NCGatorBait
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Urban Myth Countdown
- Thread starter BeltwayVol
- Start date
BeltwayVol
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Claim: Movie critic Gene Siskel's will specified that he be buried with his thumb pointing up.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1999]
UPI (Chicago, IL) -- The execution of the will of Gene Siskel, nationally known movie critic, was cleared through probate court yesterday and had a few surprising requests. Siskel died of complications resulting from his May 1998 brain surgery. The bulk of his estate was, as expected, left to his wife and children; Marlene Siskel, Kate (15), Callie (13) and Will (3). According to public records filed by in chancery court in Chicago, Gene Siskel asked that he be buried with his thumb pointing upward. The "Thumbs Up" was the Siskel-Ebert trademark.
"Gene wanted to be remembered as a Thumbs-Up kind of guy", said Siskel's lawyer. "It wasn't surprising to me that he'd ask for that. I informed his family after his death, but he didn't want it made public until after his will had been read."
Among other requests in the will, were donations to Gene's favorite charities and an endowment to the Northwestern University to create a scholarship in his name to be awarded yearly to an outstanding media-analysis student. Gene Siskel is a man who helped shape film criticism as we know it. Siskel is best known for his syndicated show "Siskel & Ebert," which he created with his longtime professional partner, Roger Ebert. For nearly a quarter century, the pair influenced and entertained millions of people with their opinions on and jibes at current films. They became part of the American entertainment culture and their trademark "thumbs up/thumbs down" a pop culture icon.
When asked for comments on the will, partner Roger Ebert said,"Gene was a lifelong friend, he showed great bravery in the months after his surgery, continuing to work as long as he could. As a critic, he was passionate and exacting. As a husband and a father, his love knew no bounds. My wife, Chaz, and I extend our deepest sympathy to his wife, Marlene, and his children and family."
"I'm not surprised that Gene would request that. That's just the kind of guy he was."
Origins: No, this wasn't a real United Press International story, and no, Gene Siskel didn't leave instructions in his will that he be buried with his thumb pointing up. This is just a goofy humor piece that began working its way around the Internet shortly after the movie critic passed away in February 1999. As Time Out New York reported, a "glance at the will, now on file with a Chicago court, makes clear that there are no digit-placement requests in the critic's last wishes."
Although examples of all sorts of people (not just rich eccentrics) leaving unusual requests in their wills are plentiful, tales about unusual burial instructions left in wills should be taken with a grain of salt. A will is not a good place to specify what you would like done with your earthly remains, especially if your wishes are the least bit out of the ordinary. The will is not usually read immediately upon the testator's death, and quite frequently it is not read until well after the funeral (especially if certain legal obstacles, such as permission to open a safe deposit box, have to be cleared in order to access it.). Even the most faithful of executors isn't likely to exhume someone whose alternative burial instructions only became known a week or two after his funeral, and science hasn't yet discovered a means of uncremating a body.
Aside from all that, keeping your burial instructions separate from your will is a good idea because doing so allows you to change your mind without having to amend your will. You're much better off simply writing your wishes down and letting your relatives know where to find your instructions when the time comes.
20 Days Until The Vols "Will" Expose The Gator's Urban Myth.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1999]
UPI (Chicago, IL) -- The execution of the will of Gene Siskel, nationally known movie critic, was cleared through probate court yesterday and had a few surprising requests. Siskel died of complications resulting from his May 1998 brain surgery. The bulk of his estate was, as expected, left to his wife and children; Marlene Siskel, Kate (15), Callie (13) and Will (3). According to public records filed by in chancery court in Chicago, Gene Siskel asked that he be buried with his thumb pointing upward. The "Thumbs Up" was the Siskel-Ebert trademark.
"Gene wanted to be remembered as a Thumbs-Up kind of guy", said Siskel's lawyer. "It wasn't surprising to me that he'd ask for that. I informed his family after his death, but he didn't want it made public until after his will had been read."
Among other requests in the will, were donations to Gene's favorite charities and an endowment to the Northwestern University to create a scholarship in his name to be awarded yearly to an outstanding media-analysis student. Gene Siskel is a man who helped shape film criticism as we know it. Siskel is best known for his syndicated show "Siskel & Ebert," which he created with his longtime professional partner, Roger Ebert. For nearly a quarter century, the pair influenced and entertained millions of people with their opinions on and jibes at current films. They became part of the American entertainment culture and their trademark "thumbs up/thumbs down" a pop culture icon.
When asked for comments on the will, partner Roger Ebert said,"Gene was a lifelong friend, he showed great bravery in the months after his surgery, continuing to work as long as he could. As a critic, he was passionate and exacting. As a husband and a father, his love knew no bounds. My wife, Chaz, and I extend our deepest sympathy to his wife, Marlene, and his children and family."
"I'm not surprised that Gene would request that. That's just the kind of guy he was."
Origins: No, this wasn't a real United Press International story, and no, Gene Siskel didn't leave instructions in his will that he be buried with his thumb pointing up. This is just a goofy humor piece that began working its way around the Internet shortly after the movie critic passed away in February 1999. As Time Out New York reported, a "glance at the will, now on file with a Chicago court, makes clear that there are no digit-placement requests in the critic's last wishes."
Although examples of all sorts of people (not just rich eccentrics) leaving unusual requests in their wills are plentiful, tales about unusual burial instructions left in wills should be taken with a grain of salt. A will is not a good place to specify what you would like done with your earthly remains, especially if your wishes are the least bit out of the ordinary. The will is not usually read immediately upon the testator's death, and quite frequently it is not read until well after the funeral (especially if certain legal obstacles, such as permission to open a safe deposit box, have to be cleared in order to access it.). Even the most faithful of executors isn't likely to exhume someone whose alternative burial instructions only became known a week or two after his funeral, and science hasn't yet discovered a means of uncremating a body.
Aside from all that, keeping your burial instructions separate from your will is a good idea because doing so allows you to change your mind without having to amend your will. You're much better off simply writing your wishes down and letting your relatives know where to find your instructions when the time comes.
20 Days Until The Vols "Will" Expose The Gator's Urban Myth.
NCGatorBait
VN GURU
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NCGatorBait
VN GURU
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BeltwayVol
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A day late, and a dollar short....
Claim: Comedian Robin Williams came up with a plan for how the U.S. should handle foreign affairs.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2003]
A GREAT PLAN
Leave it to Robin Williams to come up with the perfect plan . . . what we need now is for our UN Ambassador to stand up and repeat this message.
Robin Williams' plan...(Hard to argue with this logic!
I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of one plan for peace. "Books, not Bombs" won't work. The head mullahs won't let anyone read them. If they do, they poke their eyes out.
Here's the plan:
1) The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past &present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini and the rest of them 'good old boys'. We will never "interfere" again.
2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No more sneaking through holes in the fence.
3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of who or where they are. France would welcome them.
4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit. No one from a terrorist nation would be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself, don't hide here. Asylum would not ever be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers.
5) No "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a "D" and it's back home baby.
6) The US will make a strong effort to become self sufficient energy wise. This will include developing non-polluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.
7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go someplace else.
8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere". They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if any anyway.
9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an island some place. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, it would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.
10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer.
Now, ain't that a winner of a plan ??
Variations: Early versions of this list included an eleventh entry:
11) And lastly bring back the manufacturing from our country, curtail the cheap imports from all over the world and put the middle class back to work in our country.
Origins: We don't know who is responsible for the piece quoted above, but it definitely wasn't acto/comedian Robin Williams (of Mork & Mindy television fame). This item's debut appears to have been a 20 March 2003 posting to the USENET newsgroup alt.motorcycles.harley, and from there it was rapidly disseminated via e-mail and blogs, credited to either "author unknown" or no one at all. The Robin Williams attribution wasn't tacked on until several weeks later, apparently because along the way the eleventh entry was dropped and a genuine Robin Williams quote appended in its place:
"The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying 'Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'You want a piece of me?'" Robin Williams.
The 'Robin Williams' attribution for the final item was interpreted as applying to the list as a whole, so now the entire piece circulates as 'the Robin Williams plan.'
19 Days Until Tennessee Exposes Florida's Urban Myth As A Joke.
Claim: Comedian Robin Williams came up with a plan for how the U.S. should handle foreign affairs.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2003]
A GREAT PLAN
Leave it to Robin Williams to come up with the perfect plan . . . what we need now is for our UN Ambassador to stand up and repeat this message.
Robin Williams' plan...(Hard to argue with this logic!
I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of one plan for peace. "Books, not Bombs" won't work. The head mullahs won't let anyone read them. If they do, they poke their eyes out.
Here's the plan:
1) The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past &present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini and the rest of them 'good old boys'. We will never "interfere" again.
