I'm always amazed how adamently some people defend what turn out to be untruths.  Regularly on this site people pass on a story and it turns out to be untrue.  I know I regularly get emails from people - and then I have to be the killjoy because I'm the only person who bothers to log onto snopes.com before passing it on.

Just the other day I was talking to a friend of mine, who is a fairly observant Jew.  He told me how he learned in a Jewish school about how the King Christian X of Denmark wore a star on his coat in solidarity with the Jews in Denmark under German occupation in World War II.  I felt bad telling him that it never actually happened. And that wasn't just something he had heard from someone, but had learned in school!

I know there were all kinds of things in the military that were kind of urban legendy - like the supposed prohibition against using .50 on personnel. [;)]

What are your favorite urban legends - or favorite people that just insist on believing them?

Every school has a legend about the "hot dog girl".  

There was no hot dog girl.  Well, there was at my school, but she didn't use hot dogs as dildos. We'd watch in revulsion as she ate a pack of uncooked hot dogs dipped in peanut butter every day at lunch.  She was very unattractive, too.  But that's as close as a "hot dog girl" story that's true.

My school had a 'beer bottle' chick.  Only it was true.

Somebody bet the drunk bitch that she wouldnt stick a Beer bottle in her twat.  So she did.  Only problem was she used an unopened longneck and she couldnt get it out because the bottlecap edges 'dug in'.  She ended up at the ER drunkoff her ass, with a longneck stuck in her.

She never lived that one down.  

dude....  what is that .wav file from "King of the Hill"  where Boomhauer talksa bout urband legend?

Oh - and you can't use a .50 against people per the geneva convention...  but you can shoot at the LBE, dog tags, canteen, belt buckle, ball point pen in the pocket, etc...  You can use then .50 on equipment.

Did your high school have the guy who broke a beer bottle on his own head and ate the glass at a party?

I felt kinda bad setting my brother in law straight when he started telling the "woke up in a bathtub of ice with a kidney missing" story.  Had to explain to him that anybody willing to steal 1 kidney wouldn't have the compassion not to take the other and the liver, heart and anything else usable.  

By any chance did you got to Alexander High School, I remembe my Freshman year hearing of a senior that shoved a beer bottle when she was drunk, there were supposedly pictures floating around too. This one didn't involve a trip to the ER though.

Gack: You're wrong. Please don't spread "facts" you obviously are not qualified to talk about.

Having done my "time" in the Air Force, there was a Urban Legend of the Ether Bunny as they called it.

A male room mate or partier that would subdue a person with either and have sex with HIM


BISHOP

Most towns have a legend about some lonely soul who got caught screwing a goat or a cow.

[img]http://home.earthlink.net/~thegardenweasel/moo.jpg[/img]

In my neck of the woods it's actually true AND it made the front page.

My favorite is all the DUers believing that Gore really won the election and would be president if not for the supreme court.

They seem to ignore the fact that liberal newspapers went back and recounted everything the way Gore wanted it counted and he still lost.

My brother's DS told the same story about .50 and its use only on equipment, not personel.

AHHHH.....I have a true story about a hot dog girl.

My wife worked at Northeast Regional Medical Center in Kirksville, Missouri.  A Truman State University student (female) did come into the Emergency Room, and yes....she did have a hot dog stuck up inside of her! I was on duty when it happened and she called me to tell me about it.  

My wife is a X-Ray tech, and has seen many strange things inside of people.  I have actually seen an X-Ray of a soda can inside a rectum.  (She didn't know the story on it, just that it was a soda can)  

Had a friend get drunk at party once that ran through a closed sliding door fall down then he got up striped down to his birthday suit and jump into the pool then he remembered that he couldn't swim.

I don't doubt that. My drill sergeant told us the same thing - and also the story about the depressed trainee who tried to kill himself by wrapping the buffer cord around his neck and throwing the buffer out the window (of course, as the story goes, the buffer cord was longer than the drop and the - still live and well - kid had to pay for a new buffer). He told us several ther gems as well.

I still wouldn't go around spreading those stories unless I'd seen an actual news article or similar hard evidence from the time.

When dealing with Law of Warfare training, this is particularly ridiculous because:

A) The complete contents of restrictions is open source information, and

B) During LOW training we in the military go OUT OF OUR WAY to keep mentioning this BS every class and make sure it is disspelled.

I guess the .50 cal story isn't as bad as the one that claims you can't shoot a paratrooper until he has hit the ground. That load of BS can get someone killed!

Simply put:

Regarding .50 cal machineguns: Their [i]doctrinal[/i] role is anti-materiel. There are simply much more suitable weapons for engaging dismounted troops. Any true stories involving orders against such use were more to do with conservation of ammo and efficient use of available weapons systems than international law.

Regarding paratroopers: It is against internationally accepted rules of engagement to target noncombatants. These include chaplains and parachutists fleeing a doomed plane. Until these folks pull a weapon, they are not considered a threat. An armed combatant jumping from an aircraft for the sole reason of engaging in combat does not receive the benefit of this policy. Also, the aircraft need not have a single weapon of its own, yet if you are piloting such an aircraft, you can expect the opposing force to aim that aforementioned .50 cal machine gun right at you - and be fully justified as engaging in self defense!


Adam

We had that guy too...and his goat.  He didn't make the papers though.  But the people at the party did get some Polaroids of the event.  

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Drinking and farm animals don't mix.

My favorite ones that I see reported over and over:
1)the one about Oliver North mentioning Osama Bin Laden while testifying in front of Al Gore
2)the one about Washington's vision at Valley Forge
3)the Julius Caesar "quote"

[size=3]I hate to be the killjoy when I hear someone who relies on the internet to dispell an internet myth. You get what you pay for and you didn't pay for the internet[/size=3]

If you are referring to the snopes website, I think you will find that they do an admirable job researching each story they come across. They are also quick to make corrections when someone presents them with new evidence.

Their message board is a bit lacking - but that is due more to its being overpopulated by smartass leftist college kids than anything else.

The "internet" is a pretty broad term - you really have to know where to go on the "internet" to get info worth knowing. Yes, the majority of info on the 'net (and in print) is BS. At least on the net (unlike some stuff in print) you often don't have to pay for it first before you realize it is bunk.

That story about the couple making out in lovers lane and getting killed is true. I was the guy in the story. So there!
Gerry

Whether or not that was meant as a joke - it was priceless in this thread.  [:D]

Oh and that Nostradamus 'Village Idiot prediction' hoax.

One that made continuous rounds while I was in the Army was that stock AKs chambered for 7.62 X 39 can use 5.56 ammo. When confronted over this glaring untruth and the fact that the M1943 round and subsequent chamberings predated the 5.56 by a decade and, the fool would often claim that maybe that was the the 5.45mm chambered AKs

This one was so pervasive that we even published bulletins about it, and it still persisted throughout my years in the service. What was particularly galling were the greener troops (especially Marines) who heard this bit of disinformation in Basic from a DS/DI and insisted that the instructor absolutely had to be correct. One Marine almost got in a physical altercation over this matter.

OH no I've been found out. I better hurry up and hide. Where to hide, where to hide, where to hide......

i dont know about you, but this doesnt look like an urban legend to me.

[img]http://www.well.com/user/cynsa/graphics/liveammo.jpg[/img]