA/NPR PETITION****
To all receivers of this petition,
It has come to our attention, due to the overwhelming support of
these programs, the movement to cut the funding for the NEA, NPR,
and PBS has been dropped. To repeat, thanks to your support of
these programs, the danger of losing these programs has passed!!
Unfortunately, the due date for this petition was deleted on most
or all of these copies and the petition is still circulating.
***** PLEASE DELETE ALL COPIES OF THE CIRCULATING
PETITION!!!***** We greatly apologize for any inconvenience
concerning this effort but MUST ASK FOR THE PETITIONS TO BE
DELETED!!! The overwhelming support we have received has kept us
going, but the fight has been won and we thank you all!
-Sincerely,
The authors of the petition
KIDNEY HARVESTING AT HOME FOR FUN & PROFIT
------------------------------------------
The most grisly urban legend floating around the Net right now is the one
that says:
I wish to warn you about a new crime ring that is targeting
business travelers.
This ring is well organized, well funded, has very skilled
personnel, and is currently in most major cities and recently
very active in New Orleans [or Las Vegas or Houston]. The crime
begins when a business traveler goes to a lounge for a drink at
the end of the work day. A person in the bar walks up as they
sit alone and offers to buy them a drink. The last thing the
traveler remembers until they wake up in a hotel room bath tub,
their body submerged to their neck in ice, is sipping that drink.
There is a note taped to the wall instructing them not to move
and to call 911. A phone is on a small table next to the bathtub
for them to call. The business traveler calls 911 who have
become quite familiar with this crime. The business traveler is
instructed by the 911 operator to very slowly and carefully reach
behind them and feel if there is a tube protruding from their
lower back. The business traveler finds the tube and answers,
"Yes." The 911 operator tells them to remain still, having
already sent paramedics to help. The operator knows that both of
the business traveler's kidneys have been harvested.
I received a copy of this letter a few weeks ago, and decided to do a
little investigating of my own. So, I contacted the Police Department's
Public/Media Information offices in New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Houston.
All three police departments told me that the story is a hoax, and the New
Orleans police department denied the story so quickly that I never even
finished asking the question:
Police> Public Information
Me> Yeah, my name is Patrick Crispen, and I write an
Internet newsletter. I was just calling to confirm ...
Police> That the kidney story is not true. It's not
By the way, my favorite part of the kidney harvesting story is the line in
the letter that says:
My sister-in-law works with a lady that this happened to her
son's neighbor who lives in Houston
Oh, yeah ... now *THERE'S* a reliable source. :)
--------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------
MERLIN (noun). A state in the US
Usage: "Ma Momma's from Jawjah and ma daddy's from Merlin."
(Special thanks goes to Susan Thayer for today's word)
YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE SOUTHERN WORD
HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html
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TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1997, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin
All rights reserved. Redistribution is allowed only with permission.
Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to get on the Bus!
(\__/) .~ ~. ))
/O O ./ .' Patrick Douglas Crispen
{O__, \ { The University of Alabama
/ . . ) \ crispen@campus.mci.net
|-| '-' \ } http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/
.( _( )_.'
'---.~_ _ _& Warning: squirrels.
