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• Top 10 Urban Legends About Kids

  Urban legends are a lot less scary now, thanks to websites like Snopes, MythBusters, and Urban Legends & Superstition.  It takes only a few seconds to find out whether forwarding emails will raise money for the Red Cross (it did, but not anymore), or whether kids ever died from falling on knives sticking out of open dishwasher doors (they have), or whether a serial killer ever lured female victims from their homes by playing a recording of a crying baby (nope). But I'm sure many of us remember urban legends about kids that we found completely believable and utterly terrifying.  Here are my top 10: 10.    A drawbridge keeper had to choose between saving his young son or a train full of passengers. False.  OK, I'm guessing not too many people have ever found this Jesus parable - which has been circulating since the late 1960s - completely believable.  In it, a man decides to let a train run over his son rather than derail the train and save his son by sacrificing all the passengers - just like God sacrificed his son to save mankind.  Still, it gets credit for the gut-wrenching way it asks us to imagine the absolutely worst thing that could ever happen. Read More... Posted May 13 2008, 02:28 PM by Amy S.F. Lutz with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: pokemon, urban legends, orphan organ donors, murdered Webkinz, tampered Halloween candy, mikey, LSD stamps

• 16 Lies Your Mom Told You

  What better way to celebrate the upcoming Mother’s Day than with a list of all the lies Mom told you?   Here’s the one my mom always laid on me: cracking your knuckles is bad. Well here I am, still popping my knuckles. How do you like that ma? Now would someone pick up my coffee cup and place it in my claw.   Here’s another: kids shouldn’t drink coffee, it stunts their growth. I did, and it didn’t.  Nothing got me ready for a day of kindergarten like three or four cups of black coffee. Didn’t stunt my growth one bit, I’m like 7’5”. (Margin of error +or- 2 feet)   Among mommy’s other big untruths:   Sitting close to the TV is bad for you.   Don’t make that face or it will stay that way.   Swallow that gum and it will sit in your stomach for seven years. Wait an hour after eating before swimming.   Did your moms lies make the list?... Read More... Posted May 05 2008, 10:00 AM by Cole Gamble with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: holiday, tv, mom, coffee, Mother's Day, swimming, lies, stunted growth, mythbusting, helth concerns, urban legends, knuckles