tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26665321096556959592011-11-28T02:05:47.820+02:00Arthur Goldstuck revisits and updates the urban legends that have appeared in his various books, and monitors new ones as they appear and disappear from the psyche. The focus is on South African urban legends, but sometimes goes global.Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.comBlogger561100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-8997900861682582722010-10-25T11:35:00.000+02:002010-10-25T12:50:34.101+02:00

Spirits blamed as girls faint in CambodiaTeachers of 10 teenage girls who collapsed one after another at their rural Cambodian school blamed the mysterious ailment on angry spirits on Saturday. - Sydney Morning Herald, October 24, 2010 News services around the world, who received this report from Agence France Presse (AFP), handled it in an entirely predictable manner: they focused solely on the

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-2239266009703390422010-10-20T08:36:00.000+02:002010-10-20T08:45:25.399+02:00

Arthur Goldstuck's new book on urban legends, "The Burglar in the Bin-bag: Urban legends, Hoaxes and Mass Hysteria" (Penguin), is now out.It will be officially launched on Wednesday, October 27, at 6.30pm, at Love Books in Melville, Johannesburg. If you'd like to attend, RSVP to Kate by clicking here or by phone on (+27) 11 726 7408.

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-18975974716018042242010-09-01T06:37:00.000+02:002010-09-01T19:04:28.095+02:00

If you see someone selling arum lillies you must call City Law Enforcement on (021) 596 1400/1424It is the start of Arum Lily season. A tiny endangered Arum Lily Micro Frog breeds inside the water and dew held in the cup of these Lilies. We are desperate to curtail the gross destruction of Lilies. Please don't buy Lilies sold at traffic intersections. Would you please do a tiny bit, and just FWD

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-19178614293783571392010-08-24T10:03:00.000+02:002010-08-24T11:32:22.573+02:00

Old shoes hang from an overhead telephone cable in Thokoza, on the East Rand. Residents are not entirely sure why the line is festooned with the shoes - one said they advertise the fact that dagga can be bought in the area, others said the shoes are thrown onto the cable by recovering dagga smokers. Most residents said children throw them onto the cable when they are beyond repair. - The Times,

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-59908913267416557282010-04-26T16:21:00.000+02:002010-04-26T16:22:40.294+02:00

The police's national spokesman, Colonel Vishnu Naidoo, has slammed "malicious" text messages that claim pamphlets calling for white people to be killed on Freedom Day are being circulated in Limpopo. The police have found no evidence that such pamphlets existed, he said. - The Times, 26 April 2010Which is more outrageous: a call to kill white people, or a text message claiming that pamphlets to

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-46925328691978420582010-01-12T10:05:00.000+02:002010-02-17T22:35:42.588+02:00

An Irish actress and a major newspaper have both fallen for the same urban legend.On 31 December 2009, Irish actress Victoria Smurfit came close to personal tragedy during a night out in Cape Town. The vehicle in which she and her family were travelling was driving along Strand Street in the city centre, when a bullet shattered the passenger window of the taxi, grazed her elbow, and lodged in the

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-24673176645586310162008-10-30T11:11:00.005+02:002008-10-30T14:47:58.592+02:00

We all know how creative burglars get in the land of urban legends. But when they begin masquerading as bags of rubbish, isn't it time they hired new strategy consultants?An e-mail doing the rounds, starting with the time-honoured disclaimer of people who suspect they may be making idiots of themselves ("Don't know if this is true or not, but I received it from a good friend, so... you never know

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-66345178419127282402008-08-27T21:22:00.024+02:002008-08-28T20:29:17.302+02:00

Please be advised that there are people handing out key rings at intersections and stop streets... These key rings have tracking devices in them.... Kindly refuse them as you would be able to be followed if you accept it.... Please pass this on.... So goes the latest e-mail hoax warning doing the rounds. Promotional keyrings have indeed been handed out, but the warning barely stands up to the

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-86798504480601178132008-06-13T15:52:00.012+02:002008-06-13T16:58:32.284+02:00

