Posted May 25th, 2008 by Murray @ ulblog
Filed under: Email Scams, False
Tags: 419 scam, advanced fees fraud, email, nigerian scam, scam
Barry Williams, Supreme Universal Skeptic Of The 12th Magisterial Order [1], has sent in another interesting variant of the infamous Nigerian Scam.
As Barry mentions in his email:
Murray
I despair for the continuing deterioration of literacy among barristers admitted to the bar in the UK.
Barry
I can understand Barry’s emotional distress, since the email asks you to believe that it has been sent by a barrister located in the UK, while simultaneously being pockmarked with a truly impressive variety of misspellings and grammatical errors.
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Footnotes:
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Posted May 24th, 2008 by Murray @ ulblog
Filed under: False, Ghost Stories, Urban Legends, Urban Rituals
Tags: horror, scarelore, supernatural

If you’re a fan of scary stories about the Bloody Mary ritual, you might enjoy resonanttantei’s fun retelling of a group of friends calling on Bloody Mary, and the terrifying results.
You can read the full story at: “Bloody Mary Bloody Mary Bloody Mary….oh crap” (note: language may be a little unsuitable to some in some places).
After a while, we summoned up our courage and went back to school, went into the bathrooms and of course, since I’m the “Legend Tripper” I had to say what we do.
I liked resonanttantei’s idea of being a “Legend Tripper”, and while I don’t know exactly what he intended to convey with the term, I thought it was perhaps meant to be a way of describing someone who’s something of an expert in various legends, but who also may be just a little bit unpredictable with it as well.
Jake being the bravest, looked up and his eyes went BIG. I looked up as well, I gasped and I almost screamed. Cori took her hand and covered mine. “Don’t scream, don’t..” She said to me.
Photograph courtesy of peskymac
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Posted April 25th, 2008 by Murray @ ulblog
Filed under: Folklore, Mythology, Superstitions
Tags: food, fruit
I was leaning against the counter in my kitchen the other day, chomping away at an apple [1], and I got to thinking about apples in folklore and belief.
It may not look like it on the surface, but at its core [2] this is a very big topic. If you think about it, apples have featured in one way or another in a vast body of religion, mythology, superstition, fables and folk wisdom.
I won’t try to tackle all of this in one post, that would be madness. However, over the next little while I hope to put a few articles up on ulblog exploring the interesting world of the apple.
But for now, let’s start with one of the stories that takes place at the beginning of everything.
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Footnotes:| 1. | It was a Pink Lady, in case you’re interested. Pink Ladies have a very tart flavour and are one of my favourite apple varieties. |
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| 2. | Aha ahahahah, bad apple pun intended! …Sorry. |
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Posted April 21st, 2008 by Murray @ ulblog
Filed under: Email Scams, False
Tags: 419 scam, email, email scam, nigerian scam, scam, variant
Okay, so maybe I’m a little odd, but for some reason I can’t help thinking it’s going to be a good day when I discover that someone has forwarded a new variant of an urban legend or superstition or scam email to me.
So, oh yes, imagine my excitement when I discovered two new variants in my inbox this morning! [1]
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Footnotes:| 1. | I didn’t actually jump up and down and clap my hands, if that’s what you’re imagining, but I definitely did smile and also possibly did rub my hands together and say, “Aha! The game’s afoot!”, or something equally silly. |
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Posted April 19th, 2008 by Murray @ ulblog
Filed under: Folklore
Tags: backronyms, folk beliefs, language
So, okay, maybe you can’t really win a gazillion dollars with this bet, but it might be interesting to try with your friends, family and coworkers all the same.
Among other things, it demonstrates how language and folk beliefs develop and intermingle, and also introduces us to a reasonably common culprit in language-related folk beliefs: the backronym.
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