Canned Urban Legend (with rat tail)

Page created 26 Sep 2003 by pedro (Staff)

URL: http://www.urbanlegends.com/

For the discussion of anything you hear and aren't quite sure if it's true or not.


old people eating cat food, posted 26 Sep 2003 by pedro » (Staff)

what's the verdict?

my proof, posted 26 Sep 2003 by Cinnamongirl » (Fixture)

i remember being about four or five and at the albertson's (denver's jewel) with my dad, and seeing an old lady buying about twenty cans of cat food and nothing else. i said to my dad, "gosh, she must have a lot of cats," and he said, "maybe, but a lot of older people eat cat food. it's easy for them to chew and it's inexpensive." and i remember a friend telling me he hung out with an older guy who ate cat food.

any other evidence on this subject--for or against it--would be much appreciated.

interesting, but inconclusive, posted 26 Sep 2003 by pedro » (Staff)

http://www.washingtonfreepress.org/02/Kibble.html

ummm, posted 26 Sep 2003 by baggins » (Fixture)

i've never heard of this. perhaps your dad was pulling your leg?

sick, posted 26 Sep 2003 by Cinnamongirl » (Fixture)

if someone is too poor to afford non-animal-intended foods, i doubt they'd have the cash to buy the sun-dried tomatoes called for in that recipe.

people in france eat horse ("le cheval") all the time. it's a cultural thing.

i think my dad was in earnest, Baggins, posted 26 Sep 2003 by Cinnamongirl » (Fixture)

and he's a smart guy and not led to believe much b.s., but perhaps he was misled.

Part of what's weird, , posted 26 Sep 2003 by pedro » (Staff)

is that I think that tins of canned cat food aren't THAT much cheaper than generic tuna.

big bags of dried dog food, posted 26 Sep 2003 by pedro » (Staff)

however would be a pretty cheap food source.

yeah, posted 26 Sep 2003 by baggins » (Fixture)

that's what confused me. ramen is like 10x cheaper than cat food.

PRICE CHECK, AISLE CAT! (or is that, "alley cat"), posted 26 Sep 2003 by pedro » (Staff)

Anyway, online I found Fancy Feast for .41 a can, and Bumblebee Tuna for .60.

alh and i were discussing the deep questions in life, and MAXIM provided the answer:, posted 26 Sep 2003 by pedro » (Staff)

Q: Is there any truth to the old saying `Beer before liquor, never been sicker. Liquor before beer, never fear'? A: The Maxim staff has made numerous attempts to settle this matter, but we've repeatedly been denied the federal funding we need to complete our study. However, some real scientists think they know why the adage holds water: ``If you drink beer, it takes a while for the alcohol to be absorbed,'' says Walter Hunt, Ph.D., a senior science advisor at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. ``But if you take a shot of bourbon, you can feel the alcohol very quickly.'' Scenario one: You chug a brew, chase it with liquor, and get hit with a double whammy as the drinks sabotage your system simultaneously. Scenario two: You drink liquor, then start on the beer, which hits you just as the liquor is wearing off. For full effect, try out both scenarios with Pabst Blue Ribbon and Everclear and see which leaves you retching in the bathroom--and which leaves you dancing naked on the table.

Booze & cat food, posted 27 Sep 2003 by Cinnamongirl » (Fixture)

my friend Shannon and I have discussed this, and Shannon is a very smart girl. A PhD, in fact, though in English--not Urban Legends. She told me a doctor described it to her like this: beer, a very high-liquid alcohol, expands your stomach. Hard liquor, on the other hand, makes your stomach contract. So if you drink a lot of beer and then take some shots, your stomach clenches up and becomes smaller, and all of that beer which was peacefully residing there has nowhere to go. Thus, you ralph. Actually, the Maxim theory sounded just as plausible to me as what I've just written. We'll need to get BigJ's opinion on this, him being the Bio major and all.

As for the cat food thing, I'm with you, Pedro & Baggins. I know from years of experience--especially in Chicago, where everything is so expensive--that cat food easily runs me 35-40 cents a can, and that's on sale. Tuna, on sale, can be as low as two cans for a dollar. And I'd much rather eat a tuna sandwich than a "Mariner's Catch" sandwich (that's one of the Friskies cat food varieties which my cats favor). And I am not including the dried food--"kibble"--varieties in this issue, because all of the stories I've heard about people eating it regard the soft food, canned type. And yes, Ramen is incredibly cheap. In fact this week I bought a dollar's worth on sale at Jewel b/c they were 10 cents each. I don't eat that crap, but Hernando loves it, and it's easy to prepare. I won't deny that I don't like how it tastes, it's yummy. It's also pure starch and sodium, so I try to stay away from it. In conclusion, I'm just saying that if I were hard-up for cash I'd live on Ramen before I would cat food.