You (yes, you!) have got until June 19 to stop Eskom from destroying the economy, repossessing your home and dropping a piano on your car. Think that sounds ridiculous? Well, otherwise intelligent people are falling for equally ridiculous e-mail appeals doing the rounds. The latest one urges - no, begs - everyone to sign a petition calling for Eskom not to increase electricity prices by 53%. It

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-58367238459142992982008-04-25T11:23:00.001+02:002008-04-25T12:16:46.984+02:00

I love the Daily Sun, that scurrilous South African tabloid that plumbs the depths of human gullibility. Despite its unashamedly tabloid credentials and dubious news claims, it is a highly professional newspaper that has refined the formula for mass-market sensationalism down to the finest element of punctuation. Just in case you don't realise how sensational each story is, almost all headlines

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-81429095273011831542008-04-24T08:00:00.001+02:002008-04-24T09:06:07.643+02:00

Please be warned that a group of men are busy kidnapping girls from schools. They are specifically targeting schools with young girls ranging in age from nine and older.This group of men kidnaps these girls with the intention of assisting prostitution for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.Thus starts a warning doing the rounds of South African schools; a warning designed to connect the country’s greatest

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-74515589877620956882008-04-14T15:39:00.005+02:002008-04-14T16:02:06.335+02:00

This tale of South Africa's haunted mines comes from the pages of Homeless Talk, a newspaper written mostly by homeless people and sold by street vendors who themselves are homeless.Luke Jentile, a former miner, contributes a column about his experiences under the heading Deep Levels. His April 2008 column is entitled Eerie tale from the shafts. He describes how miners get used to working in

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-15701791280267567172008-03-13T08:41:00.003+02:002008-03-13T09:09:35.869+02:00

If you reply to a “Please Call Me” SMS, you will be the victim of a scam to bill you R50.50 per second of air time. That’s R3300 for one minute! In dollars, that’s more than $400! Okay, now you can relax: it’s only an urban legend. Starting life as an e-mail warning at the time the Call Me service was launched by Vodacom, it has yet again resurfaced on the grapevine, doing the rounds by word of

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-24940512183238879132008-03-09T20:23:00.011+02:002008-03-10T09:49:54.268+02:00

Did you know that Cape Town’s notorious traffic bottleneck known as hospital bend is the result of an absurd engineering blunder? At least, that’s the way it goes in the land of urban legends. There are two variations on the theme, and both are usually told as “everyone who lives in Cape Town knows about it”.Here is a classic version of the first variation, as shared with me by correspondent

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-31831832357984862872008-02-27T05:57:00.006+02:002008-02-27T15:28:10.193+02:00

Just days after Australia elected its first leader in many years who was able to display racial sensitivity, an outrageously anti-Muslim statement from previous prime minister John Howard did the rounds in South Africa, suggesting we needed a leader of his temperament.The e-mail, which circulated at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008, ran:South Africa Needs A Leader Like This! Muslims who

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-70899159029524512052008-02-03T16:54:00.000+02:002008-02-03T16:56:49.885+02:00

People from the district of Ohrigstad say they chased a man from their village after finding evidence that he kept a Tokoloshe. The witch then approached a white farmer and suggested that he fire all the black labourers on the estate as he could do their work alone. This the farmer promptly did, but his curiosity was aroused. One night he visited the fields, and found a large number of small

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-84093513429645581782008-01-15T05:55:00.000+02:002008-01-15T06:28:29.477+02:00

Which is more hazardous: a war zone or the Post Office? A wonderful urban legend that answers this question in no uncertain terms has finally made its way to South Africa.Supposedly:A laptop computer was sent by courier to military headquarters in Pretoria for testing in battlefield conditions. The laptop survived shock waves from being in close proximity to shelling; it survived burial under a

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-40256573963191734602008-01-14T07:30:00.000+02:002008-01-14T08:47:00.422+02:00

Another Christmas is safely behind us, finally putting to rest one of the great urban legends of South African government interference in ordinary people’s ordinary lives.Back in August 2004, one Rufus Malatjie, chief director of legal services at the Department of Home Affairs, who headed a government task team evaluating the number of public holidays, was quoted by the Sunday Times, under the