2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No more sneaking through holes in the fence.
3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of who or where they are. France would welcome them.
4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit. No one from a terrorist nation would be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself, don't hide here. Asylum would not ever be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers.
5) No "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a "D" and it's back home baby.
6) The US will make a strong effort to become self sufficient energy wise. This will include developing non-polluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.
7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go someplace else.
8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere". They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if any anyway.
9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an island some place. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, it would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.
10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer.
Now, ain't that a winner of a plan ??
Variations: Early versions of this list included an eleventh entry:
11) And lastly bring back the manufacturing from our country, curtail the cheap imports from all over the world and put the middle class back to work in our country.
Origins: We don't know who is responsible for the piece quoted above, but it definitely wasn't acto/comedian Robin Williams (of Mork & Mindy television fame). This item's debut appears to have been a 20 March 2003 posting to the USENET newsgroup alt.motorcycles.harley, and from there it was rapidly disseminated via e-mail and blogs, credited to either "author unknown" or no one at all. The Robin Williams attribution wasn't tacked on until several weeks later, apparently because along the way the eleventh entry was dropped and a genuine Robin Williams quote appended in its place:
"The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying 'Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'You want a piece of me?'" Robin Williams.
The 'Robin Williams' attribution for the final item was interpreted as applying to the list as a whole, so now the entire piece circulates as 'the Robin Williams plan.'
19 Days Until Tennessee Exposes Florida's Urban Myth As A Joke.
BeltwayVol
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2005
- Messages
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- 4
Claim: A new Pepsi can design omits the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.
Examples:
[Collected on the Internet, 2002]
Pepsi has a new patriotic can coming out with pictures of the Empire State Bldg. and the Pledge of Allegiance on them. But Pepsi forgot two little words on the pledge, "Under God." Pepsi said they did not want to offend anyone.
If this is true then we do not want to offend anyone at the Pepsi corporate office. If we do not buy any Pepsi product then they will not receive any of our monies. Our money after all does have the words "Under God" on it. Please pass this word to everyone you know. Tell your Sunday School class tomorrow and tell your Pastors so that they can tell the whole congregation. Christians stand up and let your voices be heard. We want the words "under God" to be read by every person who buys a can.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Collected on the Internet, 2003]
To drink or not to drink?
Coca-Cola has a new patriotic can coming out with pictures of the Empire State Building and the Pledge of Allegiance on them. But Coke forgot two little words on the pledge, "Under God."
Coke said they did not want to offend anyone. If this is true then we do not want to offend anyone at the Coke corporate office. If we do not buy any Coke products then they will not receive any of our monies. Our money, after all, does have the words "Under God" on it.
If you agree with this policy, please pass this word to everyone you know. Coke doesn't have the right to rewrite the Pledge Of Allegiance!! If you do not agree, just erase or delete this message.
Origins: Although there once was some truth to the item quoted above, the information it contains is long outdated and never had anything to do with Pepsi or Coca-Cola. Neither soda company is producing, or has ever produced, redesigned cans bearing any portion of the Pledge of Allegiance or an image of the Empire State Building. This issue concerns a special patriotic can design produced by Dr Pepper back in November 2001, a can which was marketed for a limited time and has been off of store shelves for three years now (since February 2002).
The brouhaha began in mid-November 2001, when the Dr Pepper soft drink company, in response to the terrorist attacks on America a few months earlier, introduced a new can design featuring the Statue of Liberty with the words "ONE NATION . . . INDIVISIBLE" from the Pledge of Allegiance displayed above it.
Dr Pepper did not print the entire Pledge of Allegiance on their cans while leaving out the words 'under God'; they invoked the Pledge of Allegiance by using a mere three words from the pledge. However, because the three words Dr Pepper chose to use were the words surrounding the phrase 'under God' (which was not itself part of the original pledge as written by Francis Bellamy in 1892 but was added to the pledge by an act of Congress in 1954) the new patriotic can design prompted calls for boycotts from some religious groups and news media who maintained that Dr Pepper had "omitted 'under God'" from their version of the Pledge (because it falls where Dr Pepper used ellipses) and publicized the issue by encouraging a campaign of sending e-mail and letters of complaint to the Dr Pepper company:
Dr Pepper has designed a new patriotic can featuring the Statue of Liberty and the Pledge of Allegiance, but they left out the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. When asked why, Dr Pepper replied: "We felt 'One Nation . . . Indivisible' best represented the message we were trying to get across."
Dr Pepper has also used the excuse that wasn't enough room on the can for the words "Under God". The real reason is that the company didn't want to risk offending anyone who doesn't believe in God. Bad timing. After the events of 9/11, that's just not politically correct anymore!
I really do like Diet Dr Pepper, but I'm joining the ranks of those who won't be buying another one until new cans are printed that include the whole Pledge of Allegiance. I don't want them to simply yank the cans off the shelves, I want new cans printed with the words, "under God" on the can! And if enough people demand this, we'll get it. Walt Disney, AT&T, and K-Mart all chose to ignore boycott efforts; and now those companies are reaping the financial consequences of their decisions.
This is an example letter that can be sent to the unfortunate victim of the latest boycott:
OPEN LETTER TO Dr PEPPER/SEVEN-UP, INC.
President Doug Tough
Dr Pepper/7-Up, Inc.
5301 Legacy Drive
Plano, TX 75024-3109
Toll Free Number 1-800-696-5891
E-Mail address for Mr. Doug Tough:
consumer_relations@dpsu.com
Dear Mr. Tough,
I want to make it very clear that as an American, I am deeply offended that you had the audacity to leave out the all-important words "under God" from our Pledge of Allegiance on your new Dr Pepper cans. It seems you have taken it upon yourself to rewrite our country's Pledge of Allegiance in order not to offend those who don't believe in God.
I also want you to know that I am joining the public boycott of Dr Pepper until such time as you rethink your advertising decision. Yanking the cans off the shelves won't be sufficient to correct this error. I demand you have new cans printed, with the words "under God" included in the Pledge of Allegiance and distribute them!
Dr Pepper addressed the issue on their web site, saying:
In recent days, several news media outlets in the country have reported on a special edition Dr Pepper can that was created to show support for the patriotic fervor that has been sweeping America since the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, and to show the world that we are a united nation of people who place a high value upon freedom.
Much of the information being circulated on this subject is incomplete or inaccurate. Here are the facts:
The can, released last November, features an image of the Statue of Liberty along with the words "One Nation . . . Indivisible." The special packaging was designed to reflect our pride in this country's determination to stand together as one. The Statue of Liberty and Pledge of Allegiance were chosen as two of the greatest symbols of American freedom.
Due to space limitations on the can, only a few of the 31 words from the Pledge of Allegiance could be used. The available area for graphics limited the amount of verbiage on the can. Of the 31 words in the Pledge of Allegiance, only three were included. More than 90 percent were not included.
We at Dr Pepper/Seven Up strongly believe that the message on these cans is a resoundingly patriotic, bipartisan message that we are a united nation.
More than 41 million special edition cans were ordered by Dr Pepper bottlers in portions of a dozen states. Because the limited edition patriotic can is to be retired in February, you will soon see regular packaging graphics for Dr Pepper at your local retail stores.
Although 18 million Dr Pepper cans bearing the new design had been produced by February 2002, the company said they had received only "four complaints from Dubuque" and "200 other negative comments nationwide," and the issue seemed to have largely disappeared along with the cans by March 2002. However, when a United States Court of Appeals handed down a decision regarding the constitutionality of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance in June 2002, it breathed new life into the Dr Pepper controversy even though the controversial cans had been off store shelves for months. Messages like the following began circulating much more widely than those of the initial campaign from February 2002:
Subject: Dr Pepper Boycott
We called on God on 9-11 so what's wrong with him now?
For those who have not heard, the bottlers/manufacturers of Dr Pepper and their other products, have started a "new" can campaign. They are putting patriotic scenes on them. One, is the Empire State Bldg. with the pledge of allegiance...but...they left off the words..."under God".
They felt it might "offend" some.
I don't know about you, but as a Christian, their position offends me! I am boycotting their products!
They said they didn't "have room" for those words, but yet they had room for "indivisible" on the can! Please pass this along to others and see if we can get a message out to Dr Pepper . . . if having "under God" on cans offends them, then they don't need our money with "in God we trust" on it!
PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION ON TO YOUR FRIENDS!
Somehow along the way this message morphed into the version quoted at the head of this page, which inaccurately attributes the "Pledge" can design to Pepsi. Dr Pepper and Pepsi are two completely different companies: Pepsi is a product of the Pepsico corporation; Dr Pepper is a product of Dr Pepper/Seven Up, whose corporate parent is Cadbury Schweppes. (Dr Pepper is produced and distributed by Coca-Cola and Pepsi bottlers in some parts of the USA, but the Dr Pepper company has never been owned by either of those soft drink giants as the Washington Times erroneously reported.)
