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The other day, my wife and I visited a Best Buy store in the Chicagoland area and were pleasantly surprised. As we were checking out, the young cashier went out of her way to wish us both a very merry Christmas. My wife and I were taken aback by the young lady's obvious enjoyment in extending her greeting, to the point it was a topic of conversation as we left the store. Shortly afterward, I received an e-mail sent out by an individual who was supporting a boycott of Best Buy. The individual was forwarding an e-mail he had received...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend <% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version July 21, 2004, 8:30 a.m. Where Urban Legends FallSnopes.com, the ultimate debunker. Many people have attacked Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 by now; my favorite description comes from Christopher Hitchens, who called it "a load of nauseating, boring rubbish from start to finish." But long before the familiar pundits began touring the Michael Moore media circuit, urban-legend debunkers Barbara and David Mikkelson, of the indispensable Snopes.com, were on the case. The husband-and-wife team are not professional folklorists. She describes herself as "just a housewife;" he's a...

From a liberal in my circle, I have rec'd a supposed copy of an emailed letter from a highly disgruntled US officer in the 82nd in Fadjullah. This soldier is supposedly a University of Texas law student. The letter may be authentic, but has some serious bogus aroma to it... I can post the letter, with the guy's name. I'm wondering if someone out in chat can lead me to find out if it is the genuine article, or a canned "urban legend" type of thing sent out over the internet. As it was sent by a liberal in a...

The uncertain times after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have given rise to all sorts of rumors. E-mails have circulated about malls that will be attacked on Halloween, about Osama bin Laden being spotted in Utah and Oliver North having warned about bin Laden at the Iran-Contra hearings in 1987. None of these turned out to be true and quickly were debunked on Internet sites devoted to "urban legends." The most prominent of these is Snopes.com, a Website started in 1995 as a hobby by David and Barbara Mikkelson, respectively a Web programmer and housewife in the Los Angeles area....