Watch your seat

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WARNING: From the University of North Florida *************************************************************

An article by Dr. Beverly Clark, in the Journal of the United Medical Association (JUMA), the mystery behind a recent spate of deaths has been solved. If you haven't already heard about it in the news, here is what happened.

Three women in North Florida, turned up at hospitals over a 5-day period, all with the same symptoms. Fever, chills, and vomiting, followed by muscular collapse, paralysis, and finally, death.

There were no outward signs of trauma. Autopsy results showed toxicity in the blood.

These women did not know each other, and seemed to have nothing in common. It was discovered, however, that they had all visited the same restaurant (Olive Garden)within days of their deaths. The health department descended on the restaurant, shutting it down. The food, water, and air conditioning were all inspected and tested, to no avail.

The big break came when a waitress at the restaurant was rushed to the hospital with similar symptoms. She told doctors that she had been on vacation, and had only went to the restaurant to pick up her check. She did not eat or drink while she was there, but had used the restroom.

That is when one toxicologist, remembering an article he had read, drove out to the restaurant, went into the restroom, and lifted the toilet seat. Under the seat, out of normal view, was a small spider. The spider was captured and brought back to the lab, where it was determined to be the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata), so named because of its reddened flesh color. This spider's venom is extremely toxic, but can take several days to take effect. They live in cold, dark, damp, climates, and toilet rims provide just the right atmosphere.

Several days later a lawyer from Jacksonville showed up at a hospital emergency room. Before his death, he told the doctor, that he had been away on business, had taken a flight from Indonesia, changing planes in Singapore,before returning home. He did not visit(Olive Garden), while there. He did, as did all of the other victims, have what was determined to be a puncture wound, on his right buttock.

Investigators discovered that the flight he was on had originated in India. The Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered an immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from India, and discovered the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata) spider's nests on 4 different planes!

It is now believed that these spiders can be anywhere in the country. So please, before you use a public toilet, lift the seat to check for spiders. It can save your life! And please pass this on to everyone you care about.

.

This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002

Answers

source, please.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002

Origins:

This entertaining scare story, which first surfaced during the summer of 1999, is fairly easy to identify as a hoax by the slightly-altered and obsolete real names used to give it an air of authenticity. Thus Chicago's O'Hare airport becomes "Blare Airport," the Journal of the American Medical Association becomes the "Journal of the United Medical Association," the name of the Civil Aeronautics Board is invoked even though that organization was dissolved in 1984, and an apocryphal genus/species classification of "arachnius gluteus" (i.e., "butt spider") is assigned to the star of today's legend.

In October 2002 new life was breathed into this hoax when it was circulated anew with many of its details changed, even though the text of the warning barely shifted at all:

The three women hospitalized in Chicago over a five-day period became three women hospitalized in North Florida over the same space of time.

The spiders' ground zero (Big Chappies at Blare Airport) became an Olive Garden at an unspecified location.

The "South American Blush Spider (arachnius gluteus)" became "the Two-Striped Telamonia spider" (Telamonia dimidiata)."

The Los Angeles lawyer who had taken a flight from New York City that changed planes in Chicago became a Jacksonville lawyer who had flown from Indonesia, changing planes in Singapore.

The flight investigators discovered had originated in South America now was said to have originated in India.

No one has been bitten by "blush spiders" lurking in airline toilet seats. Although some spiders prefer dark, cool places and can sometimes be found under (mostly outdoor) toilet seats -- as evidenced by Slim Newton's 1972 song about the Australian Redback Spider, "The Redback on the Toilet Seat" -- an airliner toilet would be quite an inhospitable abode for a spider due to the chemicals used in them. Of all the precautions you might want to take when travelling by air, checking under the toilet rim for spiders should be given a very low priority.

http://www.s nopes.com/horrors/insects/buttspdr.htm

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002


The big giveaway is "had only went to the restaurant." A professional journal's editor would never allow such grammatical torture.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002

Are you kidding? today's journalists make worse mistakes than that.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002

Not usually professional journals.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002


I remember the Christmas day when I went to my parents and was nailed in the second floor bathroom by a hornet lurking in the toilet seat. Dad and my date were VERY amused. Going home was never the same again... :^(

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002

Last night, call on the scanner: "Manager of Lucky's restaurant on Hillsborough Road shot himself in the testicles. He was in the bathroom at the time." Go figure.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002

Sounds like he fired in panic at a horrible poisonous insect (or arachnid).

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002

ROTFLMAO peter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002

Oh, is that what you American guys call it?

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002


sorry, didn;t check the snoops, I deleted it at IC, bf!

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2002

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