From: Funny Guy Subj: The True News Digest part Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny [Note - What follows is one part of the True News Digest - a collection of true-life stories which didn't really warrant individual posting, but which are amusing nevertheless. The digest is quite long, and it will appear in 22 parts over the next few months - ed.] = = = = = = From: dubach1@husc8.harvard.edu (joev dubach) Subject: Seen in a furniture store window ALL FURNITURE SLASHED!!!!!! = = = = = = From: brodie@fps.mcw.edu (Kent C Brodie) Subject: Automated Traffic Reports I live in Milwaukee, but on occasion I must drive the painful trip to downtown Chicago for business. While I was cruising at a top speed of 1.3 miles per hour, I decided it might be a good idea to actually tune into one of the "TRAFFIC INFO" stations on my AM dial. Instead of hearing a recorded voice telling me of the traffic situation as of an hour ago, I was somewhat (and plesantly) surprised to find they've finally managed to computerize the whole thing. It was very similar to the kind of voice intonation encountered when telephoning for the time.. I could hear a tiny pause (and a distinct "click") between each of the words and/or phrases. No doubt the entire system is completely computerized using some sort of sensors located at key points throughout the freeway system. During the recording, the following segment was broadcast, which shows that automated systems are never what they're cracked up to be: "As of .. four .. ten ..p.m, .. the following freeway locations are experiencing long delays....." ... I-290.. between.. Harlem Avenue.. and.. Harlem Avenue.." = = = = = = From: ogicse!emory!wa4mei!brandon@decwrl.UUCP (Brandon Rhodes) Subject: Hard Times I had never realized the extent of the deprivation of basic necessities experienced by poor factory workers during the Industrial Revolution until I read the following in my History textbook: "A family of six or ten might live in a single dark, airless room." Apparently air was affordable only by the wealthy factory owners. Presumably conditions improved when the owners found that workers performed better when able to breathe. (quote is from WORLD HISTORY: Patterns of Civilization) = = = = = = From: griffith@dweeb.fx.com (Jim Griffith) Subject: Unclear on the concept... Heard last night on the news: "It's scary to think that global warming may really be happening. Even in the Bay Area." = = = = = = = From: bradley@cs.utexas.edu (Bradley L. Richards) Subject: Can you tell me... Heard this on TV a while back: Two grocery clerks, a guy and a girl, are stocking the shelves in the personal hygiene section. The guy is busily stacking up toothpaste tubes when the girl comes to a box of Summer's Eve. She looks around, but can't figure out where it belongs on the shelves. So she walks up to the guy with a bottle in hand and says "can you tell me where this goes?" = = = = = = From: jgo@mcgp1.UUCP (John Opalko, N7KBT) Subject: Quick, Harry, change the sign!! I'm ancient enough to have grown up in an all-white neighborhood. A couple miles from my house was a building supply company that was very proud to have been in business since the turn of the century, and they had a motto painted on the side of their building to that effect. When the neighborhood finally began to integrate, this company very quickly changed their motto. And what was this motto that they discarded after all these years? "We sold your grandfather." = = = = = = From: andrew%frip.wv.tek.com@relay.cs.net (Andrew Klossner) Subject: real estate slogan Big, professionally manufactured sign on the local office of Century 21 (a real estate sales firm): "We're Here for You (tm)" Beneath which hangs a smaller, hand printed sign: "We've moved to our new office one mile north of here ..." = = = = = = From: Griffiths.R@applelink.apple.com (Rob Griffiths) Subject: Why is business so slow? From the Boulder (Colorado) Daily Camera newspaper, a few years back. Posted in the Services Offered category. The ad ran for about a year. "Can't read? Illiterate? Call me for professional reading lessons. Chris, 443-xxxx" I wonder how many phone calls Chris received ... = = = = = = From: IRVINMJ@wsuvm1.csc.wsu.edu (Michael J. Irvin, WSU, 509/335-0437) Subject: Knock, Knock! Source: Actual sign in Waller Hall at Washington State University some 23 years ago. Sign on the door in men's dormitory: Knock softly, but firmly, 'Cause I like soft, firm knockers! = = = = = = From: mcuddy@rational.com (Mike Cuddy) Subject: Hershey's and the Middle East Yesterday Hershey's won a contract to supply the armed forces with chocolate bars that will not melt in the extreme heat in the middle east. Hershey's calls the operation: Dessert Shield. = = = = = = From: hultquis@wk206.nas.nasa.gov (Jeff P. M. Hultquist) Subject: the US will never go metric A true story: I was in a restaurant quite some time ago, and asked the waitress for a half-liter of the house wine. She replied that they only sold the wine in full liters, but she then pointed out that "Our liters are kind of small!" (The wine arrived in a standard 750ml bottle.) = = = = = = From: jbtubman@noah.arc.ab.ca (Jim Tubman) Subject: Heavy Metric Music This is an actual TV listing (source: Calgary Herald TV Times), for PBS station KSPS (Spokane), 6:00 PM MST, December 18, 1990: SQUARE ONE TELEVISION: Heavy metal rockers sing about metric and English measurement vocabulary. = = = = = = From: parmet@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Marc Parmet) Subject: Sources of language True story: A couple I know recently adopted a Korean girl, and were showing it off to friends. A neighbor came by to admire the baby, and asked, "But what will you do when she gets older and starts speaking Korean?" = = = = = = From: JRP1@phoenix.cambridge.ac.uk (Jonathan R. Partington) Subject: City lighting (true story) As a seasonal gesture Derby City Council decided to install some festive lights in the streets, and they managed to arrange to buy some second-hand from Cleethorpes, a town about 100 miles away. The workmen put up the fancy lighting, although they didn't have time to test it before switching it on for the big occasion. As a result motorists entering Derby wondered how they could have become so lost as to be greeted by an enormous message in festive lights: Welcome to Cleethorpes! (Reported in the London Times) = = = = = = From: barrett@server.cs.jhu.edu Subject: Phony numbers After receiving a stream of harassing telephone calls, my sister had her phone number changed. Several weeks later, at 3:00 in the morning, her telephone rang. "Did you know," the caller inquired, "that your telephone number spells EAT-MINE?? " Now at 3:00 in the morning, one's brain is not completely functional. Angry and half-asleep, my sister called the telephone operator to complain. "I just had my number changed to avoid obscene phone calls," she screamed, "and now you've given me an obscene phone NUMBER!!!" -- Selected by Jim Griffith. MAIL your joke to funny@clari.net. 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