Baby on the Car Roof and 222 Other Urban Legends: Absolutely True Stories That Happened to a Friend of a Friend of a Friend

by Thomas J. Craughwell

Baby on the Car Roof brings together 222 totally new, funny, quirky, frightening, bizarre and always entertaining urban legends. Urban legends or myths are dramatic and often humorous stories that circulate under the guise of truth and usually as having happened to "a friend of a friend" even though often they are entirely made-up. Organized by genre, each tale runs one- to two-pages long. Story variations are included in each listing. The subjects range from famous people, sex, office foibles and travel nightmares to college pranks, biological abnormalities and ghost stories.

Genres: Humor, Short Stories

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2000

Reviews

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ever wonder about the origins or some common urban legends?



Even though this was a book I wouldn't have naturally gravitated towards, it was interesting and would like to read more by this author. One misleading statement that was supposedly an urban legend was that "When it was first manufactured, Coca-Cola contained cocaine", which it didn't contain cocaine it exactly, but it was produced with coca leaves, which cocaine is derived from (hence "Coca" in its name) and had to be eliminated once so many people became addicted, actually through an act of Congress. I wouldn't have known this but for the fact that I once had to write a paper on it for school, doing research to learn the facts.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a fun, light read. I do have to comment on one particular story in it. My own little proof to you that you've got to be careful what you believe.
This story is about a mom and her three year old. It's her boy's birthday, so mom takes him to his favorite fast foot restauraunt for a happy meal. They get to McDonalds, eat thier food, and mom allows boy to play in the playplace for a while. Boy emerges from ball pit tugging at his pants, saying that he hurts. Mom inspects the pants and sees nothing, but then the boy starts crying so she takes him home. At the house, she removes his pants and sees a red welt on his leg. It's tender to the touch, and he continues crying. Mom decides she'd better make an appointment to take him into the doctor. While she's on the phone making the appointment, the receptionist puts her on hold for a minute. While she waits for the receptionist to return to the phone, her son's eyes roll back in his head and he passes out. She slams down the phone, scoops up son, gets back into the car and takes him to the emergency room. After a while in the waiting room, a doctor approaches her and asks what they did that day. Mom explains that it's his birthday, they spent the morning at home together, went to McDonalds, and he played in the playplace. "That's when he complained that his leg hurt." The doctor told the mother that her son just died of a heroin overdose. He explained that someone must have left a needle full of the drug in the ball pit, and that her son was the unfortunate one to run into it.
Now let me tell you why this story is complete crap. Number one, this story has been circulating for years, and every version is different. Number two, no matter how high and crazy a junkie is, they would NEVER leave thier heroin in a place that makes it so difficult to retreive. Third, if a kid were injected with heroin, it would NOT take that long to knock him out. If it got into his vein, it would take six seconds or so for him to pass out. It it got into his muscle, he'd be out in less than one minute. This kid had time to climb out of the ball pit, complain to his mother, cry all the way home, and sit on her lap while she sat on hold on the telephone. Complete garbage.

[Sean Sexton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anyone who has access to E-Mail has, at one time or another, received an E-mail describing some outlandish story that really happened to a friend of a friend. These are stories like: the guy who unwittingly pays $250 for the Neiman-Marcus cookie recipe and distributes it over the internet to get even, the crew member who hanged himself during the filming of "The Wizard of Oz" and can be seen dangling in the background of one of the scenes, or the couple who drives off with their baby and car seat on the roof of the car after stopping at a rest stop.

The fun of all of these urban legends is that any of them could, potentially be true--and some of them quite possibly are. But the real entertainment lies in allowing ourselves to believe in them and that they really did happen to our spouse's brother's best friend's uncle...

