New York City Urban Legends (according to People magazine)

People magazine recently posted an article that it titled "N.Y.C.'s 8 Craziest Urban Legends Debunked."

But that title is misleading, because it turns out the article only lists 3 urban legends, and then the writer must have been unable to find anything else when doing a google search for "New York urban legends," because the other 5 things on the list are random bits of NYC trivia and paranormal speculation.

I guess I shouldn't have expected anything more from People magazine.

To save everyone the trouble of having to read the article, the 3 urban legends the writer managed to come up with were:

1. Pennies thrown from the top of the Empire State Building can kill
2. Alligators live in the city sewers
3. The Yankees Wear Pinstripes Because Babe Ruth Wanted to Look Slimmer

And here's the rest of the items that made their way onto the list:

• "There's a Secret Train Platform Beneath the Waldorf-Astoria" — not an urban legend, because it's true.
• "The Restaurant One if by Land, Two if by Sea is Haunted" — People lists this as true!
• "The City's Gargoyles Come to Life at Night" — This is on the list because gargoyles come to life in Ghostbusters, which was set in New York. People has concluded this movie was fiction.
• "The Poem 'A Visit From St. Nicholas' was Inspired by N.Y.C." — Again, this is true.
• "There Are Ghosts in Central Park" — People has decided this is "probably false."

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