In February 2003 we began seeing the call to boycott the soda bottler who had omitted "Under God" from its patrotic cans aimed at Coca-Cola. It was the same wording as the summons to arms against Pepsi that had circulated a year earlier but with "Coke" replacing "Pepsi" in the text. It too was false, as Coca-Cola had had no more to do with the short-lived Dr Pepper cans than had Pepsi.
However one may feel about the Dr Pepper can design, writing to the company now and threatening to boycott them until they "put 'under God' back on their cans" is pointless. The patriotic "Pledge" can was produced only between November 2001 and February 2002, it was only sold in parts of twelve states, it has long since been retired, and it has not been available in stores since that one time.
18 Days Left Until "God and Country" See The Vols Expose Florida's Urban Myth.
Examples:
[Collected on the Internet, 2002]
Pepsi has a new patriotic can coming out with pictures of the Empire State Bldg. and the Pledge of Allegiance on them. But Pepsi forgot two little words on the pledge, "Under God." Pepsi said they did not want to offend anyone.
If this is true then we do not want to offend anyone at the Pepsi corporate office. If we do not buy any Pepsi product then they will not receive any of our monies. Our money after all does have the words "Under God" on it. Please pass this word to everyone you know. Tell your Sunday School class tomorrow and tell your Pastors so that they can tell the whole congregation. Christians stand up and let your voices be heard. We want the words "under God" to be read by every person who buys a can.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Collected on the Internet, 2003]
To drink or not to drink?
Coca-Cola has a new patriotic can coming out with pictures of the Empire State Building and the Pledge of Allegiance on them. But Coke forgot two little words on the pledge, "Under God."
Coke said they did not want to offend anyone. If this is true then we do not want to offend anyone at the Coke corporate office. If we do not buy any Coke products then they will not receive any of our monies. Our money, after all, does have the words "Under God" on it.
If you agree with this policy, please pass this word to everyone you know. Coke doesn't have the right to rewrite the Pledge Of Allegiance!! If you do not agree, just erase or delete this message.
Origins: Although there once was some truth to the item quoted above, the information it contains is long outdated and never had anything to do with Pepsi or Coca-Cola. Neither soda company is producing, or has ever produced, redesigned cans bearing any portion of the Pledge of Allegiance or an image of the Empire State Building. This issue concerns a special patriotic can design produced by Dr Pepper back in November 2001, a can which was marketed for a limited time and has been off of store shelves for three years now (since February 2002).
The brouhaha began in mid-November 2001, when the Dr Pepper soft drink company, in response to the terrorist attacks on America a few months earlier, introduced a new can design featuring the Statue of Liberty with the words "ONE NATION . . . INDIVISIBLE" from the Pledge of Allegiance displayed above it.
Dr Pepper did not print the entire Pledge of Allegiance on their cans while leaving out the words 'under God'; they invoked the Pledge of Allegiance by using a mere three words from the pledge. However, because the three words Dr Pepper chose to use were the words surrounding the phrase 'under God' (which was not itself part of the original pledge as written by Francis Bellamy in 1892 but was added to the pledge by an act of Congress in 1954) the new patriotic can design prompted calls for boycotts from some religious groups and news media who maintained that Dr Pepper had "omitted 'under God'" from their version of the Pledge (because it falls where Dr Pepper used ellipses) and publicized the issue by encouraging a campaign of sending e-mail and letters of complaint to the Dr Pepper company:
Dr Pepper has designed a new patriotic can featuring the Statue of Liberty and the Pledge of Allegiance, but they left out the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. When asked why, Dr Pepper replied: "We felt 'One Nation . . . Indivisible' best represented the message we were trying to get across."
Dr Pepper has also used the excuse that wasn't enough room on the can for the words "Under God". The real reason is that the company didn't want to risk offending anyone who doesn't believe in God. Bad timing. After the events of 9/11, that's just not politically correct anymore!
I really do like Diet Dr Pepper, but I'm joining the ranks of those who won't be buying another one until new cans are printed that include the whole Pledge of Allegiance. I don't want them to simply yank the cans off the shelves, I want new cans printed with the words, "under God" on the can! And if enough people demand this, we'll get it. Walt Disney, AT&T, and K-Mart all chose to ignore boycott efforts; and now those companies are reaping the financial consequences of their decisions.
This is an example letter that can be sent to the unfortunate victim of the latest boycott:
OPEN LETTER TO Dr PEPPER/SEVEN-UP, INC.
President Doug Tough
Dr Pepper/7-Up, Inc.
5301 Legacy Drive
Plano, TX 75024-3109
Toll Free Number 1-800-696-5891
E-Mail address for Mr. Doug Tough:
consumer_relations@dpsu.com
Dear Mr. Tough,
I want to make it very clear that as an American, I am deeply offended that you had the audacity to leave out the all-important words "under God" from our Pledge of Allegiance on your new Dr Pepper cans. It seems you have taken it upon yourself to rewrite our country's Pledge of Allegiance in order not to offend those who don't believe in God.
I also want you to know that I am joining the public boycott of Dr Pepper until such time as you rethink your advertising decision. Yanking the cans off the shelves won't be sufficient to correct this error. I demand you have new cans printed, with the words "under God" included in the Pledge of Allegiance and distribute them!
Dr Pepper addressed the issue on their web site, saying:
In recent days, several news media outlets in the country have reported on a special edition Dr Pepper can that was created to show support for the patriotic fervor that has been sweeping America since the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, and to show the world that we are a united nation of people who place a high value upon freedom.
Much of the information being circulated on this subject is incomplete or inaccurate. Here are the facts:
The can, released last November, features an image of the Statue of Liberty along with the words "One Nation . . . Indivisible." The special packaging was designed to reflect our pride in this country's determination to stand together as one. The Statue of Liberty and Pledge of Allegiance were chosen as two of the greatest symbols of American freedom.
Due to space limitations on the can, only a few of the 31 words from the Pledge of Allegiance could be used. The available area for graphics limited the amount of verbiage on the can. Of the 31 words in the Pledge of Allegiance, only three were included. More than 90 percent were not included.
We at Dr Pepper/Seven Up strongly believe that the message on these cans is a resoundingly patriotic, bipartisan message that we are a united nation.
More than 41 million special edition cans were ordered by Dr Pepper bottlers in portions of a dozen states. Because the limited edition patriotic can is to be retired in February, you will soon see regular packaging graphics for Dr Pepper at your local retail stores.
Although 18 million Dr Pepper cans bearing the new design had been produced by February 2002, the company said they had received only "four complaints from Dubuque" and "200 other negative comments nationwide," and the issue seemed to have largely disappeared along with the cans by March 2002. However, when a United States Court of Appeals handed down a decision regarding the constitutionality of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance in June 2002, it breathed new life into the Dr Pepper controversy even though the controversial cans had been off store shelves for months. Messages like the following began circulating much more widely than those of the initial campaign from February 2002:
Subject: Dr Pepper Boycott
We called on God on 9-11 so what's wrong with him now?
For those who have not heard, the bottlers/manufacturers of Dr Pepper and their other products, have started a "new" can campaign. They are putting patriotic scenes on them. One, is the Empire State Bldg. with the pledge of allegiance...but...they left off the words..."under God".
They felt it might "offend" some.
I don't know about you, but as a Christian, their position offends me! I am boycotting their products!
They said they didn't "have room" for those words, but yet they had room for "indivisible" on the can! Please pass this along to others and see if we can get a message out to Dr Pepper . . . if having "under God" on cans offends them, then they don't need our money with "in God we trust" on it!
PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION ON TO YOUR FRIENDS!
Somehow along the way this message morphed into the version quoted at the head of this page, which inaccurately attributes the "Pledge" can design to Pepsi. Dr Pepper and Pepsi are two completely different companies: Pepsi is a product of the Pepsico corporation; Dr Pepper is a product of Dr Pepper/Seven Up, whose corporate parent is Cadbury Schweppes. (Dr Pepper is produced and distributed by Coca-Cola and Pepsi bottlers in some parts of the USA, but the Dr Pepper company has never been owned by either of those soft drink giants as the Washington Times erroneously reported.)
In February 2003 we began seeing the call to boycott the soda bottler who had omitted "Under God" from its patrotic cans aimed at Coca-Cola. It was the same wording as the summons to arms against Pepsi that had circulated a year earlier but with "Coke" replacing "Pepsi" in the text. It too was false, as Coca-Cola had had no more to do with the short-lived Dr Pepper cans than had Pepsi.
