Talk:Pork chop
Haha. Maybe clean this up and link it to the show page? I think it's worth keeping.--Knockinabout 11:55, 10 September 2007 (EDT)
i had no idea this was here .... hilarious. but could use a clean-up, yes.
i changed this:
Xfm shows - Episode 3, Series 1 (not the early years)
to this:
24 November 2001
i THINK that's right. i'm sorry but i don't understand why people use anything other than dates with the shows!!Steve is King 20:52, 10 September 2007 (EDT)
Follow-up Research (aka... I've nothing better to do)
The moment Karl began talking about this story, it registered a faint memory in me of something I had heard as “true.” But the story smacks of urban legend. (Subsequent referencing of my urban legend source books – an interest of mine – returned nothing.) I did a bit of research and found this story:
“In 1990, a 64-year old Hartsville, Tennessee, woman entered a hospital for surgery for what doctors diagnosed as a tumor on her buttocks. What surgeons found, however, was a four-inch pork chop bone, which they removed. They estimated that it had been inplace for five to ten years. The woman could not remember sitting on it, or eating it, for that matter. “
Plugging in various search terms, I found dozens of entries, all verbatim of the above narrative. Initially I could not find a source that was “legitimate.” Typically, the entry in question was someone’s blog or a message board. But, again, every time, the story was told word-for-word, as above.
Eventually, I did locate a “mainstream” news source, albeit, a rural newspaper in Tennessee with an on-line archive of their paper in .pdf format. The article is a space filler from a 2006
"Mild Talk" , Elizabethton Star, May 30, 2006, page 4. (type in "pork chop" into the .pdf search tool) [1]
However, I am still not satisfied. Even this entry is simply a verbatim “borrowing” (without attribution) from a 1993 edition of a book titled The Book of Lists by Messrs. Wallechinsky and Wallace. This is evidently a series of best-selling books going back to the late seventies (originally authored by the noted author, Irving Wallace and then carried on by his son… in case that helps with the ethos of the piece.) These authors also compiled The People’s Almanac.
I have not seen the book, therefore I have no idea if the material is sourced in a legitimate manner. I went ahead and ordered it (used… two American dollars) and will give it a look and update later. If I hit another wall of authentication, I will follow up with perhaps an inquiry with folklorists of my acquaintance and/or a major newspaper in Tennessee. (Presumably one exists.)--Jackbox1971 19:23, 30 June 2008 (BST)
UPDATEI just got the aforementioned Book of Lists in the mail today. After an exhaustive search (bloody interesting book, by the way) I can find no mention of "pork chop bone arse" anywhere. Although I will continue my research (such as it is) I will have tentatively conclude that the story is (in the words of Messr. Merchant)"A lot of old arse"--Jackbox1971 02:06, 6 July 2008 (BST)