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Urban legends
UT tales, rumors haunt campus; folklore shared among students
By Vanessa Orr
For those unfamiliar with this urban legend, the details of the student discovering the crime make the story memorable. The student is surprised to awaken in a bathtub full of ice, and he can't remember the night before. He is worried about the lipstick (or sticky note, depending on the storyteller) on his chest that warns him to immediately call 911. After a few lines of dialogue with the emergency operator and a telling look in the mirror, a quick deduction is made. His kidneys have been stolen by professional kidney thieves. Different versions of the kidney-thief story circulate the Internet, but the popular college version of the tale is set at the University of Texas in the mid '90s. Part of the legend also suggests that UT medical students are behind the crime. But UT-Austin doesn't have a medical school, although the UT System has a medical branch. Other versions of the urban legend include references to The Daily Texan, implying the location of the tale is Austin. A telling Daily Texan editorial dated December 9, 1996 dispells claims that The Daily Texan even reported the story. The editorial begins by announcing, "The Texan has been receiving substantial amounts of e-mail lately regarding a story that allegedly came from our pages." After describing the story and its flaws, the editorial says that "Several versions of this story attribute it to a woman the writers call the editor of The Texan." According to the paper, this woman has never been a Texan editor. Web sites like www.snopes.com and www.thefolklorist.com piece together what this editorial is talking about. A woman named Kimm Antell worked as an administrative assistant in the mechanical engineering department in 1996. When she supposedly forwarded the e-mail detailing the generic version of this college partying tragedy, she forgot to remove her official signature. According to legend, the details were apparently changed, and Antell was labeled as The Daily Texan editor. Not all of UT's urban legends are the stuff of teen slasher movies, though. Many of the urban legends that haunt the UT campus only hide a more interesting story that UT historian Jim Nicar is happy to tell. The Texan strives to present all information fairly, accurately and completely.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Tisha
posted 4/06/07 @ 10:40 AM CST
"The Shining" didn't feature a house--it was a hotel in the mountains of Colorado, based on the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo., where Stephen King wrote the novel. (Continued…)
Kimm Antell
posted 4/10/07 @ 10:39 PM CST
It also didn't help that I was a cartoonist at The Daily Texas, but such is life.
Seriously though, the year while the kidney story was spreading faster than mayonnaise on Elizabeth Taylor's mid-morning snack, I lived my own personal hell. (Continued…)
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