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Baby on the Car Roof is a simple-to-read and enjoyable book. There are 223 short, urban legends ranging on a variety of topics. The legends may be read in random order, should the reader choose to do so. Each story is unique in its own right and is sure to bring laughter, tears. empathy, and maybe an occasional groan to the reader.
I have to admit, I bought this book on a used book rack at my local Barnes and Noble bookstore, and the image of a baby in a car seat on top of the car is what caught my interest. At times, Thomas Craughwell, the book's author, explains where the legends originally developed.
On a stressful day, the book is sure to bring a smile, laugh, or leave the reader still believing that there are still good people in the world.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read 130 pg so far of the book The Baby On The Roof by Thomas J. Craughwell I choose not to read it as my book report only because it didn't involve a protagonist or antagonist, and included multiple stories, not just one and thought that this May lead to problems. I absolutely choose to read this book (and still in the process) because it's one of those books you don't want to put down. Honestly I'm not much of a reader but I would read this book all day if I could! This book is defininetely a laugh out loud and share all the funny non fiction stories with your friends and family. That is the reason I give this book a 100% 5 stars!!

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not all that impressed but maybe that's because I've never really found urban legends all that interesting. It's a bunch of one to two paragraph 'stories' about different urban legends. There are a few I heard in high school/junior high and the rest are all new. Some could be real, everyday things that have indeed happened to someone but so what? They're fairly normal things! The others are so far out that if anyone came up to me and repeated them I'd have the urge to slap them. I don't know- I guess I'm not up on the urban legend thing.

[C. J. Scurria · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is filled with typo mistakes. I remember while reading them years ago I joked to myself that the guy was probably sued by all the major companies he libeled and created false claims about (M&M's and other products) and could not afford an editor.

As a piece of interest on stories like this it's fairly good. But other than that it's just more (or in the case of distracting prose, less) of the same.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up on a whim at Goodwill on Labor Day along with another collection. Mostly I thought it would be a quick read and it was. Some of the legends were obviously false, some were ones I had heard and believed before hearing them debunked, two or three I only discovered were urban legends in this book, and some of them were head-scratchers (why would someone make up a story about this??).

[Cynthia K · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this might be a good summer read. In one respect, it met my expectations since it is quick to read and does require much thinking. However, I wouldn't mind putting a little thought into a book. This book was just plain dumb. Worst of all, there were typos! That drove me crazy. I just won't waste anymore time reading this.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very similar to the other urban legend book I read a few weeks ago, probably compiled by the same author, though I haven't checked. Unlike the other book, this one was mostly urban legends I was not familiar with, though I do recall during reading that there was one familiar one that was legitimate and not an urban legend. All in all a quick read, essentially Snopes in a book.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is pretty funny. It is a book of all the stories that get passed around. Some I had heard of and that fact made me laugh even harder. I skipped the last chapter, it got a bit crude for me. But other than that, it was funny

[Larry Wegman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good compilation of urban legends, including a couple that I still think are true. I just checked Snopes, and it says Coca-Cola did originally have some cocaine in it. Another one my grandfather told me that he saw (in a slightly different form) happen.

[Rebekkila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these urban myths. it is a good quick read for those who like crazy legends

[Saulane]

It was not what I thought it would be like.

[Mark A.]

""

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Light, fast reading. Most readers will have encountered versions of a lot of these.
It definitely could have used another pass by the editor, however - typos and missing words galore!

[Cathyg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just ok. Some interesting. Some gross.

[Bamboozlepig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kind of an interesting little recap of many of the urban legends that exist out there. Some are amusing and some are sad. It was a quick read for me.

[Gina Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some are fun and amusing, a few are good stories of revenge by jilted lovers, and some leave you wondering what the heck were these people thinking. My mom was a nurse who worked in the ICU and CCU parts of the hospital and growing up she was always telling me not to do this or that because someone lost their house or was maimed or died as a result. Don't hang your hand out of a moving car; a teen lost his whole arm when his hand hit something. Always clean the lint trap and never leave the clothes dryer on when you leave the house; while the mother of a family she knew was out shopping, the lint trap wasn't cleaned out, which overheated the clothes dryer and evenutally caused a fire which burnt the whole house down. So some of these little stories are probably true, but others are just urban legends.