XPost: alt.usage.english   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   On Thu, 6 Nov 2025 18:07:12 +1100, Peter Moylan    
   wrote:   
      
   >On 06/11/25 13:40, Steve Hayes wrote:   
   >   
   >> I suppose one example of an urban myth, as opposed to an urban   
   >> legend, is the belief that was fairly widespread from thwe 1970s to   
   >> the 1990s that the product bar codes found on most goods sold   
   >> nowadays had some esoteric sinister significance because they were   
   >> thought to contain the numerals 6 6 6, which, according to the   
   >> Apocalypse of St John was "the number of the beast".   
   >   
   >When I were a lad, the wrapping paper on chewing gum had some printing   
   >on it, including a line saying something like ABCDEF for no apparent   
   >reason. The number of letters was variable. We all believed that if that   
   >line went all the way to Z we could get some free chewing gum.   
      
   That sounds like a myth, as opposed to a legend.   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa   
   Web:  http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm   
   Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com   
   E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)