american nerd survey

What widely-held urban legend/conspiracy theory do you think actually has a chance of being true?

Geoff Herbach: I was working in the ER in Dubuque, Iowa when the horrible smelling fat lady showed up. No one could figure out where the smell was coming from. Nobody, except a German-born nurse who had heard tell of this sort of situation before. She spoke with Doctors and Doctors proceeded accordingly. Although I was but a mere orderly, I was good friends with the Doctors who did the initial exploration and finally the surgery that removed remove two whole and decaying tuna sandwiches, which had become partially sealed in the folds of fat on the poor woman's tummy. Horrifying! This story is true. Please spread it around.

Mark Kalar: I hesitate to even bring it up in this context, since "theory" suggests doubt. But the ongoing activities of the Knights Templar/Rosicrucians/Freemasons is clear. There has been a lot of propaganda lately (see: National Treasure, DaVinci Code, Treasure Hunter, etc.), all designed to divert attention from the true cause. Any idiot can see that the Order is guarding the secret behind an unlimited power supply, the design of which came from extraterrestrial visitors in the days of King Solomon. It's so obvious. May the Roses bloom upon your Cross, my brothers.

Stephen McClurg: I don't know if it is widely-held, but Ted Kaczynski was a scapegoat for a much larger operation and Jim Jones was some form of mind-control operative. Also, if you eat the green M&Ms on Thursdays they will alter your sexuality.

Reed Miller: With shows like Mythbusters and internet sites devoted to exploring urban legends, most of the cherished urban legends I grew up with - like Mikey dying from an exploded stomach after consuming pop-rocks and Coke, or the spider eggs in Bubbleyum - have been debunked. However, I think Sasquatch might be real. There's fossil evidence that there were once large ape-like creatures, so their could be some still out there. Maybe the species has survived by being really really good at not being seen by people very often and there's an awful lot of anecdotal evidence.

Keith Pille: I wouldn't really be shocked if evidence eventually comes out that Flight 93 (the "let's roll" plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11th) was actually shot down by the Air Force. At a macro level, that makes more sense to me than the official story (and, frankly, makes the Air Force look a little better, raising their protecting-America's-skies success rate to 25% for the day). I certainly don't claim to know the ultimate secret truth about the flight or anything; the 9-11 commission backs the official story, so you'd have to be more willing to accept a massive cover-up than I currently am. But, like I said, I wouldn't be shocked.

Don Pizarro: In December of 2012, we're all going to be singing, "It's the End of the World as We Know It." That year just comes up way too many times for my liking across a bunch of different theories. Even if they were all made up by wackos, I doubt they just all decided, "The world is going to end in, uh...two-thousand...ten, uh, twelve! Yeah, 2012, that's the ticket."

Simon Riordan: "See through" skirts are "all the rage" in Japan.

Amethyst Vineyard: That the owner of Proctor & Gamble sold his soul to Satan. I think it's pretty obvious to anyone paying attention.

Clint Weathers: The urban legend most likely to be actually true is that there actually is culture in the Twin Cities other than booze, strippers, and Prince.