However one may feel about the Dr Pepper can design, writing to the company now and threatening to boycott them until they "put 'under God' back on their cans" is pointless. The patriotic "Pledge" can was produced only between November 2001 and February 2002, it was only sold in parts of twelve states, it has long since been retired, and it has not been available in stores since that one time.
18 Days Left Until "God and Country" See The Vols Expose Florida's Urban Myth.
BeltwayVol
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2005
- Messages
- 1,441
- Likes
- 4
Claim: Commentator Andy Rooney explains his political views.
Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 2003]
BRAVO ANDY ROONEY!!!!
Right on, Andy Rooney!
Andy Rooney said on 60 minutes a few weeks back: (for those of you that don't know Andy Rooney, he is an 82 year old US TV commentator)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I like big cars, big boats, big motorcycles, big houses and big campfires.
I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some governmental stooge with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts for squirting out babies.
Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.
I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts!
I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.
I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America.
Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White entertainment Television, or Miss White America and see what happens. Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.
I have the right NOT to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off. When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the law of statistics.
I know what sex is, and there are not varying degrees of it. If I received sex from one of the subordinates in my office, it wouldn't be a private matter or my personal business. I would be "FIRED" immediately!
I believe that if you are selling me a milk shake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen you should have to speak English!
My father and grandfather shouldn't have to die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours. I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word "freeze" or "stop" in English, see the above lines.
I feel much safer letting a machine with no political affiliation recount votes when needed. I know what the definition of lying is.
I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business. We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document and open to their interpretations.
I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.
I know wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television, and that doesn't stop you from watching them.
I believe a self-righteous liberal or conservative with a cause is more dangerous than a Hell's Angel with an attitude.
I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better and put your name on the building. Ask your buddy that invented the Internet to help you.
It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid and smack their little ass when necessary and say "NO."
I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And . . . Please stay home until that new lip ring heals, I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me french fries!
I am sick of "Political Correctness" and of all the suck ups that go along with it. I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa, so how can they be "African-Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else.
And if you don't like my point of view, tough!
Andy is 83 and entitled to his opinion.
Origins: Curmudgeonly 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney may have delivered a vituperative essay on French politics in 2003, but this piece elaborating on his own politics is not his creation. The text quoted above is too reactionary even for the acerbic Rooney, and the language used doesn't sound like him. ("Shoot your sorry ass" just isn't the kind of phrase Andy Rooney employs on television.) Just to be thorough, we checked the transcripts of all of Andy Rooney's 60 Minutes pieces from the last ten years, and nothing like this item turned up.
Moreover, Rooney himself denied it in 2003, saying: About a year ago, I became aware of a more serious theft of my name and it is so hurtful to my reputation that it calls for legal action against the thief. Hundreds of people have written asking if I really wrote the 20 detestable remarks made under my name that have had such wide circulation on the Internet.
[...]
Some of the remarks, which I will not repeat here, are viciously racist and the spirit of the whole thing is nasty, mean and totally inconsistent with my philosophy of life. It is apparent that the list of comments has been read by hundreds of thousands of Americans, many of whom must believe that it accurately represents opinions of mine that I don't dare express in my column or on television. It is seriously damaging to my reputation.
The final two items on the list are probably a good tipoff that either this collection was written (by an as yet unidentified author) as a parody of the "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney" spots on 60 Minutes, or someone appended Andy Rooney's name to an unattributed piece because it "seemed like something he would say." Either way, whoever created this version appears to have lifted some parts from an earlier piece known as "Yes, I Guess I am A BAD American" and falsely credited to comedian George Carlin.
17 Days and "60 Minutes" Until Tennessee Exposes The Urban Myth.
Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 2003]
BRAVO ANDY ROONEY!!!!
Right on, Andy Rooney!
Andy Rooney said on 60 minutes a few weeks back: (for those of you that don't know Andy Rooney, he is an 82 year old US TV commentator)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I like big cars, big boats, big motorcycles, big houses and big campfires.
I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some governmental stooge with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts for squirting out babies.
Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.
I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts!
I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.
I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America.
Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White entertainment Television, or Miss White America and see what happens. Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.
I have the right NOT to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off. When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the law of statistics.
I know what sex is, and there are not varying degrees of it. If I received sex from one of the subordinates in my office, it wouldn't be a private matter or my personal business. I would be "FIRED" immediately!
I believe that if you are selling me a milk shake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen you should have to speak English!
My father and grandfather shouldn't have to die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours. I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word "freeze" or "stop" in English, see the above lines.
I feel much safer letting a machine with no political affiliation recount votes when needed. I know what the definition of lying is.
I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business. We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document and open to their interpretations.
I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.
I know wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television, and that doesn't stop you from watching them.
I believe a self-righteous liberal or conservative with a cause is more dangerous than a Hell's Angel with an attitude.
I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better and put your name on the building. Ask your buddy that invented the Internet to help you.
It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid and smack their little ass when necessary and say "NO."
I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And . . . Please stay home until that new lip ring heals, I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me french fries!
I am sick of "Political Correctness" and of all the suck ups that go along with it. I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa, so how can they be "African-Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else.
And if you don't like my point of view, tough!
Andy is 83 and entitled to his opinion.
Origins: Curmudgeonly 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney may have delivered a vituperative essay on French politics in 2003, but this piece elaborating on his own politics is not his creation. The text quoted above is too reactionary even for the acerbic Rooney, and the language used doesn't sound like him. ("Shoot your sorry ass" just isn't the kind of phrase Andy Rooney employs on television.) Just to be thorough, we checked the transcripts of all of Andy Rooney's 60 Minutes pieces from the last ten years, and nothing like this item turned up.
Moreover, Rooney himself denied it in 2003, saying: About a year ago, I became aware of a more serious theft of my name and it is so hurtful to my reputation that it calls for legal action against the thief. Hundreds of people have written asking if I really wrote the 20 detestable remarks made under my name that have had such wide circulation on the Internet.
[...]
Some of the remarks, which I will not repeat here, are viciously racist and the spirit of the whole thing is nasty, mean and totally inconsistent with my philosophy of life. It is apparent that the list of comments has been read by hundreds of thousands of Americans, many of whom must believe that it accurately represents opinions of mine that I don't dare express in my column or on television. It is seriously damaging to my reputation.
The final two items on the list are probably a good tipoff that either this collection was written (by an as yet unidentified author) as a parody of the "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney" spots on 60 Minutes, or someone appended Andy Rooney's name to an unattributed piece because it "seemed like something he would say." Either way, whoever created this version appears to have lifted some parts from an earlier piece known as "Yes, I Guess I am A BAD American" and falsely credited to comedian George Carlin.
17 Days and "60 Minutes" Until Tennessee Exposes The Urban Myth.
BeltwayVol
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2005
- Messages
- 1,441
- Likes
- 4
Claim: A 9-year-old girl named Penny Brown is missing.
Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 2001]
I am asking you all, begging you to please, forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. My 9 year old girl, Penny Brown, is missing. She has been missing for now two weeks. It is still not too late, Please help us.
If anyone anywhere knows anything, sees anything, please contact me at zicozicozico@hotmail.com
I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!!
It only takes 2 seconds to forward this on, if it was your child, you would want all the help you could get.
Please. thank you for your kindness, hopefully you can help us.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Collected on the Internet, 2003]
Please pass this to everyone in your address book.
We have a store manager (Wal-Mart) from Longs, SC who has a 9 year old daughter who has been missing for 2 weeks. Keep the picture moving on. With luck on her side she will be found.
I am asking you all, begging you to please forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. My 9 year old girl, Penny Brown, is missing. She has been missing for now two weeks..
It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone anywhere knows anything, please contact me at: zicozicozico@hotmail.com I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!! It only takes 2 seconds to forward this on. If it was your child, you would want all the help you could get.
Thank you for your kindness. Hopefully you can help us.
Origins: Penny Brown, the little girl who is evidently nothing more than the product of some prankster's imagination, is the longest-lived "missing child" hoax we have chronicled on this site. In all the time since the above-quoted plea to aid in the hunt for her began circulating on the Internet in mid-September 2001 rarely has the term "Penny Brown" dropped off our site's list of top searches even though there was never reason to place any reliance upon the message. None of the many missing children sites listed a Penny Brown among the youngsters they were looking for, and searched of news archives in the U.S. and Canada turned up no news reports about a missing child of this name.
Moreover, the e-mail itself provided few of the details that generally appear in legitimate pleas to help locate missing children. Not even the city or country the child went missing from was mentioned, and other than the pointless "has been missing for now two weeks," no date was given for the disappearance. ("For now two weeks" statements are entirely useless in a medium wherein undated text is circulated the "two weeks" ago of an e-mail can and often has referred to events years in the past.) E-mail sent to the supplied contact address of zicozicozico@hotmail.com was bounced back to the sender.
