On Sat, 12 Aug 1995, H. Cui wrote:

> I actually had read the cookie story on one of the newsgroups about
> a year ago. Urban legend ? Surely not in the NEWS !

Greetings-

I know you're being facetious...but Jan Brunvand, author of *The Vanishing
Hitchhiker*, *The Choking Doberman*, *The Mexican Pet* etc..and other
collections of urban legends told me he gets news clippings sent to
him from everywhere in the world reporting fiction as though it happened.
I sent him one I cut out the Seattle PI about a guy in Iran who
was hunting and tried to use the butt of his shotgun to kill a snake which
coiled around the trigger which fired the weapon and killed him...not
true..Brunvand documented more stories about the same event in different
scenarios. The staying power of these myths...the alligators in NYC sewers,
mouse in the coke bottle, Kentucky fried rat, etc..are impressive..

Tom