Urban Myths & Legends
By Albert Jack
5/5
()
About this ebook
From the bestselling author of Red Herrings & White Elephants, Shaggy Dogs, Pop Goes the Weasel, What Caesar did for My Salad and many more....
Introduction
The subject of urban myths and legends is one I have been interested in for a couple of years now. It occurred to me, one day at lunch with friends on the Isle of Dogs, that many long rambling conversations (and ours are certainly long and always rambling) will include a tall tale or two.
One person will then be reminded of a story he or she once heard which is then presented as near or actual fact. The story will be introduced like this: ‘That reminds me of a story I once heard . . .’ or ‘I remember my uncle/aunt/sister/hairdresser telling me what happened to a friend of theirs . . .’
So urban legends are easy to spot and always have a ring of truth about them. The events they describe could happen or might have happened to any of us. Each of us could have been as unfortunate or stupid as the character(s) in the story, and that is one of the reasons we all enjoy urban legends so much: that the misfortune involved didn’t happen to us but to somebody else. And that makes us laugh. The stories come in many different forms. Some involve ghostly goings on, some are about love found or lost.
Some centre on plain stupidity and some on unfortunate coincidences, although some do have happy endings. The connecting feature is that all are told and then retold and come back around in altered forms, and all of them are passed around by word of mouth or, especially these days, via the internet, where they spread like wildfire.
These ‘legends’ (so-called ‘urban,' although they don’t need to have an urban setting) are the modern-day version of medieval folklore and all of the anecdotes in this collection can be recited the next time you are at lunch, dinner or in the pub with friends. They can make even the most unimaginative person seem interesting, I promise. They seem to be working for me, at any rate.
This volume is part of The Myths, Legends & Lies Series.
Read more from Albert Jack
Red Herrings & White Elephants: The Origins of the Phrases We Use Every Day Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Moral Stories for Kids Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnsolved Mysteries: Real Life Mysteries: Ten Famous Disappearances Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5English Words: Learn English: English Grammar: Advanced English Words: Origins, History & Meanings Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Robert Kennedy: JFK: The Death of Marilyn Monroe: Who Didn't Kill Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Food History & Recipe Origins: The Origins of the Names of the World's Favorite Recipes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShort Stories for Kids: Children’s Stories: Reading for Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Laughed at Galileo: How the Great Inventors Proved Their Critics Wrong Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPop Goes the Weasel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHealthy Breakfast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5JFK: The Death of Marilyn Monroe: Who Didn't Kill Them Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Myths & Legends: Good Short Stories: Legends that made Britain Great Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Black Sheep and Lame Ducks: Origins of Idioms and Phrases Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/59/11 Conspiracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Write Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Seventh Day Adventists & The Great American Fraud Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Mysterious World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDonald Trump: Donald Trump Quotes: In His Own Words Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Jet Engines Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsParanormal Mysteries Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Urban Myths: Short Stories: Urban Myths & Legends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeptember 11 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5D.B. Cooper Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBermuda Triangle: Real Life Mysteries: Unsolved Mysteries Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5NWO: Bilderberg Conspiracy and the Future of the West Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBrand Names Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Caesar did for My Salad Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Urban Myths & Legends
Related ebooks
Urban Myths Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUrban Myths & Legends: Good Short Stories: Tales of Revenge and The Rich & Famous Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsManchester Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5We Wish You a Poopy Christmas: Fudgy the Poopman's Collection of Christmas Classics Made Crappy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDon't Be Afraid: 13 Urban Legends Retold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deadly Paranormal, Fatally True Supernatural Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5101 Amazing Facts about The Movies - Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLess Than Secret: A Cryptid Comic Anthology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Grumpy Guide to Life: Observations by Grumpy Cat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales for a Dark Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond Bizarre: Frightening Facts and Blood-Curdling True Tales Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Christmas Horror Watchlist: Times of Terror Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World's Deadliest Epidemics: 101 Amazing Facts Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Notes from the Upside Down: An Unofficial Guide to Stranger Things Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5True Stories on Road Ghosts and Phantom Hitchhikers Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Bad Clowns Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Was Walt Disney Frozen?: Famous Urban Myths: And Other Legends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEerie Quad Cities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMonsters Among Us Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHaunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts: Ten Tales Fantasy & Horror Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Truth About White People Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGross! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Living With Dead Folks, Volume One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNature is the Worst: 500 reasons you'll never want to go outside again Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Haunted Medina County, Ohio Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsF*ck Whales: Also Families, Poetry, Folksy Wisdom and You Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Unauthorized True Story Behind The Ghostbusters Reboot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Social Science For You
Questions for Couples: 469 Thought-Provoking Conversation Starters for Connecting, Building Trust, and Rekindling Intimacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Human Condition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fervent: A Woman's Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All About Love: New Visions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Secret Garden: Women's Sexual Fantasies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Denial of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Selection) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women Don't Owe You Pretty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dumbing Us Down - 25th Anniversary Edition: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Urban Myths & Legends
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
Urban Myths & Legends - Albert Jack
Albert Jack
Albert Jack Publishing
Copyright Page
Urban Myths & Legends
Tales of Revenge and The Rich & Famous
(2018 eBook Edition)
Copyright ©August 2015 Albert Jack
Cover Art: Albert Jack Publishing
Cover Design: Albert Jack Publishing
All rights are reserved to the author. no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This is largely a work of fiction although the author could not resist the temptation to be creative with historical detail wherever possible. Any reference to any real life character or name used is purely coincidental, for the most part. However, some of these tales are true.
Albert Jack Publishing
PO Box 661
Seapoint
Cape Town
South Africa
––––––––
albertjack.com
albertjackchat (facebook & Twitter)
About the Author
Albert Jack, is a writer and historian. His first book, Red Herrings and White Elephants explored the origins of well-known idioms and phrases and became an international bestseller in 2004.
It was serialised by the Sunday Times and remained in their bestseller list for sixteen straight months. He followed this up with a series of bestsellers including Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep, Pop Goes the Weasel and What Caesar did for My Salad.
Fascinated by discovering the truth behind the world’s great stories, Albert has become an expert in explaining the unexplained, enriching millions of dinner table conversations and ending bar-room disputes the world over.
He is now a veteran of hundreds of live television shows and thousands of radio programmes worldwide. Albert lives somewhere between Guildford in England and Cape Town in South Africa.
Introduction
The subject of urban myths and legends is one I have been interested in for a couple of years now. It occurred to me, one day at lunch with friends on the Isle of Dogs, that many long rambling conversations (and ours are certainly long and always rambling) will include a tall tale or two.
One person will then be reminded of a story he or she once heard which is then presented as near or actual fact. The story will be introduced like this: ‘That reminds me of a story I once heard . . .’ or ‘I remember my uncle/aunt/sister/hairdresser telling me what happened to a friend of theirs . . .’
So urban legends are easy to spot and always have a ring of truth about them. The events they describe could happen or might have happened to any of us. Each of us could have been as unfortunate or stupid as the character(s) in the story, and that is one of the reasons we all enjoy urban legends so much: that the misfortune involved didn’t happen to us but to somebody else. And that makes us laugh. The stories come in many different forms. Some involve ghostly goings on, some are about love found or lost.
Some centre on plain stupidity and some on unfortunate coincidences, although some do have