Credible missing child reports tend to supply details of when and where the child was last seen, a description of the clothes worn, and phone numbers of people to contact about sightings. This e-mail lacked all of that not even the parents' names were given.
(We don't know the identity of the girl in the accompanying picture, but the photo definitely isn't one of a young Melissa Gilbert of Little House on the Prairie TV fame.)
One version of the widely-circulated e-mail made it appear the plea was coming from Monzine Jang, a woman who worked for a physician at the University of Calgary. A call to the number provided in the e-mail fetched the following automated voice message:
If you are calling regarding an e-mail about a missing girl, please do not forward it as she is not the daughter of Monzine Jang. Monzine has contacted the Calgary police and missing children organization and she believes this is a hoax.
Another version claimed the frantic mother was Helen Bessenyei, a woman who lived in Australia. Helen had three grown sons, but no daughter, and certainly not a missing nine-year-old named Penny Brown. This hoax left her answering up to 150 e-mails a day and fielding hundreds of phone calls.
Yet another version purported to have come from a woman named Kimberly Leon. An additional version said the child went missing in Austin, Texas. And still another version claimed the child was lost in Ottawa, Ontario. Winning the "farthest away" category was a version that claimed the child went missing in
Singapore.
Evern more iterations these versions translated into French were "signed" by Carol Toteda of Montreal or Anne-Claire Kubala, the latter giving an address that placed her in Paris. Also placing the tale in Canada was a version "signed" by Annie Lachance that asserted the missing Penny was the child of one of the store managers from Metro-Richelieu (a large grocery store).
Another form of this message that began "We have a store manager from Longs Drugs in Southern California, whose 9 year old daughter has been missing for 2 weeks" was signed "Peggy." Closely related to that version was another that said: "We have a store manager from Longs, SC who has a 9 year old daughter that has been missing for 2 weeks." It too has been signed by "Peggy." In yet another twist, the e-mail appeared signed by one "Penny Hill MS 59, Sunnyvale AMD."
16 Days Until Florida's Urban Myth Goes Missing.
Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 2001]
I am asking you all, begging you to please, forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. My 9 year old girl, Penny Brown, is missing. She has been missing for now two weeks. It is still not too late, Please help us.
If anyone anywhere knows anything, sees anything, please contact me at zicozicozico@hotmail.com
I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!!
It only takes 2 seconds to forward this on, if it was your child, you would want all the help you could get.
Please. thank you for your kindness, hopefully you can help us.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Collected on the Internet, 2003]
Please pass this to everyone in your address book.
We have a store manager (Wal-Mart) from Longs, SC who has a 9 year old daughter who has been missing for 2 weeks. Keep the picture moving on. With luck on her side she will be found.
I am asking you all, begging you to please forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. My 9 year old girl, Penny Brown, is missing. She has been missing for now two weeks..
It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone anywhere knows anything, please contact me at: zicozicozico@hotmail.com I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!! It only takes 2 seconds to forward this on. If it was your child, you would want all the help you could get.
Thank you for your kindness. Hopefully you can help us.
Origins: Penny Brown, the little girl who is evidently nothing more than the product of some prankster's imagination, is the longest-lived "missing child" hoax we have chronicled on this site. In all the time since the above-quoted plea to aid in the hunt for her began circulating on the Internet in mid-September 2001 rarely has the term "Penny Brown" dropped off our site's list of top searches even though there was never reason to place any reliance upon the message. None of the many missing children sites listed a Penny Brown among the youngsters they were looking for, and searched of news archives in the U.S. and Canada turned up no news reports about a missing child of this name.
Moreover, the e-mail itself provided few of the details that generally appear in legitimate pleas to help locate missing children. Not even the city or country the child went missing from was mentioned, and other than the pointless "has been missing for now two weeks," no date was given for the disappearance. ("For now two weeks" statements are entirely useless in a medium wherein undated text is circulated the "two weeks" ago of an e-mail can and often has referred to events years in the past.) E-mail sent to the supplied contact address of zicozicozico@hotmail.com was bounced back to the sender.
Credible missing child reports tend to supply details of when and where the child was last seen, a description of the clothes worn, and phone numbers of people to contact about sightings. This e-mail lacked all of that not even the parents' names were given.
(We don't know the identity of the girl in the accompanying picture, but the photo definitely isn't one of a young Melissa Gilbert of Little House on the Prairie TV fame.)
One version of the widely-circulated e-mail made it appear the plea was coming from Monzine Jang, a woman who worked for a physician at the University of Calgary. A call to the number provided in the e-mail fetched the following automated voice message:
If you are calling regarding an e-mail about a missing girl, please do not forward it as she is not the daughter of Monzine Jang. Monzine has contacted the Calgary police and missing children organization and she believes this is a hoax.
Another version claimed the frantic mother was Helen Bessenyei, a woman who lived in Australia. Helen had three grown sons, but no daughter, and certainly not a missing nine-year-old named Penny Brown. This hoax left her answering up to 150 e-mails a day and fielding hundreds of phone calls.
Yet another version purported to have come from a woman named Kimberly Leon. An additional version said the child went missing in Austin, Texas. And still another version claimed the child was lost in Ottawa, Ontario. Winning the "farthest away" category was a version that claimed the child went missing in
Singapore.
Evern more iterations these versions translated into French were "signed" by Carol Toteda of Montreal or Anne-Claire Kubala, the latter giving an address that placed her in Paris. Also placing the tale in Canada was a version "signed" by Annie Lachance that asserted the missing Penny was the child of one of the store managers from Metro-Richelieu (a large grocery store).
Another form of this message that began "We have a store manager from Longs Drugs in Southern California, whose 9 year old daughter has been missing for 2 weeks" was signed "Peggy." Closely related to that version was another that said: "We have a store manager from Longs, SC who has a 9 year old daughter that has been missing for 2 weeks." It too has been signed by "Peggy." In yet another twist, the e-mail appeared signed by one "Penny Hill MS 59, Sunnyvale AMD."
16 Days Until Florida's Urban Myth Goes Missing.
BeltwayVol
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2005
- Messages
- 1,441
- Likes
- 4
Claim: Fighting on opposite sides, father and son meet one last time on a Civil War battlefield. Found in the dying boy's pocket is the melody now known as 'Taps.'
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1999]
It all began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison's Landing in Virginia. The Confederate Army was on the other side of the narrow strip of land.
During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moan of a soldier who lay mortally wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or Confederate soldier, the captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention.
Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment. When the captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead. The captain lit a lantern.
Suddenly, he caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light, he saw the face of the soldier. It was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, he had enlisted in the Confederate Army.
The following morning, heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full military burial despite his enemy status.
His request was partially granted. The captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral dirge for the son at the funeral.
That request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate. Out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him only one musician.
The captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of his dead son's uniform. This wish was granted. This music was the haunting melody we now know as "Taps" that is used at all military funerals.
Origins: It's hard to feel surprised when a melody as hauntingly beautiful as Taps picks up a legend about how it came to be written -- it's too mournfully direct a piece for the mere truth to suffice.
Taps was composed in July 1862 at Harrison's Landing in Virginia, but after that the fanciful e-mail quoted above parts way with reality. There was no dead son, Confederate or otherwise; no lone bugler sounding out the dead boy's last composition. How the call came into being was never anything more than one influential soldier deciding his unit could use a bugle call for particular occasions and setting about to come up with one.
If anyone can be said to have composed 'Taps,' it was Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, Commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, during the American Civil War. Dissatisfied with the customary firing of three rifle volleys at the conclusion of burials during battle and also needing a method of ceremonially imparting meaning to the end of a soldier's day, he likely altered an older piece known as "Tattoo," a French bugle call used to signal "lights out," into the call we now know as 'Taps.' (Alternatively, he wrote the whole thing from scratch, a possibility not at all supported by his lack of musical background and ability.)
Whether he wrote it straight from the cuff or improvised something new by rearranging an older work, Butterfield brought 'Taps' into being. With the help of his bugler, Oliver W. Norton of Chicago, the concept was transformed into its present form. "Taps" was quickly taken up by both sides of the conflict, and within months was being sounded by buglers in both Union and Confederate forces.
Then as now, 'Taps' serves as a vital component in ceremonies honoring military dead. It is also understood by American servicemen as an end-of-day 'lights out' signal.
When "Taps" is played at a military funeral, it is customary to salute if in uniform, or place your hand over your heart if not.
