Favorite Urban Legends
- Thread starter blunthead
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Dear Urban Legends:
An urban legend that I've heard (most recently by a teacher during a discussion in a high school English class) is that you shouldn't throw rice at weddings, because after the party is over, birds will come and eat it. White rice, being as dehydrated as it is, will immediately begin absorbing water upon entering the moist environment of the bird's body. It will then swell up, and if there is enough of it in there, the bird's body (specifically the crop, where the food first goes to be stored) will burst, killing the poor little critter. Is there any truth to it?
Dear Reader:
No truth to it at all, according to ornithologists, who say rice is perfectly safe for birds to eat. Wild rice is a dietary staple for many birds, after all, as are other grains that expand when they absorb moisture (wheat and barley, for example).
An urban legend that I've heard (most recently by a teacher during a discussion in a high school English class) is that you shouldn't throw rice at weddings, because after the party is over, birds will come and eat it. White rice, being as dehydrated as it is, will immediately begin absorbing water upon entering the moist environment of the bird's body. It will then swell up, and if there is enough of it in there, the bird's body (specifically the crop, where the food first goes to be stored) will burst, killing the poor little critter. Is there any truth to it?
Dear Reader:
No truth to it at all, according to ornithologists, who say rice is perfectly safe for birds to eat. Wild rice is a dietary staple for many birds, after all, as are other grains that expand when they absorb moisture (wheat and barley, for example).
There was an urban legend around Butte, Montana (where I used to live) where it says that sheeps can hear zippers. If you try it on them, you will succeed but the sheep will get you back by making it that someone you love will tragically die soon somehow.
There's this joke...
Q. Why do they sell so many button-fly jeans in Montana?
A. Because the sheep can hear the zippers a mile away.
