Sparkle1984
24-11-13, 17:13
So last night I went out to an Indian restaurant with my social club. I really enjoyed it, but while we were waiting for our meals a couple of my fellow diners started discussing scare-stories involving other Indian/Chinese restaurants.
Someone mentioned that one of our local Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants had recently re-opened after being closed for refurbishment, and that perhaps we should go there soon. Then the guy sitting next to me started talking about how a few years ago it had been discovered that the restaurant had been caught with cats/dogs in the freezer! I've heard this rumour about that particular restaurant several times in recent years, but I know it can't be true as it was never mentioned on any of the local news websites, even if I searched through the archives. For a while though, I did have a niggling doubt in the back of my mind saying "but what if it's true?"
I've also heard a slight variation of this urban legend, saying that a woman had choked on a dog's microchip that she'd found in her food there.
I told the man that it couldn't be true as I'd heard the story several times before and I'd found no evidence for it. Then he said that it had been in the local papers. I replied that I'd searched the online archives of the local papers and still had found no evidence at all. He just sat there in silence, unwilling to admit his urban myth had been rumbled! :roflmao:
Then another man on our table started recounting an even ickier story! He said that on his 30th birthday he'd gone with some friends to a new Indian restaurant which suddenly closed down just 2 weeks later. He said that apparently it had been closed down by the environmental health authorities as a woman had suffered a serious rash a couple of days after eating there. The story went that she'd visited her doctor and had been told that there had been semen in her curry and that she'd contracted a nasty STD, and this was why the restaurant had been closed down. I found this story a bit more believable as I've known this man for years and he said he was actually there on the night that the alleged incident happened.
I tried to put these stories out of my mind while I was eating, and thankfully I still enjoyed myself.
Earlier today I googled the story, and I could find no evidence that it really happened. When I looked at websites like Snopes.com, it turns out that stories about cats in the freezer and bodily fluids in food are quite common urban legends and that they're very rarely true.
The thing is, these are all well-educated professional people, so why do they believe urban legends and superstitions like this? Why can't they check online before they start spreading rumours? It's almost as if they want to put us off our food! I would never dream of spreading a rumour unless I was 100% sure it was true. At worst, it could be classed as slander/libel, and at best, it could make people feel anxious.
I have Asperger Syndrome so I tend to take things literally and I often find it hard to know whether to believe things that other people tell me. Often it's only later that I realise that the story doesn't add up and that it can't be true (for example, unless the woman in the second story had kept a sample of her curry for 2 days, which is very unlikely, there would have been no way her doctor could have known it was infected by bodily fluids).
Does anyone else find these sort of stories anxiety-inducing? What do you do when someone starts spreading rumours like this which make you feel uncomfortable?
Someone mentioned that one of our local Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants had recently re-opened after being closed for refurbishment, and that perhaps we should go there soon. Then the guy sitting next to me started talking about how a few years ago it had been discovered that the restaurant had been caught with cats/dogs in the freezer! I've heard this rumour about that particular restaurant several times in recent years, but I know it can't be true as it was never mentioned on any of the local news websites, even if I searched through the archives. For a while though, I did have a niggling doubt in the back of my mind saying "but what if it's true?"
I've also heard a slight variation of this urban legend, saying that a woman had choked on a dog's microchip that she'd found in her food there.
I told the man that it couldn't be true as I'd heard the story several times before and I'd found no evidence for it. Then he said that it had been in the local papers. I replied that I'd searched the online archives of the local papers and still had found no evidence at all. He just sat there in silence, unwilling to admit his urban myth had been rumbled! :roflmao:
Then another man on our table started recounting an even ickier story! He said that on his 30th birthday he'd gone with some friends to a new Indian restaurant which suddenly closed down just 2 weeks later. He said that apparently it had been closed down by the environmental health authorities as a woman had suffered a serious rash a couple of days after eating there. The story went that she'd visited her doctor and had been told that there had been semen in her curry and that she'd contracted a nasty STD, and this was why the restaurant had been closed down. I found this story a bit more believable as I've known this man for years and he said he was actually there on the night that the alleged incident happened.
I tried to put these stories out of my mind while I was eating, and thankfully I still enjoyed myself.
Earlier today I googled the story, and I could find no evidence that it really happened. When I looked at websites like Snopes.com, it turns out that stories about cats in the freezer and bodily fluids in food are quite common urban legends and that they're very rarely true.
The thing is, these are all well-educated professional people, so why do they believe urban legends and superstitions like this? Why can't they check online before they start spreading rumours? It's almost as if they want to put us off our food! I would never dream of spreading a rumour unless I was 100% sure it was true. At worst, it could be classed as slander/libel, and at best, it could make people feel anxious.
I have Asperger Syndrome so I tend to take things literally and I often find it hard to know whether to believe things that other people tell me. Often it's only later that I realise that the story doesn't add up and that it can't be true (for example, unless the woman in the second story had kept a sample of her curry for 2 days, which is very unlikely, there would have been no way her doctor could have known it was infected by bodily fluids).
Does anyone else find these sort of stories anxiety-inducing? What do you do when someone starts spreading rumours like this which make you feel uncomfortable?