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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 
Have 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 )
Non fiction SUBJECTS:     Legends -- United States.
                        United States -- Social life and customs.

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