Did you hear about this man whose truck spontaneoulsly caught fire in his garage? The garage and the house also burned down. No, it's not an urban legend. We bought a used pickup truck recently and got a recall on it. It seems the truck could spontaneously catch fire even if the engine was not running. We were advised to keep it away from crowded areas (!) and bring it in for repair as soon as possible (there is a defective part in the cruise control - it is connected to the battery and overheats).
Urban legends follow certain rules: you can't actually trace back the source; it is backed by an authority figure; it contains some kind of warning.
In our case, just calling our dealer confirmed it was true. Sometimes, newspaper unwittingly help propagate urban legends. Most times, if sources cannot be checked, the stories don't get printed.
Jan Harold Brunvand has been studying urban legends and has written much about them. These days, he is tracking legends that travel through emails.
For an example of an urban legend, go to:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/vanish.asp
English Cucumbers
10 months ago
Posts
2 comments:
When I was a kid, I was fascinated by all kinds of mysteries from around the world.
One of the stories was about a British fireman who went into flames in his cutting edge heat-resistant suit. He was showing off his new suit to his family and this mysterious intense flame from the thin air consumend him in minutes...
I think this is one of the urban legends. In fact, when I think of the stories I read back then, most of those stories might have been urban legends.
Interesting...
Just for laugh
FORD - Fix Or Repair Daily.
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