Hey gang, here in my moderator capacity for a moment. I've been terribly deliquent in my reading of digests (and even worse, not reading them in order and/or leaving "important" ones to deal with "later"), so this is a BIT later than I would hope.

For those of you who haven't visited Perry List Central recently (or ever!) Please note that one of our stated list rules is:

3. Due to the number of FALSE virus warnings that have been received, ALL virus warnings MUST be investigated before forwarding. Forwarded virus warnings MUST have a reference URL for validation.

Do NOT forward Urban Legends/Hoaxes to the mods to check them out for you. Check them out yourself at the links provided on our FAQ page.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what an "urban legend is" (from http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa082497.htm):

Q: What exactly are urban legends?

A: Urban legends are popular narratives alleged to be true, transmitted from person to person by oral or written communication (including fax and email). Said stories always involve some combination of outlandish, humiliating, humorous, terrifying, or supernatural events � events whichalways happened to someone else. For credibility, the teller of an urban legend relies on good storytelling and the citing of an "authoritative" word-of-mouth source (typically "a friend of a friend") rather than verifiable facts. And sometimes, but not always, there's a moral to the story, e.g.: "behave yourself, or bad things will happen."

Urban legends are a type of folklore � the traditions, stories, and beliefs of "the folk" � ordinary people. So, one way to differentiate between urban legends and other types of narratives is by examining where they come from and how they are spread. Legends are rarely traceable to a single source, e.g. a book or a television show � in fact, most often they seem to spring from nowhere. And again, urban legends are primarily spread person to person, not through the media or other institutional forms of communication. That's why no two versions of an urban legend are ever exactly alike � there are as many variants of a story as there are tellers.

My personal favorite site on Urban Legends is at About.com at http://urbanlegends.about.com/. This site ALSO covers the many varied virus hoaxes.

You can check out the Rules and FAQs at Perry List Central at: http://members.nbci.com/perry_list/plc.html

(It's a *wee* bit out of date, but the FAQs and the Rules are still in effect!)

Thanks gang! Back to your regularly scheduled list!
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MNM
(m)

~~~ Have faith, believe...
~~~ Take your mind, unlock it...