Urban
Legends
GLE 0801.4.3
Make distinctions
about the credibility, reliability,
consistency, strengths, and
limitations of resources, including
information gathered from Web
sites.
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Definition of Urban Legend
from "The Vanishing
Hitchhiker"

Urban legends "are realistic stories concerning
recent events (or alleged events) with an ironic or
supernatural twist. They are an integral part of
Anglo-American culture and are told and believed
by some of the most sophisticated "folk" of
modern society–young people, urbanites, and the
well educated.
Jan Harold Brunvand,
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/vanish.asp
What is an urban
legend?
 An
urban legend is an apocryphal
story told as true, concerning some
horrific, amusing or ironic aspect of
modern life.
 Though
the term seems to have
become synonymous in common
parlance with "false belief," it denotes
a more complex and subtle social
phenomenon having to do with the
production and transmission of folk
narratives — narratives which are
indeed usually false, but which can,
on rare occasions, prove to be true.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/faq/blfaq-urbanlegend.htm
Characteristics:
 It
 It
 It
 It
is a narrative.
is alleged to be true.
is plausible enough to be believed.
is passed along from individual to
individual in oral or written form (e.g.,
fax, photocopy or email).
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/faq/blfaq-urbanlegend.htm
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Fact or Urban Legend?
Lead in Lipstick
High Cholesterol is Healthy
Coffee Fool…Are You One Too?
Help Find Ashley Flores
Judge Sentences Rap Music Fan to Bach,
Beethoven
 Woman Says She Was Shot In The Leg By Her Stove
 The Centaur Excavations
 Dehydrated Water
 A Well Known Urban Legend
 Consider Your Source
 More Urban Legends
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NEW PRODUCT TESTS FIND LEAD IN
LIPSTICK Top brands L’Oreal, Cover Girl and
Christian Dior test positive for lead!
LEGEND
FACT
Lipstick Article
LEGEND
Lead in Lipstick
The Food and Drug Administration
states that there is only a miniscule of
harmful substances in cosmetics, not
enough to have any adverse effect.
Snopes Article

The secret is out––and studies show
that higher cholesterol could slash
your stroke risk by nearly 300%!
LEGEND
FACT
High Cholesterol Article
High Cholesterol Healthy?
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. is a
famous alternative doctor who is sending
a free booklet to many people to get
them to buy his Douglass Report. William
Campbell Douglass (M.D.) says a diet in
low fat is actually killing everyone. He is
saying a diet high in red meat will reduce
your risk of heart disease. He claims
drinking water will do more harm than
good.
Is high cholesterol healthy? That would
be a question for you and your doctor to
decide.
Science is Critical
Books by Dr. Douglass
Coffee Fool
The shocking secret coffee
companies don’t want you to
know!
LEGEND
FACT
Coffee Article
LEGEND
Coffee Fool
This site states that all of the
coffee out there is stale. The
good news is that stale coffee
is drinkable but once you've
tasted truly fresh coffee, you'll
be forever hooked. You will
not know fresh until you taste
coffee just roasted. You will
not know stale until you see
and taste what is unstale.
Coffee Article
Defining Freshness
Help Find This Missing Girl:
Ashley Flores
A 13 year old girl, Ashley Flores has been missing
for two weeks. An email bearing her picture and a
plea for help has been circulated.
LEGEND
FACT
Ashley Flores Email
LEGEND
Help Find Ashley Flores
The text of the email does not include
the most basic information in a missing
child plea: where the young girl went
missing, when she went missing, when
and where she was last seen, a
description of her, her parents’ contact
information, and contact information for
the police handling the case.
Snopes Article
Judge sentences rap music fan to
Bach, Beethoven
A defendant had a hard time facing the music. Andrew Vactor was
facing a $150 fine for playing rap music too loudly on his car stereo in
July. But a judge offered to reduce that to $35 if Vactor spent 20
hours listening to classical music by the likes of Bach, Beethoven and
Chopin.
LEGEND
FACT
Rap Music Article
FACT
Judge sentences rap music fan
to Bach, Beethoven
Champaign County Municipal Court
Judge Susan Fornof-Lippencott says the
idea was to force Vactor to listen to
something he might not prefer, just as
other people had no choice but to listen
to his loud rap music.
Information from: Springfield News-Sun,
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com
Woman Says She Was Shot In The
Leg By Her Stove
A woman said she was shot in the leg by her stove. Cory Davis
told the Peninsula Daily News she had just stoked her cast-iron
heating stove Sunday when she heard a loud bang and was
struck in her left calf.
LEGEND
FACT
Stove Article
FACT
Woman Says She Was Shot In
The Leg By Her Stove
A case of shotgun shells spilled about a
month ago at her home and one must
have landed in the newspapers she
used to light the stove.
She removed a metal fragment herself
and was treated Monday at Forks
Community Hospital.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081008/D93MFO602.html
The Centaur Excavations
In the Jack Reese Galleria of the great Hodges Library of the
University of Tennessee the art and artifacts of the Centaur
excavation at Volos has found a permanent home. This
reconstruction of a Centaurian burial site was assembled by
Professor William Willers of the University of Wisconsin in the
mid-1980s before being moved to the University of Tennessee.
LEGEND
FACT
Centaur Article
LEGEND
The Centaur Excavations
Very well done, with photographs,
created in a good academic style with
an .edu domain. Actually explaining a
hoax, but from a quick look it's easy to
be fooled.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081008/D93MFO602.html
Dehydrated Water
A commercial website selling
dehydrated water.
LEGEND
FACT
Dehydrated Water Article
LEGEND
Dehydrated Water
Very well put together. They are
seeking financial help in gaining
market penetration throughout local
supermarkets around the world. The
site requests a handful of investors to
help pay the required $6.5 million
slotting fee to get on the shelves. If
you are interested, please contact
investors@buydehydratedwater.com
TESTIMONIAL
http://www.buydehydratedwater.com
LEGEND
Dehydrated Water
"I can't believe you invested so much
time and money to create a web site
like this. Don't you have anything
better to do with your life?"
Response: And we can't believe you
took so much time to reply and vent
your disbelief. You obviously have
never tried our water. Our customers
have a tendency to become dedicated
followers. Don't be a cheapo. Send us
$5 and try it out for yourself.
http://www.buydehydratedwater.com
A Well-Known Urban Legend
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Urban
Legends