In Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell describes his experiences working in the kitchens of various down-market restaurants. He wrote something to the effect of “all those tales you hear about cooks spitting (or worse) in your food if you’re offensive, are probably true”.
Actually, after reading that book, the inclination to dine out diminishes, even if he is describing a different place and time.
Well, it’s true that I’m only speaking anecdotally, based on 15 years as a everything from a dish washer to a chef. So I can only say that I’ve never done it nor have i seen it done nor met anyone who said they saw it or did it themselves.
I’m a martial arts instructor - Taekwondo, specifically.
One of the enduring legends is the Dim Mak - the delayed death touch. Touch someone and use your awesome mental powers, and hours later he dies in agony while you have a perfect alibi.
Medieval / Renaissance English specialist speaking:
‘Ring Around The Rosie’ does not refer to the Black Plague in any way, shape, or form. Really. I promise.
Physics grad student checking in. Yeah, sorry about that whole cold fusion thing. Our bad.
I’ve never done it either, but I always figured it can’t hurt to let people wonder … 
I’m a biology student.
We always hear about the guy who got his big expensive tree corer stuck in a tree. So he cut it down to get the corer out, and then discovered that he’d cut down the oldest tree in the world :smack:
Not to mention the:
“He has to register his hands as deadly weapons” UL
Biologist here-
Small research lab wants to study a particular (nonpathogenic) virus and calls high-powered research lab using that virus to get a sample. The high-power lab refuses to share a sample of the virus.
The small lab requests a letter from them (this is a pre-email UL) explaining why they can’t use the virus. When the letter arrives from the hig- powered research lab, small lab cuts the letter up and mixes it with the host cell type for the virus they wanted (viruses will only grow inside a host cell and are generally picky about which cell type). Because viruses are so small, they tend to get everywhere and have covered the letter. They mix it with the right host cell and allow to grow.
Poof! Small lab has their sample!
This UL was even applied to the lab involved in isolating HIV.
IvoryTowerDenizen, I don’t doubt that the story you’ve related has gone around. But the combination of stupid and clever that the listener has to accept at the same time boggles my mind.
(Starts babbling incoherently - wonders if anyone will notice)
But “Sing a Song of Sixpence” is *totally *about pirates.
[Eddie Izzard]
No, it isn’t.
[/Eddie Izzard]
It’s agreat story to share with first year grad students over a bottle or two of beer and see how long they believe it… 
That’s such bullshit. In fact, some guy at work tried that very move on me earlier today and I dojkj,js,jjkkkk…
snrk!
I never understood how exactly that worked. Did random pirates just wander around the docks and taverns singing nursery rhymes and giving each other very significant looks or what?
Same with a former roommate of mine in C Company, fall of 1974, at the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey, in California. Except she wasn’t hospitalized, just couldn’t wear certain parts of the uniform, and thus was punished.
The Cigars one is a country song by Brad Paisley, if I’m not mistaken. Not sayin’ he made it up or anything.
There are new rumors about stuff you can get for forwarding an email and viruses all the time.
From my previous field of astronomy:
The Coriolis force has something to do with which way water spins as it goes down toilets and drains. They drain in opposite directions in the northern and southern hemispheres.
You can only stand an egg on end during the vernal equinox (never the autumnal equinox, for some reason)
We know of some upcoming calamity (the sun is going to explode, a comet is going to hit the earth, or a planet-dissolving dust cloud is coming to wipe out the solar system, or some such) and there is a conspiracy among all the astronomers in the world to cover this up.
Mars is going to look as big as the full moon sometime soon.
I’ve heard both equinoxes. I even remember being given some eggs to stand up on the equinox in elementary school. We were able to do it, thus “proving” that it was true. Of course, we didn’t bother to try the next day.
Apparently my third-grade teacher wasn’t real big on the scientific method.
