Urban Legends and Modern Myths are those stories we have all grown up with. The stories that resurface every now and then with a different or new twist. Occasionally we are treated to a new and original one. Every country, every culture, every society have their own.

Did you hear the urban legend about the exploding whale?
It was a big whale...
It was a smelly whale...
Most importantly, it was a dead whale.
No wait.. that one is a true story. Hold on, an exploding whale? That's right, an exploding whale. Just ask TV reporter Paul Linnman. He was there:
"The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds." (Paul Linnman TV report)

Just how does a whale explode and why? Have a look at the news footage. www.hackstadt.com/features/whale

That's the rub with urban legends and modern myths. They are supposed to be just that: legends and myths. Problem is, sometimes they turn out to be true as the whale story demonstrates. Someone once said that truth is stranger than fiction. Perhaps this philosophy is what keeps our interest peaked and allows these legends to continue. It seems sometimes regardless of how pure our intentions, we unwittingly help these legends and myths to carry on.

For years I was lead to believe and actually participated in a heated conversation about how the Sphinx's nose had been shot off by either British or German troops during World WarII. The only question was who had done it, the British or Germans. My father told me this story and during WWII he served all over Africa, he should know. As it turns out dad was wrong. Neither the British nor Germans were guilty of defacing the Sphinx and I had unwittingly helped perpetuate this legend. Here is a photo of the Sphinx taken in 1886 and minus a nose. Kind of messes up the WWII time line.

Then there is the legend of the truck driver who rigged up a lawn chair with 42 helium-filled weather balloons, floated three miles above Southern California, violated air space over Los Angeles International airport and scared the bejesus out of some pilots who had to report to the control tower that a guy in a lawn chair just floated by. No wait, that's a true one as well! The lawn chair pilot name was Larry Walters.

Sad to say Larry "Lawn Chair Pilot" Walters is no longer with us.

Here is a formerly secret list of links to varying urban legend and modern myth sites to be found on web. Be forewarned that once you start exploring these sites (in the order presented here) you may find it impossible to stop. That is what happened to this guy in Newfoundland, he found the reading so interesting, it took the police and a rescue squad 2 hours to talk him out of his house after he had barricaded himself inside for 5 days. I know it's a true story. A friend of my cousin's uncle told him the story and then he told me...