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-18580741737271153002007-11-28T16:43:00.001+02:002007-11-28T17:09:08.425+02:00

One of America's favourite urban legends of the 1980s became one of its most readily-believed myths of the '90s, thanks to the Internet. And then died at the turn of the 21st century, again thanks to the Internet. Hardly a week used to go by without some online discussion forum or another being told the story:A customer thoroughly enjoys her desert after a meal at a Neiman Marcus Cafe somewhere

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-31401435824113929732007-11-23T13:18:00.000+02:002007-11-28T17:12:46.896+02:00

During South Africa's last election campaign, the few candidates who went canvassing from door to door found themselves firmly in urban legend country. They often met with horrific experiences, not least of which was the amount of dogs set on them. An urban legend that has emerged from that kind of experience tells of the candidate stamping the streets of a low-income area. The candidate arrives

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-21589554504376332002007-11-21T11:09:00.000+02:002007-11-21T11:20:01.865+02:00

South Africans were believing the tale of the angry groom long before the Internet arrived here. Everyone knows someone who was at the wedding where the groom made a gracious speech before turning to his bride and telling her he had, in his pocket, two tickets to Hawaii - for his bride and for the best man, who, he announced, had been sleeping with each other for the past six months. In one

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-86222995234654580052007-11-20T07:40:00.000+02:002007-11-20T07:43:39.030+02:00

Another urban legend about our new national flower, the satellite dish:A Sandton dude decided to connect his new dish himself, wiring it up to the receiver, the receiver to the tuner, the tuner to the TV set, the TV to the PVR, the PVR to the VCR, and not managing to get anything to appear on screen.Eventually he told his wife he was sick of all the gadgets, and was going to the pub down the road

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-85358803421608275982007-11-19T08:10:00.000+02:002007-11-19T08:09:03.451+02:00

With half-a-dozen pay-TV channels about to be unleashed on South Africa, look out for the blossoming of the new national flower: the satellite dish. And expect these dishes' omnipresence to result in the transmission of many new urban legends into our consciousness.In particular, prepare yourself for a new generation of do-it-yourself urban legends.This one happened in Cape Town, where one

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-71698234296960691052007-11-18T14:10:00.000+02:002007-11-18T14:46:32.194+02:00

Many of us get the feeling that our lives are getting out of control, even as all the revolutionary new hi-tech surrounding us promises to improve our lives. Are those tiny devices and software upgrades just a little too intimidating for comfort? Do you have to get the kids to show you how to use your phone?You have nothing to worry about: you're simply suffering a bout of technophobia, a

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-8347303551448782802007-11-16T10:24:00.000+02:002007-11-16T10:50:26.108+02:00

Despite all our warnings, it has come to our attention that some of you are still travelling in the land of urban legends without a map. And just look what's happened to you!Those dam workersTour guides at the Hoover Dam in the United States aren't much better than in the foreign lands mentioned in the previous blog entry. If you want to believe everything they tell you, then this story is really

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-8016939568182762562007-11-15T10:11:00.000+02:002007-11-16T10:48:28.067+02:00

When you go travelling in the land of urban legends, be sure to carry a map. It is a perilous country where friends of friends' cousins' sister in laws' hairdressers lurk around every corner, waiting to trap you into believing yet another impossible tale that really, really happened.Even having a tour guide is no guarantee that you'll make it through safely, since tour guides are among the

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-26995288389243758012007-11-12T08:00:00.000+02:002007-11-11T20:16:00.270+02:00

The following stories are explored in far more detail in my recent book, The Ghost that Closed Down the Town (Penguin,2006), but hang together here because they are so obviously urban legends.One reason people enjoy urban legends so much - besides the fact that they are convinced these wonderful tales happened to a friend of a friend - is that they are often hilarious, with punchlines that could

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-34166490500969198532007-11-10T22:17:00.000+02:002007-11-10T22:31:20.977+02:00

