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Babysitter On Friday nights many parents want to have a little fun together--without the kids. But "getting a sitter"--especially a dependable one--rarely seems trouble-free. Will the kids be safe with "that girl"? It's a question that discomfited parents have been asking ever since the emergence of the modern American teenage girl nearly a century ago. In Babysitter, Miriam Forman-Brunell brings critical attention to the ubiquitous, yet long-overlooked babysitter in the popular imagination and American history. Informed by her research on the history of teenage girls' culture, Forman-Brunell analyzes the babysitter, who has embodied adults' fundamental apprehensions about girls' pursuit of autonomy and empowerment. In fact, the grievances go both ways, as girls have been distressed by unsatisfactory working conditions. In her quest to gain a fuller picture of this largely unexamined cultural phenomenon, Forman-Brunell analyzes a wealth of diverse sources, such as The Baby-sitter's Club book series, horror movies like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, urban legends, magazines, newspapers, television shows, pornography, and more. Forman-Brunell shows that beyond the mundane, understandable apprehensions stirred by hiring a caretaker to "mind the children" in one's own home, babysitters became lightning rods for society's larger fears about gender and generational change. In the end, experts' efforts to tame teenage girls with training courses, handbooks, and other texts failed to prevent generations from turning their backs on babysitting.
Contemporary Legend English-language scholarship has taken the lead in the study of certain kinds of legends―variously dubbed modern horror legends, urban legends, urban myths or, here, contemporary legends, now central to contemporary culture.
Debunked! : Conspiracy Theories, Urban Legends, and Evil Plots of the 21st Century As he did in Urban Legends and Hollywood Urban Legends, and as he has done in dozens of columns for the Chicago Sun-Times over the last decade and a half, Richard Roeper lays out the basics of the conspiracy theory, quotes some of the true believers--and then tears the theory apart with his bare hands. 9/11 was an inside job. Lady Di and JFK Jr. were murdered. Heathens are winning the war on Christmas. American Idol is rigged. Barack Obama is a radical Muslim. The Secret will make you thin. The Virgin Mary is in the grilled cheese. That's what it's like to live inside the mind of the 21st-century conspiracy theorist, who believes that all you have to do is look at the signs and you'll see what's really going on. This book will appeal to the vast majority of readers who possess the common sense gene, as well as the vocal minority who believe they're living in a world in which secret tribunals pull the strings and influence the outcome of everything from terrorist attacks to professional sporting events.
Did You Hear about the Girl Who ... ? Ever hear the one about the man who wakes up after a chance sexual encounter to discover he's been involuntarily relieved of one of his kidneys? Or the tiny gift-wrapped box from a recently departed lover that reveals a horrible secret? Everyone knows contemporary legends, those barely believable, often lurid, cautionary tales, always told as though they happened to the friend of a friend. Sometimes we pass them on to others unsure of their truthfulness, usually we dismiss them as mere myth. But these far-fetched legends tell us quite a bit about our deepest fears and fantasies. In fact, a large part of what we know about our bodies we have learned informally, from kids on the playground or colleagues at work, from piecing together the information contained in folk beliefs, jokes and legends. Sexual folklore goes beyond classroom lessons of mechanics to answer many questions about what people actually do and how they do it. Mariamne H. Whatley and Elissa R. Henken have collected hundreds of sexually-themed stories and jokes from college students in order to tell us what they reveal about our sexual attitudes and show us how they have changed over time. They confront myths and stereotypes about sexual behavior and use folklore as a tool to educate students about sexual health and gender relations. Whether analyzing popular rumors about celebrity emergency room visits or the latest schoolyard jokes, Did You Hear About The Girl Who . . . ? presents these tales in a way that is intriguing and educational.
Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing documents the thriving folklore tradition that circulates in the workplace. Alan Dundes and Carl Pagter have collected more than two hundred and fifty "signs of the times"?the office memoranda, parodies, cartoons, and poems that daily make their way through copy machines, interoffice mail systems, and fax machines and are affixed to bulletin boards and water coolers. The rich vein of urban folklore tapped by this imaginative volume constitutes a great testament to one of the world's most prolific authors?anonymous. The popularity of the items featured in this timely book is apparent by their reproduction in mass or popular cultural form?as greeting cards, plaques, and bumper stickers?reminding us of the inevitable interplay between folklore and mass culture. Dundes and Pagter clearly demonstrate the existence of folklore in the modern urban technological world and refute the notion that folklore reflects only the past.
Phantom Hitchhikers and Other Urban Legends Have you heard the one about... * Walt Disney's frozen body? * Coca-Cola owning Santa Claus? * Alligators living in New York City sewers? We all love a good story. But where do the urban legends, conspiracy theories, and old wives' tales we hear every day really originate? Albert Jack explores the best, strangest, and funniest of the tales so many of us take as gospel, and uncovers some eye-popping true stories that are even more far-fetched than their mythical counterparts. From Robin Hood to JFK's brain, from hamsters under carpets to mysterious travelers, you'll never be short of a scary or bizarre anecdote again.
