Truth Or Scare

Urban legends. These spoken myths have been around for as long as I can remember. And since the popularity of the Internet took hold back in the 1990s, it seems like they have managed to grow exponentially. Over the past few years, my repair clients have made a point out of calling me in a panic with deep concern for some of these little beauties. See, to this very day, urban legends are still making their rounds via e-mail - even the ones we thought died out back in the ’90s.

The challenge as I see it, is to empower our clients, co-workers and even our families, with the ability to put their minds at ease. So with this in mind, I have made it a mission to locate some Web sites that I felt hold a fair chance of shedding some light on the circulating myths that wander from inbox to inbox.

After some research, I came to the conclusion that About.com seems to have a pretty fair-sized database that might be of real benefit to those needing to know what is real and what is bull. With neat little categories setup for us, I would challenge you to find an e-mail-sent urban legend that has not yet been included on its site.

Oh, for those of you curious about my two favorite ‘finds’ from the About.com resource… they would have to be the missing gnome and snake found inside the computer. I have a few other favs as well, but they are not really appropriate for inclusion with this article (wink).