There was this little old lady who lived with her family in a rambling big house. One night the rest of the family had gone out, leaving her alone and most of the house in darkness. During the night, she heard a strange noise, and got up to investigate. In the darkness, she made her way down the stairway. Near the bottom of the stairs she reached out for the bannister. Instead, she felt a human

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-56379917834175500772007-11-09T12:41:00.000+02:002007-11-09T12:54:31.454+02:00

During the Buffalo Rally near Port Elizabeth a few years ago, a gang of about 20 big, mean-looking, unwashed bikers stopped at a small town on their way to the Rally. They all but invaded a little convenience store there, buying crates of Coke, a few loaves of bread, a pile of cold meats and dozens of packets of crisps. The shop assistant was terrified, and expected at any moment to have a

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-54608873443343589892007-11-08T07:39:00.000+02:002007-11-08T07:53:50.266+02:00

It's no surprise that South Africa is home to so many urban legends about crime. Yet, many of these legends have their origins elsewhere. But there is a category of crime urban legend that tends not to translate too well in this country - mainly because they are legends of crimes that never were.Behind the legends of crimes that never wereUrban legends, like prime time TV, thrive on crime stories

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-84842906442292944652007-11-07T07:32:00.000+02:002007-11-07T08:27:56.823+02:00

Why do people love telling and believing urban legends, those friend-of-a-friend stories you can never really prove?One theory is that it's a subconscious way of getting revenge on a world they cannot control. By participating in the spread of stories that undermine the credibility of a person, institution, product or even a building that they associate with their woes, they gain a small measure

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-84642340380921123182007-11-06T08:00:00.000+02:002007-11-06T09:04:57.245+02:00

From the halls of government comes the story of just how low the literacy levels of this country have descended. The urban legend emerges from the Department of Welfare, but is aimed squarely at the Department of Education.In an assessment of families who were supporting their children only with the assistance of the welfare department, it was concluded that they were often responsible for their

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-63206358345861033812007-11-05T08:00:00.000+02:002007-11-05T10:32:10.971+02:00

Tall buildings seem to hold a peculiar fascination for travellers in the land of urban legends.Is it their subconscious fear of heights playing tricks on their minds and persuading them to believe any bizarre tale that comes along?People have been known to leap off tall structures since time immemorial and, generally, they have simply hit the ground and expired. But not in the land of urban

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-5610507431810883502007-11-04T19:34:00.000+02:002007-11-04T19:53:43.703+02:00

The rule that urban legends usually emerge in an environment of fear or uncertainty is completely shattered by one distinctive, worldwide community: the student population. Any campus is a melting pot of characters, situations, hopes, dreams and ... good old mischief. Students like to be believe they are all young Einsteins. From this over-confidence emerges numerous urban legends about just how

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-24649730142825647612007-11-02T11:34:00.001+02:002007-11-02T12:48:08.415+02:00

Welcome to the silver screen: that canvas of romance, drama and legend. No, you haven't stumbled across a movie review column, but rather a glimpse at that hotbed of rumour, myth and urban legend called the movie industry.It is a business peopled with larger-than-life characters who inspire the public's adulation as well as the rumour mills and gossip factories. Little wonder that many an idle

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-62405680649077416492007-10-31T12:22:00.000+02:002007-10-31T12:34:44.935+02:00

We all expected South Africa to beat England in this year's Rugby World Cup final. In 1995 it was very different. The seemingly impossible victory over the All Blacks united one nation, but it had another one reaching for the book of excuses ...and urban legends.One of the most bizarre legends to emerge from the 1995 World Cup Final was ...The tale of the toxic skydiversBefore the climactic match

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-5806005814464254802007-10-30T12:49:00.000+02:002007-10-30T13:11:38.554+02:00

Everyone knows that, in the Eskimo language, there are 200 words for "snow" but not one for "donkey"; that well-known brands of cars and cool drinks translate into embarrassing insults in foreign languages, and that, in some hotel lobby in Paris, a sign reads: "Please leave your values at the front desk."Everyone might know these "facts", but most of these stories, and numerous of their relatives

