The baby train and other lusty urban legends / Jan Harold Brunvand.

Includes index.

Some can tell 'em, some can't -- 1. Sex and scandal legends : "The baby train" ; "Superhero hijinks" ; "The hairdresser's error" ; "The butcher's prank" ; "The bad bachelorette" ; Photo faux pas and the infamous toothbrush story ; "The shocking videotape" -- 2. Horrors : "Flights of fancy" ; "Mothers' double talk" and other domestic tragedies ; Three sticky situations ; "The accidental cannibals" ; "The exploding bra" ; Exploding airplanes ; "The failed suicide" ; "Psychic videotapes" ; "No news but bad news" ; The Jersey devil ; Mothman, big bird or fantasy? ; "Homey the clown" ; The well to hell ; Drug horror stories -- 3. Crime and punishment : Foiled again! Lessons from folklore ; Annual campus crime-rumor scares ; Crime victims speak, and folklorists listen ; City life ; From the annals of modern crime ; "The body in the bed" ; "The slasher under the car" ; "The colander copier caper" ; Crime and the quake ; "The kidney heist" -- 4. On-the-job legends : Career decisions ; "The bedbug letter" ; Roughneck fishermen throw 'em back ; "The wife on the flight" ; Mistaken identities ; "The technology contest" ; "Give me a high three" ; A dirt-cheap way of selling real estate ; Tales from the greenroom ; The modem tax rumor ; Log-on lingo and other net takes -- 5. Fun and games : "Built in a day" ; Tour guide stories ; Golf stories ; These creative tales age well ; Biker legends ; Generation gap lore moves with the times ; Messin' with jazz -- 6. Foreign relations : Culture clash legends ; Refugees adapt to life Hmong strangers ; British travel troubles ; Good on you, Australians ; Tall tales from the low countries ; Finnish urban legends ; My man in Silesia ; Hold that Taiga tale ; The latest legends from Italy ; Urban legends in Japan -- 7. Animal legends : Sad animal tales, and why there are no cats in Solvay, New York ; Why your pet hates the vet ; "Stupid pet rescues" ; Motown panthers (and others) are hard to trail ; "The hunter's nightmare" ; "The flying cow" ; "The missionaries and the cat" ; "The spider in the cactus" ; "The snake in the greens" and other weird green things -- 8. Academic legends : Back to school legends ; "The obligatory wait" ; Sinking libraries ; Switched campus buildings ; "The dormitory surprise" ; "The gay roommate" ; "The daughter's letter from college" ; Lending a hand at med school ; Lessons in compassion ; Dissertation blues.

America's premiere folk detective is back on the case, sniffing out those zany but dubious stories that "really happened" to a friend of your sister's boyfriend's accountant's mechanic. Jan Harold Brunvand - "Mr. Urban Legend" (Smithsonian) - tracks the most fabulous tales making today's cocktail-party circuit and shows why those stories that sound too good to be true probably are too good to be true. The Baby Train offers a revealing peek behind the story of "The Exploding Bra"; exposes the embarrassing source of "The Hairdresser's Error"; resurrects a "Failed Suicide" Buster Keeton would have died for; and shows why adults are better off not bringing their comic-book fantasies out of the closet. From "Superhero Hijinx" to "The Shocking Videotape" to "The Accidental Cannibal," The Baby Train uncovers the mysteries behind some of the bawdiest, goriest, funniest, most pyrotechnic urban legends yet. The eponymous episode - "The Baby Train"--Sheds light on certain predawn activities that have linked unusually high birth rates to the whim of train schedule-makers. Hottest legend of the year? - undoubtedly "The Toothbrush Story." A couple is robbed while on vacation; the only items not stolen, two toothbrushes and a camera. When the film is developed, they discover ...