Woman spreading AIDS

[Eric Dittman]

I saw on the local news (Dallas) tonight that there was a
letter printed in _Ebony_ magazine from a woman (anonymous)
saying she had AIDS and was trying to spread it to as many
men as she could before she died. They showed one night
club that had the letter posted in the restrooms as a way
of warning patrons. They showed the letter on the news,
and there was nothing in it about writing "Welcome to the
world of AIDS" on the bathroom mirror.
--
Eric Dittman
Texas Instruments - Component Test Facility
dit...@skitzo.csc.ti.com
dit...@skbat.csc.ti.com

Disclaimer: I don't speak for Texas Instruments or the Component Test
Facility. I don't even speak for myself.

[Terry Chan]

Sorry to interrupt the discussion on the physics of radar detection and
the Coriolis effect, but someone asks why "American" and why "urban" legends.
Part of the confusion probably stems from the subtitle of Brunvand's first
book: _The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings_.
As JHB makes clear in _The Mexican Pet_:

"These stories [ULs] (despite the subtitle of my first book) are
not necessarily just *American* folklore. I evidently misled
some readers with the line "American Urban Legends and Their
Meanings." What I meant to say was that most of my examples
were drawn from sources in the United States and analyzed in
terms of American culture. But the urban legend *as a genre*
is not an exclusively American phenomenon."

-- _TMP_, p. 12.

I expect that this may explain some of the confusion regarding the
"American" aspect of it (of course, he could have cleared this up
in _The Choking Doberman_, but what the hell.)

While I have no clear references on who first coined the term "urban
legends", in _The Vanishing Hitchhiker_, JHB writes:

"[In contrast to traditional folklore] Urban legends, on the
contrary, are realistic stories concerning recent events (or
alleged events) with an ironic or supernatural twist. They
are an integral part of white Anglo-American culture and are
told and believed by some of the most sophisticated "folk"
of modern society -- young people, urbanites, and the well
educated."
-- _TVH_, p. xi

From this paragraph, it would appear that the adjective "urban"
conveys a primary institution affecting modern life, the city and
its denizens. While Cindy Kandolf was correct in noting that the
roots of many ULs go back to traditional folklore, the "moderness"
of it all implies their manifestation in current (i.e., "modern")
events and times.

In his references to Anglo-American culture, I wonder if there has
been a subtle shift in JHB's orientation between the publication of
_TVH_ and _TMP_.

Terry "Meanwhile, back on the farm..." Chan
--
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