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-79270958879169120242007-10-29T17:33:00.000+02:002007-10-29T17:41:27.892+02:00

One of the most fertile breeding grounds for urban legends is often not to be found on the ground itself, but up in the air. We're talking about the wonderful and terrifying world of air travel. Terrifying, that is, if you're travelling in the world of urban legends.And especially terrifying if you were a passenger on the flight of...The flying axemanA Mozambique Airlines 727 was on a routine

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-32541522712989706592007-10-26T13:40:00.000+02:002007-10-26T15:42:28.872+02:00

Urban legends are often little more than tall tales that eventually pick up so much incidental detail, it seems they have to be true. So people start believing them, retelling them and convincing other people to believe in them, until the tales become true legends, believed around the world, and usually having definitely, absolutely happened to a friend of a friend of the person telling the story

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-47522842940963547032007-10-25T07:36:00.000+02:002007-10-25T07:48:43.708+02:00

Do you remember the early days of cellular phones? That was only a decade ago, but it was back in the days before pre-paid accounts, and seems to belong to a bygone era. Then, cell phones inspired such passions among people who loved them or hated them, between people who flashed them about ostentatiously and those who were embarrassed to be caught with one, they were a natural magnet for urban

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-11406937125379783912007-10-24T17:51:00.000+02:002007-10-24T20:35:06.094+02:00

On June 12 1964, the day that the Pretoria Supreme Court jailed for life Nelson Mandela - described in one news report the next day merely as "a Johannesburg attorney" - and seven other accused in the Rivonia Trial, a pop group called the Beatles were greeted in Australia by a screaming mob of 25 000 fans.It would be 26 years before even larger crowds would greet Mandela, but the beginnings of

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-13875337139326841632007-10-22T15:40:00.000+02:002007-10-22T16:08:15.425+02:00

In honour of South Africa's victory in the rugby World Cup Final, let's look at an urban legend that was associated with a previous Springbok team abroad, and later became a Nelson Mandela legend.It is one of those truly South African urban legends with a long pedigree and variations that take in Springbok rugby in the 1960s, Nelson Mandela in the 1990s, and even Paul Kruger, president of the old

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-54267988696281221992007-10-18T20:35:00.000+02:002007-10-18T21:15:44.866+02:00

In almost every country on the African continent, political systems have been in transition for decades, and the transitions don't come easy. Violence, corruption and instability are often hallmarks of the political process.These factors, however, also inspire urban legends of the strangest variety - particularly in the strange country called South Africa.The first tale here is a classic from

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-45034264802154164452007-10-16T21:06:00.000+02:002007-10-16T21:17:37.095+02:00

This wonderful South African urban legend was first told to me by a former teacher, who had herself heard it from a former school secretary:As far as I know, this really happened. It's about the old TED (Transvaal Education Department). A teacher at Orange Grove Primary School didn't receive her salary cheque for three months. After the first month, she made enquiries. The Department told her

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-50204090529236590642007-10-14T22:11:00.000+02:002007-10-15T13:42:31.585+02:00

Warnings of unusual new methods employed by criminals have a powerful resonance with South Africans. It is not that these warnings are unique to South Africa, or even that they originate here. But because of the reality of pervasive crime and the perception of official complicity in crime, South Africans appear more ready to believe and pass on these warnings than any other society.In some

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-87003286226310527862007-10-11T21:09:00.000+02:002007-10-11T23:10:48.076+02:00

Along with medical warnings, crime scares are the most common e-mail hoaxes and urban legends distributed in South Africa.Just this week, the very day after the storm warning had done the e-rounds, a new hoax and an old urban legend resurfaced, one via e-mail and one from good old-fashioned paranoia.The latest e-mail hoax is the 'Change room rape' urban legend. According to an e-mail doing the

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-77508472180742378512007-10-10T06:39:00.000+02:002007-10-10T08:20:00.950+02:00

Hoax e-mails are a staple diet of those who tend to swallow urban legends whole. Numerous variations have done the rounds in South Africa in the past two decades. The major categories of these scares are AIDS and medical scares, drugs warnings, "unusual crime wave" warnings, technology scares like warnings about mobile phones, and political scares, such as the death of Mandela sparking a

