Welcome to the Monday time waster!

I have no idea why I like the idea of urban legends but I find it extremely interesting to dissect what people have learned to just consider true, and what actually is. I love the idea of almost impossible coincidences actually falling into play to make for an incredible story that will only be believed as an urban legend. The line between a reality and myth become blurred as the story is repeated time and time again at parties and even the most far fetched concept seems completely logically. When the legend is finally proven defunct, it’s almost heartbreaking to realize your naivety and the realization that your ‘never fail cocktail story about your cousin’s friend of a friend who actually had this happen to her’ will have to be replaced. Damn. Now how will you be the life of the party?!

Let’s test your own Urban Legend Knowledge I found on MSN. (source) Try out these ten true or false questions and see if you can tell which of these urban legends were true stories and which are just tall tales. (Answers posted below; don't cheat!)

TEST QUESTIONS

1. An elderly woman, in an attempt to dry her just-bathed miniature poodle faster, put him in the microwave and pressed the defrost button.

2. Baby alligators from Florida were flushed down a toilet, and they grew into a thriving colony of enormous alligators living in the New York City sewer system.

3. That little bit of crunch in Fig Newtons could be due to the bugs that inadvertently get into the fig paste.

4. A young boy died from eating a fatal combination of six bags of Pop Rocks and a six-pack of Coca-Cola. The combination apparently caused the Pop Rocks to explode in his stomach, killing him instantly.

5. A drugged tourist awoke in his hotel room's ice-filled bathtub, and realized that he had undergone surgery on his lower-left groin. Doctors who examined him confirmed that he was yet another victim of a kidney robbery.

6. Kopi Luwak, the world's most expensive coffee at U.S. $75 per quarter pound, is harvested from the partially digested coffee beans found in the feces of the palm civet, a distant cousin of the mongoose.

7. In a 1999 joint project between Microsoft and AOL, the companies ran an e-mail beta test, during which users received $1 to $5 for each e-mail they forwarded to others. Within two weeks, participants received checks from Microsoft in amounts from $800 to more than $24,000.

8. A traveler returned from Mexico with an expensive, rare cactus that was several feet tall, and placed it in his living room. A few weeks later he noticed the cactus was vibrating. He called the Department of Agriculture and was eventually connected to a scientist specializing in cacti. After many pointed questions about the cactus, the scientist told the man to get himself and his family out of the house as soon as possible, because the cactus was full of huge tarantulas and was about to explode.

9. A man picked up a young female hitchhiker at an intersection late one night, and drove her to the address she requested. When he pulled up to the house, he realized she had disappeared. He went to the house to ask about the girl, and the elderly couple living there informed him that the girl was their daughter, who had died many years ago in a car crash at that intersection.

10. While demonstrating the safety of the windows in a skyscraper, a lawyer fell to his death when the window he was pushing on gave way.

Want to see how you fared? Scroll to check the answers below. In case you are wondering, I scored 8 out of 10. See, even a girl who considers herself a connoisseur of urban legends missed a few; I learn something new everyday!

Ready? Here goes!

TEST ANSWERS

1. False
The "Poodle in the Microwave" or "Microwaved Pet" myth, in which a person puts a wet pet in the microwave to dry (with tragically explosive results for the animal), was widely circulated in the mid-1970s. It was probably a reaction to somewhat mysterious new technologies such as microwave ovens. Although this legend usually has a befuddled elderly woman making the fatal error, the manner in which the pet gets wet, as well as the type of pet, has sometimes varied. And it goes without saying (we hope!) that while this story isn't true, you should never microwave your pet.

2. False
The "Alligators in the Sewer" urban legend has its roots in the 1920s and 1930s, when stories circulated about alligators brought back to New York as pets by vacationers to Florida, and then turned loose into the sewer when they grew too big. The story grew and grew--and so did the size of the alleged alligator colony and the alligators themselves! New York City sewer officials and union workers have maintained for decades that despite all the stories, there has yet to be a single sighting of an alligator in the sewer.

3. True
The Food and Drug Administration allows for fig paste to have up to 13 insect heads per 100 grams. Because the fig bears its flowers inside the fruit and relies upon wasps to crawl inside to pollinate them, many wasps end up harvested along with the figs. Even with rigorous cleaning and sorting of the figs, it would be nearly impossible to remove every single wasp from inside the figs. So, the crunch is mostly from the fig's seeds, but there may be a wasp head or two in the paste as well.

4. False
This urban legend scared parents and kids alike for some time, especially when the story evolved and it was supposedly "Mikey," the freckle-faced little boy in the Life Cereal commercials of the 1970s, who died from eating too many Pop Rocks and chasing them with a six-pack of Coca-Cola. However, Pop Rocks do not contain enough gas to cause anything worse than a belch, and chasing them with a can of soda certainly won't cause an explosion. When Kraft bought the product rights in 1983, Pop Rocks were marketed under a different name, leading to the rumor that they were taken off the shelves because they were so dangerous. These days, they are back on the market again as Pop Rocks and are still available in your favorite candy aisle.

5. False
The urban legend of a traveler waking up robbed of his kidneys by a gang of highly skilled organ thieves was seen by thousands in 1997 via a well-circulated e-mail with the subject line, "Travelers Beware!" In fact, the story had been around since at least 1991. According to Snopes.com, the National Kidney Foundation has asked any individuals who had their kidneys illegally removed to contact them. So far, no one has.

6. True
The exotic gourmet coffee Kopi Luwak--a combination of the Indonesian word for coffee and a local name of the palm civet--is harvested from the partially digested coffee beans found in the feces of the civet, a distant cousin of the mongoose. Known for its distinctly rich taste and aroma, the excreted coffee is produced in Indonesia and Vietnam, and is gaining in popularity among coffee connoisseurs. It is believed that the enzymes in the civet's stomach partially break down the proteins in the coffee beans, removing the bitter taste and enhancing the coffee's flavor. Still, many deride this beverage as "cat poop coffee" or "monkey poo coffee."

7. False
Titled "Bill Gates Is Sharing His Fortune!", the e-mail at the root of this story touted a reward to computer users who forwarded an e-mail beta test from Microsoft and AOL. It experienced heavy circulation from 1999 until the early 2000s. So many inquiries were made to Microsoft about it that Bill Gates himself issued statements explaining that this was an e-mail chain letter hoax.

8. False
Variations of this "tarantula-spewing yucca" legend, in which a traveler brings home a rare cactus and it turns out to be filled with giant spiders, began circulating in Scandinavia and Great Britain in the early 1970s. Scientists have pointed out that this tale is impossible, because tarantulas live in holes in the ground and rarely venture to the surface. Furthermore, no type of spider has ever been known to burrow in plants or purposely lay eggs inside a plant.

9. False
The legend of the driver who picked up a hitchhiker--who turned out to be a ghost--dates back to more than a century ago, when cars replaced horses and wagons. Some variations to the tale are the hitchhiker making a prophecy before she disappears, and the hitchhiker leaving a personal effect, such as a scarf or a book, in the car.

10. True
Sadly, the story of a lawyer falling to his death from a skyscraper window was all too real for Garry Hoy. As he was demonstrating the safety of the windows in the building for some visiting law students, Toronto lawyer Hoy fell 24 stories to his death in 1993 when the window popped out and he fell through, to the horror of several witnesses.