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nancy@nancykeane.com
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Holt, David, and Bill Mooney.
SPIDERS IN THE HAIRDO : MODERN
URBAN LEGENDS
Little Rock, Ark : August
House, 1999.
IL YA
ISBN 0874835259
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you ever heard the story about the family that purchased some fried chicken
from a fast food restuarant? One piece was really tough. And upon
closer inspection, they discovered that instead of Southern-fried chicken,
they had Southern-fried rat? Or how about the story of the babysitter
who kept getting prank calls where the caller told her he was upstairs
with the children waiting for her? Well she didn't believe him because
she knew there was no telephone upstairs, but she decided to call the police
and have the number traced. So after he called again, the police
called her after he'd hung up to tell her to get out of the house immediately
because the call was indeed coming from that house! She later found
out that the family she was babysitting for had recently installed a new
telephone in the study upstairs. When the police arrived, they caught
an escaped convict trying to flee from an upstairs window. Luckily,
the girl and the children were unharmed. Are these stories fact or
fiction? No one really knows because they are what's known as Urban
Legends. Urban Legends are stories that are told and retold, but
never by the person they supposedly happened to. They have usually
happened to a friend of a friend, or the storyteller's aunt's neighbor's,
boss's daughter. They're usually shared in conversations, found in
newspapers, heard on television and radio shows, and are now passed along
as warnings in emails. Some have even turned up as plots in television
shows or movies. Some are funny, some are really gruesome, even downright
gross! For the most part, nobody really knows where they came from
or how they got started or how long they've been going on. Some like
the story of "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" have been around for centuries.
"Spiders in the Hairdo" is a collection of authors David Holt and Bill
Mooney's favorite urban legends. They are sure to make you laugh,
cringe and gasp in disbelief! And when you're all done reading them,
don't forget to pass them on... (Virginia Wright, wrightvi@oplin.lib.oh.us
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| Non fiction |
SUBJECTS:
Legends -- United States.
United States -- Social life and customs. |
© 
Permission is granted for the
noncommercial duplication and use of this resource, provided it is substantially
unchanged from its present form and appropriate credit is given.
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