15 Days Until Tennessee "Taps" Florida's Urban Meyer and Exposes Him.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1999]
It all began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison's Landing in Virginia. The Confederate Army was on the other side of the narrow strip of land.
During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moan of a soldier who lay mortally wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or Confederate soldier, the captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention.
Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment. When the captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead. The captain lit a lantern.
Suddenly, he caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light, he saw the face of the soldier. It was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, he had enlisted in the Confederate Army.
The following morning, heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full military burial despite his enemy status.
His request was partially granted. The captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral dirge for the son at the funeral.
That request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate. Out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him only one musician.
The captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of his dead son's uniform. This wish was granted. This music was the haunting melody we now know as "Taps" that is used at all military funerals.
Origins: It's hard to feel surprised when a melody as hauntingly beautiful as Taps picks up a legend about how it came to be written -- it's too mournfully direct a piece for the mere truth to suffice.
Taps was composed in July 1862 at Harrison's Landing in Virginia, but after that the fanciful e-mail quoted above parts way with reality. There was no dead son, Confederate or otherwise; no lone bugler sounding out the dead boy's last composition. How the call came into being was never anything more than one influential soldier deciding his unit could use a bugle call for particular occasions and setting about to come up with one.
If anyone can be said to have composed 'Taps,' it was Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, Commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, during the American Civil War. Dissatisfied with the customary firing of three rifle volleys at the conclusion of burials during battle and also needing a method of ceremonially imparting meaning to the end of a soldier's day, he likely altered an older piece known as "Tattoo," a French bugle call used to signal "lights out," into the call we now know as 'Taps.' (Alternatively, he wrote the whole thing from scratch, a possibility not at all supported by his lack of musical background and ability.)
Whether he wrote it straight from the cuff or improvised something new by rearranging an older work, Butterfield brought 'Taps' into being. With the help of his bugler, Oliver W. Norton of Chicago, the concept was transformed into its present form. "Taps" was quickly taken up by both sides of the conflict, and within months was being sounded by buglers in both Union and Confederate forces.
Then as now, 'Taps' serves as a vital component in ceremonies honoring military dead. It is also understood by American servicemen as an end-of-day 'lights out' signal.
When "Taps" is played at a military funeral, it is customary to salute if in uniform, or place your hand over your heart if not.
15 Days Until Tennessee "Taps" Florida's Urban Meyer and Exposes Him.
BeltwayVol
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2005
- Messages
- 1,441
- Likes
- 4
Claim: Taco Bell ended its famous ad campaign because the dog died.
Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 1998]
I've been hearing a rumble for the last couple of days about the dog in the Taco Bell commercials. Seems the little bastard got loose during a break in filming, ran into the path of a dollying film camera, and was crushed, yea unto death.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Collected on the Internet, 2003]
A friend was telling me he had heard that Taco Bell had the Chiuaua dog it used in its advertising put to sleep, rather than honor the full length of the contract with the animals owner.
Origins: The world of advertising has spawned so many memorable characters that at times it seems we are up to our ears in Mr. Whipples, lonely Maytag repairman, and talking syrup bottles. Yet even among that well-populated crowd, sometimes our affection for certain pitchmen causes us to elevate some to the pedestal of pop culture icons. Though hucksterism was responsible for such creations as the Energizer Bunny, Betty Crocker, and the Marlboro Man, we have made those figures far more than the mere product salesmen they were intended to be by virtue of what we see in them. Each of them has come to symbolize not just their specific products but also certain ideals, characteristics, or stereotypes, giving us handy shortforms with which to describe certain acts or states of being we might otherwise have difficulty conveying (e.g., the mother of an active two-year-old can point to her youngster and sigh, "It's like living with the Energizer Bunny," without having to further explain that her child is always on the go and his incessant activity is leaving her frazzled; as a method of identifying someone as a fantastic cook and homemaker, rather than list numerous displays of domestic mastery, we can dub her "a regular Betty Crocker"; and as a way of communicating either a particular physical look or an aura of lantern-jawed rugged self-sufficiency, we can describe a fellow as "a Marlboro Man type").
Such was the case with the Taco Bell dog, which also came to ascend to that heady level it too became a pop culture icon for what people saw of themselves and others in it. It is that twinned sense of recognition and identification that lies at the heart of the many rumors about the character's abrupt departure from the advertising campaigns of the fast food chain that popularized it.
The dog got its start almost by happenstance. In 1997 Taco Bell used the sassy Chihuahua as an incidental character in a single commercial aired only in the Northeastern states; the pooch hadn't been intended for anything other than that one-spot limited-market appearance. But consumer response to the attitudinal canine was overwhelming, so the company reacted to what the market was telling it by building a series of ads around the intriguing character that had won over so many with its "Yo quiero Taco Bell" (I want Taco Bell) tagline. This campaign was introduced to the whole of the American market in early 1998.
People took the dog to heart, both because it was cute (we are somewhat programmed to melt at the sight of large-eyed small beings, after all) and for its sassy impertinence. Few of its admirers realized the character that so struck a chord with them had been deliberately modeled on the restaurant chain's core customer: fast-food-loving, attitude-riddled teen males. If folks felt a sense of identification with the spunky little dog, it was only because they were supposed to he was them, after all.
In July 2000 fast food giant Taco Bell (a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc.) did the ostensibly unthinkable: it abruptly ended what appeared to be a highly successful ad campaign that had worked to establish this memorable brand identity. Seemingly out of the blue, the corporation announced it would no longer feature the wise-cracking Chihuahua in its ads. Though the Taco Bell dog might make cameo appearances in subsequent commercials, he was being retired as company spokespooch.
The reason behind the move was simple enough: the dog, though beloved of consumers, wasn't working magic on the company's bottom line. Though Taco Bell had succeeded in creating a cultural icon, the resultant symbol wasn't inspiring a great enough segment of the fast food-buying public to make a run for the border. Same-store sales were down 6 percent in the second quarter of 2000, a result the company could only regard as alarming and a certain sign that changes had to be made.
It was time to let the dog out.
However, what makes sense to the corporation behind an icon and to the public are sometimes two very different things. To the average person, who presumed the Taco bell dog commercials were benefiting the company, the pooch's sudden disappearance was highly illogical unless something had happened to the animal. As a consequence, rumors arose that postulated the unexpected demise of the little dog, a turn of events that would serve to explain the company's hasty shift to a different form of advertising.
Rumors circulated that the Chihuahua had died. Some heard that the fatal accident happened during the filming of yet another commercial the unfortunate dog either ran in front of a camera that was being repositioned, or the camera fell onto it. Or one of the heavy lights used to illuminate the set came crashing down onto the hapless mutt. Or the dog froze to death while traveling in the cargo hold of a commercial airline. In the strangest form of the rumor, Taco Bell itself had offed the dog rather than pay out to its owner the full value of the dog's contract.
Although on their surface such whispers seem to quite handily explain the sudden change of advertising focus, they all fail on one key point: there is more than one Chihuahua in the world. If the animal actor playing the part of the Taco Bell pitchman had indeed gone to the great dog park in the sky, another canine thespian would have been hired as its replacement. Such substitutions are nothing new, with most viewers remaining unaware that different dogs now fill parts previously played by others. For example, in 2002, the 13-year-old Jack Russell Terrier named Moose retired from the television sitcom Frasier and was replaced in the role of Eddie by his 4-year-old son, Enzo.
In this regard, animal actors are less of a headache than their human counterparts. "Dead," "on strike for a better contract," "not feeling well," and "bad fur day" can all be easily handled by bestowing the role on someone else who happens to look almost the same as the original actor. Or, if the character is minor enough, it can simply be written out (as happened to Tiger in The Brady Bunch: when the dog playing him got called to glory, the family pooch simply disappeared from the scripts).
It is also far from uncommon for the same part to be acted by multiple animals, each one differently skilled so as to accomplish the variety of stunts the role calls for. (In the 1995 film Babe, for example, the title pig was played by some four dozen porkers.)
Had the Taco Bell dog died while there were still commercials to be made, another Chihuahua would have been set in front of the cameras. Production would barely have slowed.
Yet the dog didn't die; only its role did. The star of Taco Bell's commercials was a female Chihuahua named Gidget. At least as of 2003, Gidget was not only very much alive, but still working at her craft; that year she appeared in the part of Bruiser's mother in Legally Blonde 2. As for freezing in the cargo hold of a plane, while with Taco Bell Gidget flew to commercial shoots first-class with her handlers. The spoken component of the Taco Bell dog's role was the work of voice actor Carlos Alazraqui.
Rumors about the deaths of critters who have become pop culture icons are nothing new. For years we heard that upon completion of the series, Arnold Ziffel, the pig in the television sitcom Green Acres, had been barbequed and served as the entree at the final cast party. We heard the same thing about the pig in Babe.
