Here's an oldie, one from the 1970s: It's the one about the old lady who puts her poodle in the microwave to dry it off, supposedly a true story.
Now for something more current: It's the one that has Starbucks refusing to serve free coffee to the soldiers in Iraq because it doesn't approve of the war.
Then there's the one where if you put in your ATM code in reverse it calls the cops. Honest.
Yet another popular one warns that people can be electrocuted talking on a cell phone as it is being recharged.
But the most current is the one that has Barack Obama a Muslim who was sworn into the Senate with his hand on the Koran instead of the Bible.
None of these are true. There all what's called urban legends, which is to say stories or reputed facts that float about that may sound true, or have a ring of truth to them, but are in fact fiction.
But then again, truth, or the lack of, is not what gives an urban legend its life. First it must sound interesting. And it ought to sound at least plausible enough not to be dismissed out of hand.
The term urban legend, or variations thereof, has been around since the late 1960s in academic circles, getting a boost in the 1981 book “The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings,” by Jan Harold Brunvand, a professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah.
Just recently it's gained huge popularity as a phrase that pervades everyday life, appearing in news stories and casual conversation. Indeed, there’s now even a TV series about urban legends.
Why the fascination? Credit the internet.
Urban legends have long been the chatter of barrooms, but with the internet they now spread like wildfire, flooding into mailboxes, passed on from friend to friend with little regard for their truth or falsity.
In essence, urban legends are contemporary folklore, moralistic tales that often gain credibility by being described as having happened to a friend of a friend, or FOAF, in texting parlance.
Brunvand, who has now retired from teaching the subject of folklore, defines the key features of an urban legend as having “a strong basic story appeal, a foundation in actual belief and a meaningful message or ‘moral.’”
One key feature is that they tend to be light on any sort of facts that can be verified. In their place are references that are familiar to the listener, such as street names or those of real people.
Just how urban legends arise is generally a mystery. Some, says Brunvand, are reworkings of older legends. Some may have been a yarn spun loosely based on a real event. Others may be the result of people chatting about what would happen if somebody took a particular action.
There are a couple of competing names for these stories. One widespread name, particularly in Britain, is urban myth. Some folklore experts think this is a misnomer due to the fact that the words myth and legend mean different things, with myths being stories from earlier times about how the world and its inhabitants emerged.
But in the wider world the word myth now tends to mean something that is taken to be true but isn’t.
Brunvand is sticking with urban legend. As he tells Media Life, "It’s short, clear and widely accepted, although, admittedly, often nowadays misused to refer to any kind of unverified claim, story, misinformation, rumor, or the like.”
Meanwhile, elsewhere in popcult, the sequel “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” topped the box office over the holiday weekend, pulling in $55.4 million. “Alvin and the Chipmunks” finished at No. 2, bringing in $42.4 million in ticket sales.
In DVD rentals for the week ended Dec.23, according to IMDb.com, “The Bourne Ultimatum” finished No. 1 for the second straight week, with “The Simpsons Movie” debuting at No. 2.
On iTunes this morning, Flo Rida’s “Low” was No. 1 for an eighth straight week, while Sara Bareilles’ “Love Song” moved up to No. 2.
And in books, Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love” was No. 1 on The New York Times’ paperback nonfiction bestsellers list for the week ended Dec. 22, its third straight week on top, and was also No. 1 on USA Today’s chart for the week ended Dec. 23.
|
TOP MOVIES
Weekend Box Office Estimates*
Weekend of Dec.28, 2007– Jan. 1, 2008
|
|
Rank
|
MOVIE
|
Engagements
|
Box office (millions)
|
|
1
|
National Treasure: Book of Secrets (
Buena Vista)
|
3,832
|
$55.42
|
|
2
|
Alvin
and the Chipmunks (Fox)
|
3,484
|
$42.20
|
|
3
|
I Am Legend (Warner Bros.)
|
3,636
|
$38.02
|
|
4
|
Charlie Wilson’s War (Universal)
|
2,575
|
$20.51
|
|
5
|
Juno (Fox Searchlight)
|
998
|
$15.70
|
|
Source: Yahoo Movies
*Just the top five was available this morning
|
|
IMDb TOP DVD RENTALS
Week ending December 23, 2007
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
|
1
|
The Bourne Ultimatum
|
1
|
|
2
|
The Simpsons Movie
|
-
|
|
3
|
Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix
|
2
|
|
4
|
Superbad
|
3
|
|
5
|
Stardust
|
-
|
|
6
|
Balls of Fury
|
-
|
|
7
|
Halloween
|
-
|
|
8
|
Pirates of the
Caribbean: At World’s End
|
4
|
|
9
|
Rush Hour 3
|
-
|
|
10
|
The Kingdom
|
-
|
|
Source: IMDB
|
|
ITUNES TOP 8 SONG DOWNLOADS
for week ended Wednesday, January 2, 2008
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
|
1
|
Low, Flo Rida feat. T-Pain
|
|
2
|
Love Song, Sara Bareilles
|
|
3
|
Apologize, Timbaland
|
|
4
|
Kiss Kiss, Chris Brown feat. T-Pain
|
|
5
|
Paralyzer, Finger Eleven
|
|
6
|
Crank That, Soulja Boy
|
|
7
|
Bubbly, Colbie Caillat
|
|
8
|
Clumsy, Fergie
|
|
Source: iTunes
|
|
NEW YORK
TIMES BESTSELLING BOOKS
Week ending December 22, 2007
|
|
Fiction (hardback)
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
Weeks on chart
|
|
1
|
Double Cross
by James Patterson
|
2
|
6
|
|
2
|
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
|
3
|
31
|
|
3
|
T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton
|
1
|
3
|
|
4
|
The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz
|
4
|
4
|
|
5
|
For One More Day by Mitch Albom
|
5
|
35
|
|
Nonfiction (hardback)
|
|
1
|
I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert
|
1
|
11
|
|
2
|
An Inconvenient Book by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe
|
3
|
5
|
|
3
|
Boom!
by Tom Brokaw
|
2
|
7
|
|
4
|
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
|
6
|
5
|
|
5
|
Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy
|
4
|
24
|
|
Fiction (paperback)
|
|
1
|
Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts
|
1
|
5
|
|
2
|
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
|
2
|
8
|
|
3
|
Next
by Michael Crichton
|
3
|
6
|
|
4
|
Cross by James Patterson
|
5
|
13
|
|
5
|
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
|
1
|
9
|
|
Nonfiction (paperback)
|
|
1
|
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
|
1
|
48
|
|
2
|
The Innocent Man by John Grisham
|
2
|
5
|
|
3
|
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
|
3
|
47
|
|
4
|
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
|
4
|
135
|
|
5
|
90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
|
5
|
61
|
|
Source: New York Times
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
USA
TODAY BESTSELLING BOOKS
Week ending December 23, 2007
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
|
1
|
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
|
1
|
|
2
|
The Innocent Man by John Grisham
|
2
|
|
3
|
I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert
|
4
|
|
4
|
The Pillars of Earth by Ken Follett
|
3
|
|
5
|
Double Cross
by James Patterson
|
7
|
|
6
|
The Dangerous Book for Boys by
Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden
|
6
|
|
7
|
The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz
|
11
|
|
8
|
Atonement by Ian McEwan
|
15
|
|
9
|
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
|
10
|
|
10
|
You: Staying Young by Michael F. Roizen, Mehmet C. Oz
|
8
|
|
Source:
USA Today
|