Urban Legends : The Truth Behind All Those Deliciously Entertaining Myths That Are Absolutely, Positively, 100% Not True! Recounts dozens of stories that have become part of contemporary folklore even though they have no basis in fact, and reveals the truth behind each legend.

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The Choking Doberman: And Other Urban Legends Professor Jan Harold Brunvand expands his examination of the phenomenon of urban legends, those improbable, believable stories that always happen to a friend of a friend.
Curses! Broiled Again! The Hottest Urban Legends Going Did your cousin's wife's dentist's daughter go to the tanning parlor once too often and had her insides cooked? Has your husband's brother's nephew teacher try to make a dead rabbit look alive? If so, you've heard--or you yourself may have told--two of the seventy-plus legends in this collection. Urban legends are "those bizarre but believable stories about batter-fried rats, spiders in hairdos, Cabbage Patch dolls that get funerals, and the like that pass by word of mouth as being the gospel truth." But of course, though often told as having happened to a FOAF (friend of a friend), they aren't true. Included in this collection are legends about sex, horror, cars, business, and academia. Among them are "The Bible Student's Exam," "The Pregnant Shoplifter," "The Ice Cream Cone Caper," "Don't Mess with Texas," and "Mrs. Fields' Cookie Recipe."
Encyclopedia of Urban Legends This exhaustive and compellingly readable reference work offers alphabetical entries on every aspect of the subject, including descriptions of hundreds of individual legends and their variations, legend themes, and scholarly approaches to the genre. Other entries discuss the relationship of urban legends to literature, film, comic books, music, and many other areas of popular culture. Coverage includes academic legends, earthquake stories, Internet resources, tabloids in urban legends, and more. All entries are cross referenced and feature brief bibliographies. A general bibliography suggests further readings on the subject. The volume is richly illustrated and is based on the latest scholarship, including materials available on the Internet. * A-Z entries provide a summary of each legend and its background * An introduction defines "urban legend" and sketches the history of urban legend studies * The book is richly illustrated with artwork by Randy Hickman * Brief bibliographies follow each entry, and a selected bibliography provides suggestions for further reading and research
The Mexican Pet: More "New" Urban Legends and Some Old Favorites "[The book] captures the spirit of convivial storytelling and even encourages the activity. . . . Many readers . . . will be gratified to know that Brunvand intends to continue this series of relaxed, unofficial excursions into popular legends. Admirers of curiosa and the psychology of crowds cannot afford to miss them." -Kirkus Reviews
Too Good to Be True: the colossal book of urban legends A fabulously entertaining book from the ultimate authority on those almost believable tales that always happen to a "friend of a friend." Alligators in the sewers? A pet in the microwave? A tragic misunderstanding of the function of cruise control? No, it didn't really happen to your friend's sister's neighbor: it's an urban legend. And no matter how savvy you think you are, you are sure to find in this collection of over 200 tales at least one story you would have sworn was true.
Urban Legends: the as-complete-as-one-could-be guide to modern myths Urban Legendsis a remarkably complete collection of the modern myths that make the rounds in offices, college dorms, and every other place where people tell the stories that spring from our deepest fears and fascinations. Every culture has its folktales including ours. Except, instead of involving gods and goddesses or princes and princesses, ours involve "some guy my sister's best friend knows" or "someone who woke up in a motel room." They happened, supposedly, to real people, usually recently, in a particular place. And they touch the most sensitive nerves of our psyches with ironic twists, gross-out shocks, and moral lessons learned the hard way. From the classic tale "The Mexican Pet" in which the "dog" turns out to be no Chihuahua to the more unappetizing story of condoms as fast-food burger garnish, from surgically skilled kidney thieves to sexual experiments that end in the emergency room,Urban Legendsrelates more 300 of the most enticing, macabre, and unforgettable tales. Expertly told, they are arranged in such chapters as "Crazy Little Thang Called Sex," "Oh, Scare Me," "Campus Capers," "Corporate Convolutions," and "So Much For Comfort Food." Fascinating, chilling, and occasionally repulsive,Urban Legendshas all your favorites and hundreds more.
The Truth Never Stands in Way of a Good Story In this lively and engaging book, the nation's foremost expert on urban legends explores the spontaneous germination of these bizarre yet plausible narratives that play on the absurdities and prey on the fears of modern life. Through voluminous correspondence from readers of his books and syndicated newspaper column, Jan Harold Brunvand has become something of a clearinghouse for evolving versions of urban legends. Here he looks in detail at a dozen rampant and long-lived examples of this vigorous category of contemporary folklore, tracing their histories, variations, sources, and meanings. Brunvand tracks the various permutations of such legends as "The Red Velvet Cake", "The Brain Drain", and "The Baby Roast". He points out their common elements -- notably, their insistence on the truth of the story and their attribution to a "friend of a friend". His son Erik Brunvand, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Utah, contributes his own view of computer hacker legends traded across the Internet. The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story pins down the qualities that give urban legends their air of authenticity and make them hard to believe yet impossible to dismiss. For those interested in popular culture and current events as well as those wary of being taken in by false information, Brunvand's book reinforces his most basic piece of advice: "Don't believe everything you hear".