Call it curiosity, call it a warped belief system, but a lot of people subscribe to the stuff that urban legends are made of or plain old meritless myths:

MARY ME: Perhaps one of the most famous urban legends is that of Bloody Mary. The creeper, not the delicious bender cocktail. Supposedly, if you walk into a dark room and look into a mirror, saying her name three times, she will appear. I’ve tried this and there was in fact a ghoulish figure staring back at me from the mirror. It was just my frightening reflection one morning during a hangover.

AXE MAN: Despite the adorable name, Bunny Man is anything but. And he is not a member of Bob Marley’s band, the Wailers, nor does he serve cocktails at the Playboy Club circa Chicago, 1961. Bunny Man is a dude from Virginia who dresses up as a rabbit and kills people with an axe. There’s even a myth that if Bunny Man comes out of his double-wide trailer and sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of a murder of a winter. And oh, Happy Easter.

ROYAL FLUSH: There is a popular myth that toilets flush in a different direction in the Southern Hemisphere. In fact, both directions can be found in both hemispheres. There is some science behind this myth, but it doesn’t really apply to toilet flushes. Typically, this myth calls upon the Coriolis Effect, where flow patterns are affected by the earth’s rotation. That helps explain things like the Gulf Stream, hurricanes and Donald Trump’s hair on a windy day.

HOOKED ON A FEELING: There is the classic urban legend that tells the story of a serial killer with a hook for a hand. The slasher would attack couples parked in cars in remote areas. Rumor has it that the handy-hooked man didn’t really want to be a killer, but rather a gynecologist or a mohel, but neither occupation panned out for obvious reasons.

LUCKY NUMBER: Back in 1735, a woman who lived in the expansive woods of New Jersey’s secluded Pine Barrens cursed the birth of her 13th child. Born a freak of nature, the bat-winged and cloven-hooved infant has been terrorizing the area ever since (it’s teething). I also heard that Jerry Springer is trying to book the baby as a guest on his show, with the theme, “When Toddlers Attack.”

THUNDER SIGHS: The myth that lightening never strikes in the same place twice is dangerously wrong. Lightening often strikes in the same place twice, at least within a close vicinity. Just ask Cyril O. Fender of Bald Knob, Arkansas, who fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Cyril has been struck by lightning several times. When wind knocks out power, Cyril screws lightbulbs in his ears and illuminates the way for his kinfolk to go hunting for dinner.

BITE ME: Perhaps one of the more “believed” urban myths is the tale of a young traveler who was bitten by a spider and/or an ant. Upon returning home, the victim began “hatching” parasitic spiders/ants from under their skin. This isn’t physically possible. I’ve been bitten by ants and never hatched an uncle; although I did have a distanct uncle who hatched a plan to get rid of my aunt.

PLAY THE ORGAN: In this tale, a young man is either seduced by a beautiful woman or pays for an escort. The following morning, he awakens in a bathtub full of ice to find one of his kidneys has been removed for sale on the black market. Immediately, the man started screaming obscenities because effectively, he had no filter.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: Then there is the legend that houses built on ancient burial grounds are bound to be cursed. I had a house like that once. Apparently, it was built on an ancient culture who hated doing laundry, drank milk from the carton, always left the toilet seat up and frequently ran with scissors.

I’M A SIX MACHINE: Anyone who remembers the film, “The Omen,” will certainly know that the number “666” which is carved in the head of Damien, the little devil, is the sign of the anti-Christ – taken from the number of the Beast as mentioned in the Book of Revelation. I had a friend who had a “999” carved on his head and I thought, “Phew, dodged that bullet.” And then my friend turned his head in the other direction, and it was all downhill from there. I still can’t find a good nanny or visit the baboon exhibit at the zoo.

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