Urban Legends. Wives Tales and Myths you've heard?

[Marlo Manson]

Ok I am pleading this thread doesn't get ridiculous with boardmembers accosting other members in hopes of sexual innuendos, situations, favors, wet-dreams, and other delusions of grandeur, but lets try to keep it civil and on topic please.

A couple of Urban Legends. Wives Tales or Myths that I've heard that I used to think of all the time and question were things like the following...

1. I am sure everybody has heard some version of this Urban Legend in one way or another... Maybe not verbatim to my rendition, but similar.. I was told that if you go into a bathroom with the lights off, door locked closed and you shut your eyes in front of the mirror and keep saying Bloody Mary repeatedly supposedly she'd either appear or grab your a$$ through the mirror... I believed it for a long time... of course not anymore.

2. I was always told When sitting to close to the TV... Probably not the best thing for you too do anyways.. but the rumor has been studied and researched and has been proven to be untrue.. some still think otherwise..

3. I was also told When reading in a semi lit room that your eyes are comfortable with and adjusted too (for you). that its bad and you'll damage your eyes reading in these conditions.. again.. I've read in the dark (pun intended) and J/K.. but it won't damage your eyes... may strain or irritate your eyes short term, but no permanent damage occurs...

Except for my 1st example mine are pretty tame, and lame... sorry but its all that I could think of when I thought about starting this thread... So now I'll ask all of you, to tell your Urban Legends, Wives Tales and Myths that Haunted you when you were growing up or maybe in some cases still bounce around in your mind?

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

This is no lie. Up until about a week ago I wouldn't eat a hot dog unless it was kosher. I believed in some form or fashion that sodium erythorbate was ground up worms.

 

[maildude]

If you swim after eating, you will develop cramps that will make you sink to the bottom of the pool. Truth is, swim when you want. Eat when you want. Just don't do too much of either.

 

[GregCentauro]

In the mid-Eighties my grandmother told me to wash my hands before dinner or I'll get AIDS. I still believe that assessment to be correct.

My grandmother was a very wise person. She also knew that when you are grimacing as the clock strikes twelve, your face will stay disfigured for the rest of your life. Too bad for Amy Winehouse that she didn't know my granny!

 

[Ace Bandage]

There is no spoon.

 

[Shadowfax 10]

I heard somewhere that women can guess the size of a man penis by size of a man feets.

 

[greek3]

i heard their periods attract bears

 

[LukeEl]

I was the reason they invented poison control phone numbers back in the 80's most of the time it was only my parents booze that I drank.

 

[PlasmaTwa2]

The cake is a lie.

 

[imsohorny]

Well I did get some hair on my palm. So I guess that's not Wives Tale or a Myth.

 

[Shifty]

i heard their periods attract bears

That's not a myth.

 

[D-rock]

One that always irritated me was when people said you could get sick by being out in cold weather, although I always knew better. Sicknesses like the flu are caused by pathogens passed from one living thing to another or maybe picking them up from the environment and have almost nothing to do with ambient temperatures outside places people live. In fact the more outside one is when it's cold out instead of being around a bunch of other people in one place to keep warm the less chance one has of getting sick. Trying to tell some people I know that when I was younger and making them understand that was like talking to a brick wall.

 

[YMIHERE]

The myth that toilet water spins in a different direction depending on whether you're in the northern or southern hemisphere. This is completely false but it's unbelievable how people swear it's true.

 

[pool_hustler]

There's one I've noticed that's developed over the the years I've been on the internet:
Just about every single chat board conservative who claims to be a Vietnam vet also claims to have been spit on or had feces thrown at them by anti-war protesters.
The reality is that incidents like that were very unusual.

 

[Petra]

1. I am sure everybody has heard some version of this Urban Legend in one way or another... Maybe not verbatim to my rendition, but similar.. I was told that if you go into a bathroom with the lights off, door locked closed and you shut your eyes in front of the mirror and keep saying Bloody Mary repeatedly supposedly she'd either appear or grab your a$$ through the mirror... I believed it for a long time... of course not anymore.

To this day I absolutely refuse to look at a mirror in the dark. At night when I go into the bathroom, if the door is open I will walk down the hall with my eyes closed until the light is turned on. I know this is silly as all hell, but it's something I've never gotten over. :1orglaugh

Here's a few I grew up with:

• If you step on a crack, you break your mother's back
• If you make nasty faces, your face will stick that way

 

[Shifty]

1. I am sure everybody has heard some version of this Urban Legend in one way or another... Maybe not verbatim to my rendition, but similar.. I was told that if you go into a bathroom with the lights off, door locked closed and you shut your eyes in front of the mirror and keep saying Bloody Mary repeatedly supposedly she'd either appear or grab your a$$ through the mirror... I believed it for a long time... of course not anymore.