In 14 Days, Yo Quiero Exposing Florida's Urban Myth.
Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 1998]
I've been hearing a rumble for the last couple of days about the dog in the Taco Bell commercials. Seems the little bastard got loose during a break in filming, ran into the path of a dollying film camera, and was crushed, yea unto death.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Collected on the Internet, 2003]
A friend was telling me he had heard that Taco Bell had the Chiuaua dog it used in its advertising put to sleep, rather than honor the full length of the contract with the animals owner.
Origins: The world of advertising has spawned so many memorable characters that at times it seems we are up to our ears in Mr. Whipples, lonely Maytag repairman, and talking syrup bottles. Yet even among that well-populated crowd, sometimes our affection for certain pitchmen causes us to elevate some to the pedestal of pop culture icons. Though hucksterism was responsible for such creations as the Energizer Bunny, Betty Crocker, and the Marlboro Man, we have made those figures far more than the mere product salesmen they were intended to be by virtue of what we see in them. Each of them has come to symbolize not just their specific products but also certain ideals, characteristics, or stereotypes, giving us handy shortforms with which to describe certain acts or states of being we might otherwise have difficulty conveying (e.g., the mother of an active two-year-old can point to her youngster and sigh, "It's like living with the Energizer Bunny," without having to further explain that her child is always on the go and his incessant activity is leaving her frazzled; as a method of identifying someone as a fantastic cook and homemaker, rather than list numerous displays of domestic mastery, we can dub her "a regular Betty Crocker"; and as a way of communicating either a particular physical look or an aura of lantern-jawed rugged self-sufficiency, we can describe a fellow as "a Marlboro Man type").
Such was the case with the Taco Bell dog, which also came to ascend to that heady level it too became a pop culture icon for what people saw of themselves and others in it. It is that twinned sense of recognition and identification that lies at the heart of the many rumors about the character's abrupt departure from the advertising campaigns of the fast food chain that popularized it.
The dog got its start almost by happenstance. In 1997 Taco Bell used the sassy Chihuahua as an incidental character in a single commercial aired only in the Northeastern states; the pooch hadn't been intended for anything other than that one-spot limited-market appearance. But consumer response to the attitudinal canine was overwhelming, so the company reacted to what the market was telling it by building a series of ads around the intriguing character that had won over so many with its "Yo quiero Taco Bell" (I want Taco Bell) tagline. This campaign was introduced to the whole of the American market in early 1998.
People took the dog to heart, both because it was cute (we are somewhat programmed to melt at the sight of large-eyed small beings, after all) and for its sassy impertinence. Few of its admirers realized the character that so struck a chord with them had been deliberately modeled on the restaurant chain's core customer: fast-food-loving, attitude-riddled teen males. If folks felt a sense of identification with the spunky little dog, it was only because they were supposed to he was them, after all.
In July 2000 fast food giant Taco Bell (a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc.) did the ostensibly unthinkable: it abruptly ended what appeared to be a highly successful ad campaign that had worked to establish this memorable brand identity. Seemingly out of the blue, the corporation announced it would no longer feature the wise-cracking Chihuahua in its ads. Though the Taco Bell dog might make cameo appearances in subsequent commercials, he was being retired as company spokespooch.
The reason behind the move was simple enough: the dog, though beloved of consumers, wasn't working magic on the company's bottom line. Though Taco Bell had succeeded in creating a cultural icon, the resultant symbol wasn't inspiring a great enough segment of the fast food-buying public to make a run for the border. Same-store sales were down 6 percent in the second quarter of 2000, a result the company could only regard as alarming and a certain sign that changes had to be made.
It was time to let the dog out.
However, what makes sense to the corporation behind an icon and to the public are sometimes two very different things. To the average person, who presumed the Taco bell dog commercials were benefiting the company, the pooch's sudden disappearance was highly illogical unless something had happened to the animal. As a consequence, rumors arose that postulated the unexpected demise of the little dog, a turn of events that would serve to explain the company's hasty shift to a different form of advertising.
Rumors circulated that the Chihuahua had died. Some heard that the fatal accident happened during the filming of yet another commercial the unfortunate dog either ran in front of a camera that was being repositioned, or the camera fell onto it. Or one of the heavy lights used to illuminate the set came crashing down onto the hapless mutt. Or the dog froze to death while traveling in the cargo hold of a commercial airline. In the strangest form of the rumor, Taco Bell itself had offed the dog rather than pay out to its owner the full value of the dog's contract.
Although on their surface such whispers seem to quite handily explain the sudden change of advertising focus, they all fail on one key point: there is more than one Chihuahua in the world. If the animal actor playing the part of the Taco Bell pitchman had indeed gone to the great dog park in the sky, another canine thespian would have been hired as its replacement. Such substitutions are nothing new, with most viewers remaining unaware that different dogs now fill parts previously played by others. For example, in 2002, the 13-year-old Jack Russell Terrier named Moose retired from the television sitcom Frasier and was replaced in the role of Eddie by his 4-year-old son, Enzo.
In this regard, animal actors are less of a headache than their human counterparts. "Dead," "on strike for a better contract," "not feeling well," and "bad fur day" can all be easily handled by bestowing the role on someone else who happens to look almost the same as the original actor. Or, if the character is minor enough, it can simply be written out (as happened to Tiger in The Brady Bunch: when the dog playing him got called to glory, the family pooch simply disappeared from the scripts).
It is also far from uncommon for the same part to be acted by multiple animals, each one differently skilled so as to accomplish the variety of stunts the role calls for. (In the 1995 film Babe, for example, the title pig was played by some four dozen porkers.)
Had the Taco Bell dog died while there were still commercials to be made, another Chihuahua would have been set in front of the cameras. Production would barely have slowed.
Yet the dog didn't die; only its role did. The star of Taco Bell's commercials was a female Chihuahua named Gidget. At least as of 2003, Gidget was not only very much alive, but still working at her craft; that year she appeared in the part of Bruiser's mother in Legally Blonde 2. As for freezing in the cargo hold of a plane, while with Taco Bell Gidget flew to commercial shoots first-class with her handlers. The spoken component of the Taco Bell dog's role was the work of voice actor Carlos Alazraqui.
Rumors about the deaths of critters who have become pop culture icons are nothing new. For years we heard that upon completion of the series, Arnold Ziffel, the pig in the television sitcom Green Acres, had been barbequed and served as the entree at the final cast party. We heard the same thing about the pig in Babe.
In 14 Days, Yo Quiero Exposing Florida's Urban Myth.
BeltwayVol
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2005
- Messages
- 1,441
- Likes
- 4
Claim: Dragnet's Sgt. Joe Friday character frequently implored female informants to provide "Just the facts, ma'am."
Origins: Just as it's difficult for anyone who didn't experience the early days of television to realize now that Arthur Godfrey was one of America's premier entertainers during the 1950s, so is it difficult for anyone whose only exposure to the long-running police drama Dragnet is "Nick at Nite" reruns of its late 1960s revival to appreciate how popular and influential a program it was.
Dragnet, acclaimed for its attention to detail and realistic portrayal of the nuts and bolts of police work, was created by its star, Jack Webb. It started out as a radio drama in 1949, made the transition to television in 1951 (and aired in both media simultaneously through 1957), became a feature film in 1954, spawned a revival TV series and made-for-TV movie in 1966, was spoofed in a 1987 movie starring Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks, and was spun off yet again (after Webb's death) as a new syndicated series in 1989.
The popularity and influence of Dragnet is attested to by the number of Dragnet-related items that have become firmly embedded in our pop culture idiom: the distinctive "dum-de-dum-dum" opening four notes of its theme music; the characters' rapid-fire, staccato delivery of dialogue; the somber "The story you are about to hear is true; the names have been changed to protect the innocent" intonation of its prologue; and, of course, Sgt. Joe Friday's famous business-like catch phrase, "Just the facts, ma'am."
Well, about that last item . . .
Our language is replete with famous phrases from historic and literary characters who never uttered the words attributed to them: Marie Antoinette and "Let them eat cake"; Cary Grant and "Judy, Judy, Judy . . ."; Sherlock Holmes and "Elementary, my dear Watson." Sometimes the phrases are made up out of whole cloth (because they sounded like something those people would say), and sometimes they're corruptions or rephrasings of something that actually was said. "Just the facts, ma'am" is a case of the latter.
So popular was Dragnet in its day that satirist Stan Freberg spoofed it on a 1953 record titled "St. George and the Dragonet." This record and its flip side, "Little Blue Riding Hood" (also a Dragnet spoof) were extraordinarily popular as well, hitting the #1 spot on Billboard's pop chart and selling over two million copies; the record's success prompted Ed Sullivan to invite Freberg to perform both sides of the single live on his Talk of the Town variety show.
