Burden of proof / urban folklore

["Andy Gough, x4-2906, pager 513, CH2-59" <AGOUGH%FAB6@sc.intel.com>]

>Why do you think Kate didn't intend this?  Why did she pick gaffer's
>tape as the material she's stuck in then?  Why didn't she pick
>molasses, or tar, or fly paper instead?
>
>|>oug

Well, "Suspended in Molasses," "Suspended in Tar," and "Suspended in Fly
Paper" wouldn't be easily sung or even sound that good.  It's also likely
that she's around gaffer's tape more often than molasses, tar, or fly paper.
But your point (that one's tools may hinder) is valid, even if Kate didn't 
intend it.  Truth is truth, no matter if the artist intended it.  


>From: Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>
>Reply-To: Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>
>Subject: Re: Kate-echisminimism
>Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 16:59:28 EDT
>
>> [IED:] It is true that Doug deserves some credit for finding the "quote".
>> However, IED has now followed suit and checked the same source himself.
>> What did he discover? Well, mainly that, contrary to Doug's say-so,
>> the magazine in question is typically _loaded_ with errors of English!
>
>No it isn't IED.  It has several minor spelling and capitaliziation
>errors.  So what?  It has no other error or the magnitude of getting
>the name of a song wrong!
>
>> More likely still is that the interviewer simply misheard Kate
>> saying "_Night_of_the_Swallow_" and wrote it out as
>> "_Nice_to_Swallow_".
>
>Well, it's clear now that you haven't really read the interview at
>all, Mr. Marvick.  If you had you would have noticed that the
>interviewer is quite familiar with *The Dreaming*.  This is a
>completely implausible explanation.
>
>If you want to try to invent a plausible explanation, you might say
>that it was introduced by the typesetters.  But face it -- the
>likliest explanation is that Kate said what is printed.
>
>> But we have far more than that to support that hypothesis! IED is
>> _sick_and_tired_ of idiotic claims to the effect that such a "joke"
>> is "in character" with other remarks Kate Bush has made. IT IS NOT!
>
>Well |>oug is *sick and tired* of IED having the unmitigated gall to
>assume that he knows Kate Bush so well that he KNOWS beyond a shadow
>of a doubt what Kate would and would not say.  Has IED stolen Kate's
>diary?  Is this how he knows Kate so intimately?  At least I have
>something in black and white on my side.  IED has nothing but his
>ridiculous ego.

Doug is the only one to actually come up with some DATA on the question.
Everything else since then has been pure speculation.  Doug has done
his part.  If anyone still doesn't believe Kate said "Nice to swallow,"
then let them dig up some hard data on the question. 

>This whole thing reminds me of something that happend to a friend of
>mine.  He was taking a biology class at Wellesly.  The professor
>mentioned that semen has I high salt content.  One of the women taking
>the calls blurted out before thinking, "But it tastes so sweet!"  Did
>this woman denigrate herself?  Not at all!  She may have embarassed
>herself, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with her enjoying oral
>sex.  The fact that IED thinks that the phrase "nice to swallow" is
>vulgar, is symptomatic of his peculiar sexual hangups -- not Kate's.

Ahhh...another piece of urban folklore.  This story pops up at every
college and university.  I first heard it while at the University of
Michigan.  It was a little different, though: The professor stated that
semen is full of fructose, which is a sugar.  A girl then blurted out,
"Then how come it tastes so salty!?"   So you can add this story to the
ones about the knocks the car door while driving over a particular 
bridge, and the decapitated child in the bathroom of the shopping mall.

-andy