Post by Xombie on Sept 28, 2006 13:48:27 GMT -5
These are not my own storys they are ones collected across the internet and they are myths and wives' tales. Enjoy! 
The Messenger(undecided)[/b][/color]
Legend: A wild bird flying into one's house is a portent of ill luck, possibly even death.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2001]
I will post moer as I find them. Some of them might be true and others might not be. If they are not true you will see "(not true)" next to it.
Not normally a superstitious person but recent happenings at my father's house have me worried. Have heard the superstition that a bird flying into the house portends death. But what about a bird that constantly crashes into a closed window in a vain attempt to force itself into the house? For several days in a row now, a robin has repeatedly thrashed it's body against my father's window and it will not stop! My father is very ill and about to undergo a risky surgery. Could this be an omen that his death is near?
Origins: Most superstitions came into being during a time when what made the world tick was far more of a mystery than it is now. Our ancestors were quick to assign subtexts to events as one of the ways they tried to make sense of an existence that appeared frighteningly capricious and unpredictable. All manner of occurrences, both the mundane and the unusual, were subject to scrutiny and interpretation.
Everyday things, such as the way fires burned or candles sputtered, were studied for their portents. But it was to out-of-the-ordinary events that special attention was paid, because these were believed to foretell the greatest shifts of fortune. Unusual incidents were understood as urgent messages falling directly from the lips of the gods.
Strange behavior on the part of animals was cause for concern. A hen that took to crowing, for instance, heralded a death in the owner's family, as did the sudden howling of otherwise placid dogs or the midday crowing of a rooster. Wild birds that tried to get inside houses (whether they succeeded or not) were also seen as presaging deaths. A bird that flew in through an open window, circled the room or landed on the back of someone's chair, then flew back out was saying as clearly as an omen can that someone who lived in that dwelling was about to clutch the lily. Birds that hit glass windows were likewise trying to provide the same message, as did those who sat upon sills peering into rooms or tapping on the glass. Some placed no time limit on when the death was to take place; others said it would happen within the year.
Because of this superstition, some folks will not even keep a pet bird, not so much as a budgie or canary. And there are those whose aversion to indoor avians runs so strong that they eschew pictures of our feathered friends, even representations of them on wallpaper. One of those persons was Lucille Ball, who dated her antipathy to birds to the 1915 death of her father when she was three years old — she recalled that a picture fell from the wall that fateful day, and a bird flew in the window to become trapped inside the house. Even as an adult, the comedienne would refuse to take lodgings in any hotel that displayed pictures of birds, either framed or incorporated into their wallpaper. She was no less particular about her home — in the 1950s she had Japanese silk print wallpaper that went for $90 a roll ripped out of the front hallway of her Beverly Hills home because only after the paper was up did it become apparent the shadowy images of birds were part of its pattern.
One of the older superstition books we consulted stated that interior decorators knew better than to suggest wallpaper with little birdies on it simply because this belief was then so widespread.
Not everyone holds the opinion that having birds fly into the house is bad news. Our cats, for instance, view such incursions as having their prayers answered.
[/b]
Hell found in center of earth??? (not true)
Geologists working somewhere in remote Siberia had drilled a hole some 14.4 kilometers deep (about 9 miles) when the drill bit suddenly began to rotate wildly. A Mr. Azzacov (identified as the project's manager) was quoted as saying they decided that the center of the earth was hollow.
Supposedly, the geologists measured temperatures of over 2,000 degrees in the deep hole. They lowered super sensitive microphones to the bottom of the well, and to their astonishment they heard the sounds of thousands, perhaps millions, of suffering souls screaming.
Origins: This
legend is quite popular among Christian groups as it "proves" Hell (and therefore God) exists. Popular endings to the story have it that the scientists ran screaming from the site, or that since the discovery conversions to Christianity are occurring at an unprecedented rate.
If there is a Hell under Siberia, scientists have yet to discover it. What we have here is an enthralling legend that's been spun off an actual event.