Jack Webb's 'Joe Friday' character typically used the phrase "All we want are the facts, ma'am" (and sometimes "All we know are the facts ma'am") when questioning women in the course of police investigations. Freberg's "Little Blue Riding Hood" spoof changed the line slightly, and it was Freberg's alteration rather than anything Joe Friday said -- that would enter the roll of immortal catch phrases:
Little Blue Riding Hood: Why Grandma, what big ears you've got!
Sgt. Wednesday: All the better to get the facts. I just want to get the facts, ma'am.
In 13 Days, "Just the Facts" Will Expose Florida's Urban Myth.
Origins: Just as it's difficult for anyone who didn't experience the early days of television to realize now that Arthur Godfrey was one of America's premier entertainers during the 1950s, so is it difficult for anyone whose only exposure to the long-running police drama Dragnet is "Nick at Nite" reruns of its late 1960s revival to appreciate how popular and influential a program it was.
Dragnet, acclaimed for its attention to detail and realistic portrayal of the nuts and bolts of police work, was created by its star, Jack Webb. It started out as a radio drama in 1949, made the transition to television in 1951 (and aired in both media simultaneously through 1957), became a feature film in 1954, spawned a revival TV series and made-for-TV movie in 1966, was spoofed in a 1987 movie starring Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks, and was spun off yet again (after Webb's death) as a new syndicated series in 1989.
The popularity and influence of Dragnet is attested to by the number of Dragnet-related items that have become firmly embedded in our pop culture idiom: the distinctive "dum-de-dum-dum" opening four notes of its theme music; the characters' rapid-fire, staccato delivery of dialogue; the somber "The story you are about to hear is true; the names have been changed to protect the innocent" intonation of its prologue; and, of course, Sgt. Joe Friday's famous business-like catch phrase, "Just the facts, ma'am."
Well, about that last item . . .
Our language is replete with famous phrases from historic and literary characters who never uttered the words attributed to them: Marie Antoinette and "Let them eat cake"; Cary Grant and "Judy, Judy, Judy . . ."; Sherlock Holmes and "Elementary, my dear Watson." Sometimes the phrases are made up out of whole cloth (because they sounded like something those people would say), and sometimes they're corruptions or rephrasings of something that actually was said. "Just the facts, ma'am" is a case of the latter.
So popular was Dragnet in its day that satirist Stan Freberg spoofed it on a 1953 record titled "St. George and the Dragonet." This record and its flip side, "Little Blue Riding Hood" (also a Dragnet spoof) were extraordinarily popular as well, hitting the #1 spot on Billboard's pop chart and selling over two million copies; the record's success prompted Ed Sullivan to invite Freberg to perform both sides of the single live on his Talk of the Town variety show.
Jack Webb's 'Joe Friday' character typically used the phrase "All we want are the facts, ma'am" (and sometimes "All we know are the facts ma'am") when questioning women in the course of police investigations. Freberg's "Little Blue Riding Hood" spoof changed the line slightly, and it was Freberg's alteration rather than anything Joe Friday said -- that would enter the roll of immortal catch phrases:
Little Blue Riding Hood: Why Grandma, what big ears you've got!
Sgt. Wednesday: All the better to get the facts. I just want to get the facts, ma'am.
In 13 Days, "Just the Facts" Will Expose Florida's Urban Myth.
BeltwayVol
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2005
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Claim: KISS bassist Gene Simmons had a cow's tongue grafted onto his own.
Example: [Saxberg, 2000]
When I was in grade school in the mid-'70s, the cool boys at the back of the school bus listened to Kiss. They were 10-year-old bullies in black T-shirts emblazoned with the Kiss logo who spent much of the ride home debating whether Gene Simmons really had a cow tongue grafted to his own tongue.
Origins: As Ottawa Citizen columnist Lynn Saxberg wrote of KISS' origins: From the beginning, Simmons was determined to get attention with his new band. Taking his cues from the glam theatrics of David Bowie and the brash sneer of the New York Dolls, the concept was fiendishly clever: Songs that were as simple and thunderous as an ogre's heartbeat. A stage show that was bigger, louder and more fiery than any other band's. And black-and-silver superhero costumes that created a mystique.
Bassist Simmons (the former schoolteacher) became the notorious ''Demon,'' famous for his rude, waggling tongue and fire- and blood-spewing. Stanley was ''Starchild,'' the swaggering ''Love God'' on lead vocals. Lead guitarist Frehley was ''Space Ace'' from another planet, and drummer Criss was ''The Cat.''
Overnight, it seemed, Kiss was the band that kids loved, and parents, teachers and the moral majority hated. By today's standards -- think Eminem and Marilyn Manson -- the party-all-night manifesto seems harmless, even laughable, but back then it was believed to encourage delinquency, rebellion and other nasty things.
What was not to believe about a band founded as much on outrageousness as on music? Especially one whose stage act featured "Kabuki makeup, tight leathers, codpieces, pyrotechnics and fire-breathing and blood-spitting side show"? The fire-breathing and blood-spitting (the "blood" was reportedly a mixture of melted butter, food coloring, ketchup, eggs, and yogurt) were the province of bassist Gene Simmons -- he of the impossibly long tongue -- about whom no rumor was seemingly too incredible to gain a foothold among KISS's army of pre-pubescent fans. That an oral appendage as long as Simmons' couldn't have been a product of an unaided Mother Nature -- that Simmons must have had at least a little help from a surgeon -- was a tale kids could readily believe, and one Simmons has since described as his favorite KISS rumor.
Even if the state of medical technology back in the 1970s allowed for human-bovine melding, anyone who has checked out a cow's tongue at a deli or grocery store meat counter knows how huge one of those things is. If Gene Simmons had had even a small part of a cow's tongue grafted onto his own, he must have had his mouth enlarged to make room for it at the same time. (Either that or he just started folding it up to keep it in his mouth.)
12 Days Until The Vols Moooooove In On Florida's Urban Myth, and Expose Him.
Example: [Saxberg, 2000]
When I was in grade school in the mid-'70s, the cool boys at the back of the school bus listened to Kiss. They were 10-year-old bullies in black T-shirts emblazoned with the Kiss logo who spent much of the ride home debating whether Gene Simmons really had a cow tongue grafted to his own tongue.
Origins: As Ottawa Citizen columnist Lynn Saxberg wrote of KISS' origins: From the beginning, Simmons was determined to get attention with his new band. Taking his cues from the glam theatrics of David Bowie and the brash sneer of the New York Dolls, the concept was fiendishly clever: Songs that were as simple and thunderous as an ogre's heartbeat. A stage show that was bigger, louder and more fiery than any other band's. And black-and-silver superhero costumes that created a mystique.
Bassist Simmons (the former schoolteacher) became the notorious ''Demon,'' famous for his rude, waggling tongue and fire- and blood-spewing. Stanley was ''Starchild,'' the swaggering ''Love God'' on lead vocals. Lead guitarist Frehley was ''Space Ace'' from another planet, and drummer Criss was ''The Cat.''
Overnight, it seemed, Kiss was the band that kids loved, and parents, teachers and the moral majority hated. By today's standards -- think Eminem and Marilyn Manson -- the party-all-night manifesto seems harmless, even laughable, but back then it was believed to encourage delinquency, rebellion and other nasty things.
What was not to believe about a band founded as much on outrageousness as on music? Especially one whose stage act featured "Kabuki makeup, tight leathers, codpieces, pyrotechnics and fire-breathing and blood-spitting side show"? The fire-breathing and blood-spitting (the "blood" was reportedly a mixture of melted butter, food coloring, ketchup, eggs, and yogurt) were the province of bassist Gene Simmons -- he of the impossibly long tongue -- about whom no rumor was seemingly too incredible to gain a foothold among KISS's army of pre-pubescent fans. That an oral appendage as long as Simmons' couldn't have been a product of an unaided Mother Nature -- that Simmons must have had at least a little help from a surgeon -- was a tale kids could readily believe, and one Simmons has since described as his favorite KISS rumor.
Even if the state of medical technology back in the 1970s allowed for human-bovine melding, anyone who has checked out a cow's tongue at a deli or grocery store meat counter knows how huge one of those things is. If Gene Simmons had had even a small part of a cow's tongue grafted onto his own, he must have had his mouth enlarged to make room for it at the same time. (Either that or he just started folding it up to keep it in his mouth.)
12 Days Until The Vols Moooooove In On Florida's Urban Myth, and Expose Him.
GatorVille
Senior Member
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- Jul 8, 2005
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