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Almost everybody has heard of the infamous "urban legend" or "urban myth" -- in fact most of us have probably believed in one, or even moved one along.

For those who haven't, it's a tall tale that takes on a life of its own and makes the rounds of entire communities with frightening speed. There are specifics that give it credence, it changes with locality, and everybody who hears it always swears it's true. After all, it happened to a friend of a friend or they heard it from somebody who knows someone who was there.

Al Larson, mayor of Schaumburg, worries that the "suburban legend" is making its appearance in his fair town.

Larson said he first heard it in a coffee shop in Schaumburg. Then he got one call, then another. But after receiving eight calls in the last week, all from concerned residents, he's decided the tale must be reaching mythic proportions.

"If that many people have called me, think how many more are talking about it among themselves," he said. Some of the callers have told the mayor they heard the story from three sources before they finally called Village Hall.

The story goes like this: Schaumburg is planning to tear down the entire "W section" of town and put up CHA housing. A variation has the Chicago Housing Authority coming in and buying up all the houses in the "W section," and moving indigent families into them.

The "W section" of Schaumburg is one of the oldest neighborhoods in town -- the first subdivision built after the village became a village. All the streets have names beginning with the letter "W." It is bounded by Springinsguth Road, Schaumburg Road, Weathersfield Way and Walnut Lane, and consists of several hundred homes.

Here's the bottom line: It isn't going to happen. So says Larson, and he ought to know.

"It's not true, it's not true, it's not true," he insisted, adding that the calls are coming mostly from longtime "W" residents fearful of being forced out of the homes they've lived in for nearly 30 years.

So frustrated is Larson by the origin of this falsehood that he has been searching for something that might logically have given it life.

"The only thing I can think of is that the village is stepping up its inspections for maintenance in the older neighborhoods, and maybe the fact that there are more inspectors around has something to do with it?"

Sounds kind of lame -- but why even search for a rational foundation for something that comes close to qualifying for "legend" status? It's harder to untangle myths like these than it is to find a northwest suburb that isn't vying for a casino.

Larson points out that the "W section" of Schaumburg is actually undergoing a renaissance as young families with kids moving in and renovating the old homes.

So relax, "W" residents, there are no village, CHA or alien bulldozers -- or buyers -- headed your way.

Another one? This tale has only one source that we know of, but give it time.

A woman called us the other day insisting she had heard a report on a TV newscast that Rolling Meadows had passed an ordinance outlawing smoking out-of-doors anywhere within city limits. That included residents' own back yards, and the law would even be enforced against people just passing through town.

No one -- including her children who live in Rolling Meadows -- would believe her. Why hasn't the Tribune run anything about it, she wondered.

Well, this unorthodox get-tough stand on smoking is news to the author of the city newsletter, Liz Moran, not to mention Rolling Meadows' public health director, Patrick Seger, whose office would typically develop such a proposal.

"Can you imagine the enforcement on something like that?" Seger asked.

Seger said the only smoking-related activity in Rolling Meadows that he knows of is his office's campaign to get local restaurants to participate in the National SmokeOut Day.

Last shall be first? Rob Sherman has another bone to pick. This time he's ticked at the Buffalo Grove Days Parade Committee. It seems that out of 100 parade slots, the Rob Sherman Travel Agency float -- which consists of his car with the infamous ATHEIST license plates -- is positioned somewhere in the 90s - as usual.

Sherman insists he's been close to the end for eight years now, and he is demanding that the village set up some sequencing guidelines and rotate positions year to year.

He complains that Republicans and religious groups always get the front slots while Democrats and atheists traditionally bring up the rear.