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From: tindall@panix.com (Bruce Tindall)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Please Explain "Vector"
Date: 16 Apr 1997 12:08:18 -0400

<johnny99@sydney.dialix.oz.au> wrote:
>This maybe really dumb, but can someone please explain the meaning of the
>word "Vector" in this context?

In epidemiology (or some other medical science with a long name), a "vector" is an insect, for example, that transmits a disease.

Analogously, in urbanlegendology, a "vector" is a person or publication that transmits an urban legend.

Some examples of especially productive UL vectors:

1. Ann Landers, the doyenne of U.S. newspaper advice columnists, who is rumored to have checked a fact once, circa 1953, but never since.
2. "The Car Guys", hosts of a U.S. comedy-plus-automobile-repairadvice radio program.
3. Your co-workers.
4. The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
5. Usenet.

--
Bruce Tindall tindall@panix.com