Heidi- you are not hallucinating or being deceived, posted 27 Sep 2003 by blvdgirl » (Fixture)

I too have heard of older people eating cat food or dog food. I believe it to be true... Unfortunately, the last time I heard of it was a year ago when they discovered a little old woman dead in her trailer, partially eaten by her cats, who only had cat food in her house and had cat food in her stomach.

Not that this has much to do with it, posted 27 Sep 2003 by Octal » (Regular)

I remember a Night Court episode where Harry for one reason or another was in charge of giving a large amount of money away to whoever he felt was the most deserving, and this one elderly couple got brought in for stealing dog food, because they can't afford real food. It was then pointed out that if you're stealing, it all costs the same. They didn't get the money.

My grandfather..., posted 27 Sep 2003 by dex » (Fixture)

... used to think the dog kibbles in their house were Cocoa Puffs. I remember walking into the kitchen, I must've been about 8 or 9, in their house, and he was munching on them. I was creeped out so I went and got my dad and he told me grandpa just started doing that. They wound up switching brands of dog food if I recall correctly, so he wouldn't eat it.

Of course, that's not the same thing as eating it because it's cheap. I don't know from Adam on that topic. But I do know of at least one old dude who ate it, in any case.

we are really well on our way, posted 27 Sep 2003 by pedro » (Staff)

to being the internet's nexus on eating pet food.

Hooray!, posted 27 Sep 2003 by Octal » (Regular)

Confession of a dog food eater, posted 28 Sep 2003 by captain » (Fixture)

Early in High School my parents left me alone for several days, leaving me to an empty house and an empty fridge. They didn't bother leaving any groceries or money, but my mother left me a big'ole'tub of her potato salad which I loved. I blew through the tub in a day. After that I had nothing. Nor did I have any money; no job or allowence. So, looking for food, I stumbled across a bag of dried dog food. Now, I didn't live totally off dog food durring the remainder of their time away, but I did substantially suppliment what little food I stumbled upon when I was out at other peoples houses (I had too much pride to tell anyone that I didn't have anything to eat but dogfood) having to rely instead on the random offering. Needless to say, dog food isn't all that tasty, in fact it has a rather earthy strangeness. And all those bits of bone and the occassional hair...from then on I've asked for food.

A little perspective..., posted 28 Sep 2003 by captain » (Fixture)

It was either dog food or mayonaisse, and I've only recently fallen for mayo.

i wish i would have known you then so i could've brought you something, posted 28 Sep 2003 by mercurymouth » (Fixture)

that story makes me sad.

merc, posted 28 Sep 2003 by pedro » (Staff)

you probably weren't even born yet. at that time, dog food was actually just the wooly mammoth carcass that was in the backyard... of the cave!

so much to touch on, posted 29 Sep 2003 by BigJ » (Fixture)

My opinion on the liquor before beer thing was always that beer has more water content in it and thus you actually get a little water back in your system if you drink it last, and if you do beer first and then liquor you end up much more dehydrated, which is most of the illness involved with drinking. I think that mixing booze at all is a bad thing and leads to too high a blood alcohol level, and the difference in the alcohol is not good on your stomach. In other words I have no idea.

I have heard of several reports of old people eating cat food though and it's because it is cheap and more nutritious than just tuna or something, but who knows if it holds water.

Beer, posted 29 Sep 2003 by smax » (Fixture)

Well I can't say about most liquors, but I know quite a few brewmasters who have told me about some of the chemicals in commercial beer. For instance several companies put something that is very close to soap in their beer to increase the thickness of the head when poured. So I'd stick to micro-brew or liquor if you're planning a serious night of drinking.

My conclusion: The order doesn't matter, what matters is what you drink, what you eat (before and after), and time. Three rules I've come up with in my life: 1. Always eat before drinking. 2. Reguardless how fun body shots are, they should be avoided. 3. Three shots of Absynthe is plenty... any more than that and you're just asking for a bad week.

Great Wall of China NOT visible from space., posted 17 Oct 2003 by pedro » (Staff)

It's been a longstanding "bar fact" that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from space (I assume, during the daylight). I seem to remember this being in a Social Studies textbook of mine somewhere along the way. Anyway, it is not true. This has been known for a long time, and was confirmed by the Chinese in their first manned orbital flight.

I guess you have to define &quovisible&quo, posted 17 Oct 2003 by nutella » (Fixture)

NASA can see it (by radar).

yeah,, posted 17 Oct 2003 by pedro » (Staff)

...but the CIA can "see" what I'm thinking, too. I don't think that counts as visible. At least not unless i'm wearing my magic glasses.

...and your foil hat!, posted 17 Oct 2003 by nutella » (Fixture)

In reality, I agree with the conclusion in your earlier post. Any situation where the Great Wall is visible from space (radar, low orbit etc.) it isn't the only human-made object that can be seen. Because of the way resolution works it makes sense that objects with big area (e.g. the Great Pyramid, maybe the Pentagon) should be more visible than those that are long and thin.

please,, posted 17 Oct 2003 by pedro » (Staff)

My special hat is made from velostat.

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