In the version that I know, you must be holding a lighted candle. :eek:

 

[Ulysses31]

A black cat crossing your path is supposed to be bad luck. I never knew if that still counted if you saw the cat cross your path and chose another path would the curse still apply. :dunno: Rest assured 'pure' black cats are extremely rare.

Breaking a mirror is supposed to be 7 years bad luck (a bit harsh in my opinion), walking under ladders and opening an umbrella indoors is also supposed to be bad luck

Some others:

Seeing an ambulance is very unlucky unless you pinch your nose or hold your breath until you see a black or a brown dog.

To predict the sex of a baby: Suspend a wedding band held by a piece of thread over the palm of the pregnant girl. If the ring swings in an oval or circular motion the baby will be a girl. If the ring swings in a straight line the baby will be a boy.

You must get out of bed on the same side that you get in or you will have bad luck.

If a bee enters your home, it's a sign that you will soon have a visitor. If you kill the bee, you will have bad luck, or the visitor will be unpleasant.

A swarm of bees settling on a roof is an omen that the house will burn down.

A bird in the house is a sign of a death.
If a robin flies into a room through a window, death will shortly follow.

If you say good-bye to a friend on a bridge, you will never see each other again.

If a black cat walks towards you, it brings good fortune, but if it walks away, it takes the good luck with it.

If your cheeks suddenly feel on fire, someone is talking about you.

To cure a cough: take a hair from the coughing person's head, put it between two slices of buttered bread, feed it to a dog, and say, "Eat well you hound, may you be sick and I be sound."

It's bad luck to leave a house through a different door than the one used to come into it.

If your right eye twitches there will soon be a birth in the family. If the left eye twitches there will soon be a death in the family.

Pulling out a gray or white hair will cause ten more to grow in its place.

A horseshoe, hung above the doorway, will bring good luck to a home. In most of Europe protective horseshoes are placed in a downward facing position, but in some parts of Ireland and Britain people believe that the shoes must be turned upward or "the luck will run out."

If 3 people are photographed together, the one in the middle will die first.

Bad luck will follow the spilling of salt unless a pinch is thrown over the left shoulder into the face of the devil waiting there.

Do not place shoes upon a table, for this will bring bad luck for the day, cause trouble with your mate and you might even lose your job as a result.

Place a hand in front of your mouth when sneezing. Your soul may escape otherwise.

If you bite your tongue while eating, it is because you have recently told a lie.

Cover your mouth when you yawn, or your soul can go out of your body along with the yawn.


Finally

FRIDAY THE 13TH - how did Friday the thirteenth become such an unlucky day?
fear of Friday the 13th is rooted in ancient, separate bad-luck associations with the number 13 and the day Friday. The two unlucky entities combine to make one super unlucky day.
There is a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party at Valhalla, their heaven. In walked the uninvited 13th guest, the mischievous Loki. Once there, Loki arranged for Hoder, the blind god of darkness, to shoot Balder the Beautiful, the god of joy and gladness, with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. Balder died and the Earth got dark. The whole Earth mourned.
There is a Biblical reference to the unlucky number 13. Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th guest to the Last Supper.
A particularly bad Friday the 13th occurred in the middle ages. On a Friday the 13th in 1306, King Philip of France arrested the revered Knights Templar and began torturing them, marking the occasion as a day of evil.


In ancient Rome, witches reportedly gathered in groups of 12. The 13th was believed to be the devil.

Both Friday and the number 13 were once closely associated with capital punishment. In British tradition, Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the noose.
It is traditionally believed that Eve tempted Adam with the apple on a Friday. Tradition also has it that the Flood in the Bible, the confusion at the Tower of Babel, and the death of Jesus Christ all took place on Friday.
Numerologists consider 12 a "complete" number. There are 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles of Jesus. In exceeding 12 by 1, 13's association with bad luck has to do with just being a little beyond completeness.


FRIDAY THE 13TH - how is fear of the number thirteen demonstarted?
More than 80 percent of high-rises lack a 13th floor.
Many airports skip the 13th gate.
Airplanes have no 13th aisle.
Hospitals and hotels regularly have no room number 13.
Italians omit the number 13 from their national lottery.
On streets in Florence, Italy, the house between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 and a half.
Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue
In France, socialites known as the quatorziens (fourteeners) once made themselves available as 14th guests to keep a dinner party from an unlucky fate.
Many triskaidekaphobes, as those who fear the unlucky integer are known, point to the ill-fated mission to the moon, Apollo 13.
If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck . Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names.


From http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/scary.html

 

[cvswirl]

This is a funny thread!!!

 

[LukeEl]

Like an alligator I can fully digest a turtle shell! That is a fact!

 

[Marlo Manson]

You guys have posted some great examples.. some i've already heard, but many of them are new to me.. :bowdown: thanx, cuz I love them, I can't wait to hear more good stuff. :thumbsup:

Is Petra afraid of the dark? boo.. I hope not..