In 1984, an article about an experimental well in Russia's Kola Peninsula appeared in Scientific American. The Kola well reached 12 kilometers into the ground, where scientists encountered rare rock formations, flows of gas and water, and temperatures up to 180°. (That's 180°, folks, not the 2,000° usually reported in any "Scientists Discover Hell!" screed. It was hot, but it wasn't hellishly so.)
Those who did the actual drilling of this very real well did not break through to a hollow centre, and certainly no piteous screams of the d**ned were heard. That part — all of it — was pure embellishment added after this real event was turned into a legend. (Yes, we know that any number of web sites offer audio clips purporting to be the screams of the d**ned as recorded in the Well to Hell, and all of them sound like they could be the noise from a typical bar on a busy Friday evening.)
The report on the digging of that well and the difficulties encountered during the project were collided with someone's vision of what should have been found down there. A little exaggerating about depth and temperature, some fabrication about hollow centres and screams, and all of a sudden there was this great story to throw back at those who claim there is no God.
Though it's impossible to pinpoint when the news story about a well in Russia transformed into a story about scientists breaking into Hell or who was responsible for that transformation, we do know that in 1989 the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) aired a "Scientists Discover Hell" story and placed the event as happening in the Kola Peninsula. A Norwegian schoolteacher visiting California heard that broadcast and took the story back to Norway with him. He then mailed it to a Christian magazine in Finland. In the form of a letter from a reader, it reached a Finnish missionaries newsletter. From there it returned to the United States, reaching both the TBN people and other evangelists who then claimed they had gotten it from a respected Finnish scientific journal.
In the spring of 1990, the legend as we now know it appeared in both Praise The Lord (February) and Midnight Cry (April). Debunkings of it showed up in Christianity Today (July) and Biblical Archaeology Review (November). Even so, the Weekly World News ran the story in 1992, this time setting it in Alaska and claiming thirteen oil rig workers were killed when the Devil came roaring up out of the ground.
You can't beat that for embellishment.
Barbara "just a sthingyful of auger helps the 'men has sinned' go down" Mikkelson
The Messenger(undecided)[/b][/color]
Legend: A wild bird flying into one's house is a portent of ill luck, possibly even death.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2001]
I will post moer as I find them. Some of them might be true and others might not be. If they are not true you will see "(not true)" next to it.
Not normally a superstitious person but recent happenings at my father's house have me worried. Have heard the superstition that a bird flying into the house portends death. But what about a bird that constantly crashes into a closed window in a vain attempt to force itself into the house? For several days in a row now, a robin has repeatedly thrashed it's body against my father's window and it will not stop! My father is very ill and about to undergo a risky surgery. Could this be an omen that his death is near?
Origins: Most superstitions came into being during a time when what made the world tick was far more of a mystery than it is now. Our ancestors were quick to assign subtexts to events as one of the ways they tried to make sense of an existence that appeared frighteningly capricious and unpredictable. All manner of occurrences, both the mundane and the unusual, were subject to scrutiny and interpretation.
Everyday things, such as the way fires burned or candles sputtered, were studied for their portents. But it was to out-of-the-ordinary events that special attention was paid, because these were believed to foretell the greatest shifts of fortune. Unusual incidents were understood as urgent messages falling directly from the lips of the gods.
Strange behavior on the part of animals was cause for concern. A hen that took to crowing, for instance, heralded a death in the owner's family, as did the sudden howling of otherwise placid dogs or the midday crowing of a rooster. Wild birds that tried to get inside houses (whether they succeeded or not) were also seen as presaging deaths. A bird that flew in through an open window, circled the room or landed on the back of someone's chair, then flew back out was saying as clearly as an omen can that someone who lived in that dwelling was about to clutch the lily. Birds that hit glass windows were likewise trying to provide the same message, as did those who sat upon sills peering into rooms or tapping on the glass. Some placed no time limit on when the death was to take place; others said it would happen within the year.