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-33198184708586889532007-10-09T15:35:00.000+02:002007-10-09T16:47:19.244+02:00

How do you tell if a warning you receive by e-mail, fax, SMS, or text is an urban legend? How was South Africa’s great hurricane hoax easily identifiable as an urban legend?Here are ten rules for spotting an urban legend in your inbox:1. Public health and safety warnings are always issued directly by the relevant authorities, such as the police, emergency services, weather bureau, or traffic

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-7070916852125886582007-10-08T16:02:00.000+02:002007-10-08T19:20:31.311+02:00

Call it exaggeration, call it hype... but know it is urban legend. The Storm Warning for Gauteng for later today (8 October 2007) has taken on all the dimensions of a classic urban legend.It has it all: the hearsay warning from a reputable institution, the reproduced warning transmitted by fax and e-mail, the attempt by authorities to prevent panic utterly ignored, schools alerting parents to

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-54353012470924486622007-10-06T20:19:00.000+02:002011-03-04T16:57:28.235+02:00

When the gullible of our planet united to help a "dying boy" long after he had been healed, this FAQ became the official reference guide for participants in a Usenet newsgroup called alt.folklore.urban during the 1990s. The FAQ disappeared from the Web after my original site disappeared along with one of Internet Solutions' original web servers. The CRAIG SHERGOLD FAQ Version 0.1betaFrequently

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-13902452367300606552007-10-05T12:56:00.000+02:002007-10-05T14:09:25.111+02:00

This was one of the core legends from "Ink in the Porridge: Urban Legends of the South African elections" (Penguin, 1994):It was a masterpiece of non-committalism. On March 15 1994, the day the new South African flag was unveiled by the Transitional Executive Council, the SA Press Association described it like this: "The flag features a black triangle alongside the hoist bordered by gold and

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-62492162878112608962007-10-04T11:03:00.000+02:002007-10-04T11:43:42.843+02:00

On the eve of his retirement from politics in 1999, Nelson Mandela and a charity with which he was associated became the target of a "gravy train" urban legend.In mid-1999, Achmat Dangor, a literary legend of the anti-apartheid days and now become chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, heard a disturbing story.A group of Members of Parliament had enjoyed a sumptuous meal

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-10092401982051025732007-10-03T08:16:00.001+02:002007-10-03T08:26:06.487+02:00

This is the title story of my most recent urban legends collection, "The Ghost that Closed Down the Town: The Story of the Haunting of South Africa" (Penguin,2006):Somewhere in the far reaches of the eastern extremes of Mpumalanga province, near the Swaziland border in a region where traffic lights and rush hour are concepts from a foreign land, lies a small town called Amsterdam. By day, it is

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-58830985113009614592007-10-02T05:35:00.000+02:002007-10-02T05:47:47.094+02:00

Little old ladies have a thing for urban legends. The best little old lady legend of the past decade also helped to restore the balance of prejudice in South African urban legends, as it presented a double turning of the tables - an age-old plot device of urban legends.One version of this story was sent to me with the introduction: "Here's a refreshing change: True story". And it goes something

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-12404998109217244432007-09-29T21:00:00.000+02:002007-10-02T14:38:09.810+02:00

For several months, our nurses have been baffled to find a dead patient in the same bed every Friday morning" a spokeswoman for the Pelonomi Hospital (Free State, South Africa) told reporters. "There was no apparent cause for any of the deaths, and extensive checks on the air conditioning system, and a search for possible bacterial infection, failed to reveal any clues." However, further

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666532109655695959.post-63682417677606530992007-08-05T20:09:00.000+02:002007-09-29T21:20:11.720+02:00

After the country's first democratic elections in 1994, South Africa began to resemble most other countries in the world of urban legends. In other words, people stopped believing everything they heard.Of course, that meant they could still believe half of everything they heard. And believe it they did.Oh, none of that end-of-the-world nonsense that required a shopping list of baked beans and

Arthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324885081072773878noreply@blogger.com0