The Cat in the Dryer: And 222 Other Urban Legends (Social Indicators Research Series) - Hardcover

What's an urban legend? It's a story that gets passed around so frequently that no one really knows how it began. All we know is that the tale is so amusing, dark, coincidental or ironic that, whether it's true or not, we are dying to believe it--and pass it on. In the successful tradition of Alligators in the Sewer and The Baby on the Car Roof, this all-new collection of over 200 urban legends offers the latest and greatest tales so weird and funny that they just have to be true. Includin the firemen who rescued a stranded cat and then ran over it; the baby born in flight who was given free air travel for life; the drug-test cheater who was caught when his urine sample revealed him to be pregnant. Organized by genre, each story in The Cat in the Dryer runs one or two pages, and features possible variations and embellishments. Subjects range from famous people to disturbing pranks, from holiday nightmares to creepy stories, and from military misadventures to pet disasters.

Thomas J. Craughwell is an author and problem solver. He traced the evolution of Manhattan urban legends (Alligators in the Sewer); sorted out fact from fiction in old wives tales (Do Blue Bedsheets Bring Babies?); identified the patron saints of bloggers, vegetarians and hangovers (This Saint Will Change Your Life); and resurrected a long-forgotten story from 1876, when a gang of hapless Irish immigrant counterfeiters tried to kidnap the body of Abraham Lincoln--and almost got away with it (Stealing Lincoln's Body). Tom lives in Bethel, Connecticut.