Uh, no. Not if the person telling them is lying.
Yes, but I have no kidneys! I woke up just this morning in a bath tub full of ice beside the microwave that my dog blew up in! Not to mention last night, when I went to visit the poor boy with a burlap bag for a body.
It’s all true, I swear!
you have NO kidneys?!?!?!?!dont tell me that they got you AGAIN!?!?!?!?
Yeah, it’s the third time they’ve taken one of his kidneys.
Nope. A former girlfriend I was living with told us an obvious urban legend (girl renting cheap wonderful appartment-wake up during the night-see old woman lying on the bed beside her-leave frightened-speak with neighbor-neighbor tell previous renter was old woman who died in the appartment-girl look at pictures-recognize old woman-leave cheap wonderful appartment) as having happened to someone she personnally knew and at a time she knew her (supposedly, she (my gf) could have taken over the appartment but of course didn’t after what happened to her friend).
Depending on their imagination, people can embellish a story they heard by stating it happened to a friend of a friend, or to a friend, or to themselves.
By the way, I’ve been blessed with the chance to witness the birth of an urban legend. When I was a teen, I found myself in a very frightening situation, which could pass for bad scenario for a teen hooror movie. I told it once on this board, so I’m not going into the details. Briefly, I spend a night with a friend of mine in an old house in a deserted village, and all the night long we heard ghost-like moanings down the house (and barricked ourselves in a bedroom).
Of course, I recounted this story many times to many friends. Once, during a gathering, a friend-of-a-friend retold the story (he knew me but didn’t know I was one of the main characters, and had heard the story from a friend of mine). I wasn’t present but I had the complete rehearsal during the same evening. Some “minor” elements have been changed, like :
-We tried to call our parents but the phone was mysteriously not working (I’ve no clue whether the phone worked or not, since there was no way we would have left the bedroom to reach the phone)
-Apart from the moanings, we’ve heard many strange noises pointing at a “renactment” of some dreadful event (If there has been more than moanings, we would probably have died from terror)
-After the event, the parents found out that the house was used to be a highroad tavern a couple of century ago (mosty true, but unfortunately for our mental health we already knew that during the night) and found an old article recounting a murder which has occured in said tavern (since my friend’s father gave us later a recent article about an unrelated story concerning a haunted bell-tower in which moanings would have been heard, and since I’ve often stated what kind of dreadful events my vivid teenager imagination was considering during this night, I’m not sure whether he entirely made up this part, or just mixed up some elements and fixed them)
That was the state of the story after being recounted three times (by me, then by a friend to this guy, then by the guy). I’m pretty certain that if the tale were to be recounted some more times and were to come back to me, it would include puddle of blood appearing on the floor, young guys invoking spirits for fun, a desperate call to their parents by teenagers found dead on the following morning, or somesuch, and that I wouldn’t even recognize it.
I noticed this trend on Usenet about 8 years ago. People began telling ULs both 2nd and 1st hand. And they got really mad when called on it. “My brother really did pay ‘two fifty’ for a cookie recipe” and “I really did see designer X say he supported the Klan on Oprah.” You could point them to the a.f.u FAQ but they remained insistent.
Basically, I think these people are disturbed but not really aware of it. Once the Internet became accessible to more fringe people, they found their forum. Leave them alone. You can’t cure mental problems over the 'Net.
That’s third hand. It always happened to “a friend of a friend”. If your former GF had said that it happened to her, personally, then that would be second-hand, to you (and third-hand for us).
That’s third hand. It always happened to “a friend of a friend”. If your former GF had said that it happened to her, personally, then that would be second-hand, to you (and third-hand for us).
No, that would be first-hand to him.
‘It happened to me’ == First Hand
‘It happened to a friend’ == Second Hand
‘It happened to a friend of a friend’ == Third Hand
Um, wait; I don’t think so. Substitute girlfriend for friend:
‘It happened to me’ == First Hand
‘It happened to my girlfriend’ == Second Hand
‘It happened to my girlfriend’s friend’ == Third Hand
Here’s the confusing part: if it happened to your girlfriend, that would be second hand, but third person.
(Originally posted by Chronos) If your former GF had said that it happened to her, personally, then that would be second-hand, to you
Tengu: No, that would be first-hand to him.
‘It happened to me’ == First Hand
‘It happened to a friend’ == Second Hand
‘It happened to a friend of a friend’ == Third Hand
You don’t seem to understand your own definitions. First-hand doesn’t mean someone TELLS you “it happened to me,” it means it happened to YOU and you are the one who can SAY “it happened to me.”
In the above example, it didn’t happen to him, so it is NOT first-hand to him.
IF it had happened to his girlfriend, it would be first-hand to her, and if she told him directly, it would be second-hand to him (what Chronos said, which is correct).
I may owe Tengu an apology. After self-righteously composing my response above, I got to thinking. It occurs to me that we usually use these terms (first-hand, etc.) in talking about information, not experience.
So if it had happened to clairobscur’s girlfriend, and she told him, he was getting first-hand information from her. If he then tells someone else, that person is getting second-hand info.