Because of this superstition, some folks will not even keep a pet bird, not so much as a budgie or canary. And there are those whose aversion to indoor avians runs so strong that they eschew pictures of our feathered friends, even representations of them on wallpaper. One of those persons was Lucille Ball, who dated her antipathy to birds to the 1915 death of her father when she was three years old — she recalled that a picture fell from the wall that fateful day, and a bird flew in the window to become trapped inside the house. Even as an adult, the comedienne would refuse to take lodgings in any hotel that displayed pictures of birds, either framed or incorporated into their wallpaper. She was no less particular about her home — in the 1950s she had Japanese silk print wallpaper that went for $90 a roll ripped out of the front hallway of her Beverly Hills home because only after the paper was up did it become apparent the shadowy images of birds were part of its pattern.
One of the older superstition books we consulted stated that interior decorators knew better than to suggest wallpaper with little birdies on it simply because this belief was then so widespread.
Not everyone holds the opinion that having birds fly into the house is bad news. Our cats, for instance, view such incursions as having their prayers answered.
[/b]
Hell found in center of earth??? (not true)
Geologists working somewhere in remote Siberia had drilled a hole some 14.4 kilometers deep (about 9 miles) when the drill bit suddenly began to rotate wildly. A Mr. Azzacov (identified as the project's manager) was quoted as saying they decided that the center of the earth was hollow.
Supposedly, the geologists measured temperatures of over 2,000 degrees in the deep hole. They lowered super sensitive microphones to the bottom of the well, and to their astonishment they heard the sounds of thousands, perhaps millions, of suffering souls screaming.
Origins: This
legend is quite popular among Christian groups as it "proves" Hell (and therefore God) exists. Popular endings to the story have it that the scientists ran screaming from the site, or that since the discovery conversions to Christianity are occurring at an unprecedented rate.
If there is a Hell under Siberia, scientists have yet to discover it. What we have here is an enthralling legend that's been spun off an actual event.
In 1984, an article about an experimental well in Russia's Kola Peninsula appeared in Scientific American. The Kola well reached 12 kilometers into the ground, where scientists encountered rare rock formations, flows of gas and water, and temperatures up to 180°. (That's 180°, folks, not the 2,000° usually reported in any "Scientists Discover Hell!" screed. It was hot, but it wasn't hellishly so.)
Those who did the actual drilling of this very real well did not break through to a hollow centre, and certainly no piteous screams of the d**ned were heard. That part — all of it — was pure embellishment added after this real event was turned into a legend. (Yes, we know that any number of web sites offer audio clips purporting to be the screams of the d**ned as recorded in the Well to Hell, and all of them sound like they could be the noise from a typical bar on a busy Friday evening.)
The report on the digging of that well and the difficulties encountered during the project were collided with someone's vision of what should have been found down there. A little exaggerating about depth and temperature, some fabrication about hollow centres and screams, and all of a sudden there was this great story to throw back at those who claim there is no God.
Though it's impossible to pinpoint when the news story about a well in Russia transformed into a story about scientists breaking into Hell or who was responsible for that transformation, we do know that in 1989 the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) aired a "Scientists Discover Hell" story and placed the event as happening in the Kola Peninsula. A Norwegian schoolteacher visiting California heard that broadcast and took the story back to Norway with him. He then mailed it to a Christian magazine in Finland. In the form of a letter from a reader, it reached a Finnish missionaries newsletter. From there it returned to the United States, reaching both the TBN people and other evangelists who then claimed they had gotten it from a respected Finnish scientific journal.
In the spring of 1990, the legend as we now know it appeared in both Praise The Lord (February) and Midnight Cry (April). Debunkings of it showed up in Christianity Today (July) and Biblical Archaeology Review (November). Even so, the Weekly World News ran the story in 1992, this time setting it in Alaska and claiming thirteen oil rig workers were killed when the Devil came roaring up out of the ground.
You can't beat that for embellishment.
Barbara "just a sthingyful of auger helps the 'men has sinned' go down" Mikkelson
