If the popularity of the Discovery Channel TV show "Mythbusters" is any indication, people love to hear, investigate and learn the validity of myths, stories and tall tales.\nAny institution as large and old as IU is bound to have a certain amount of folklore in its tradition. We even have a folklore department to assist interested academics in mastering the philosophy of understanding and relating such stories. \nBecause you're not likely to see Adam and Jamie on "Mythbusters" discussing the following myths, WEEKEND has taken the liberty of investigating them.
Eating a poppy-seed muffin will cause you to fail a drug test.\nThis myth is certainly not native to IU, but considering students are often drug tested for various work-related causes, it's helpful to know. The idea of eating a poppy-seed muffin and failing a drug test was propagated in pop culture on "Seinfeld," in which the character Elaine tests positive for opium, derived from poppy seeds, after eating such a muffin. \nDonna Dayton, laboratory manager at the IU Health Center, said poppy seeds used for baking can produce a positive drug screen for opiates in a test. Generally speaking, however, the amount of opiates, measured in nanograms per milliliter of urine, found from eating a poppy seed muffin would be in the 100s. \n"If a person's level is much higher -- approaching 2000 -- this is a whole different matter and might indicate their use of a drug that has morphine as a metabolite, such as heroin," said Dayton.\nIn the end, Dayton said it is not out of the realm of possibility for a single muffin to produce a low-morphine result on a drug screen. \n"This is why it is important to have this test done by a professional that knows what questions to ask and how to interpret the results," she said. \nIt's also important to realize that different labs have different cutoff levels (in nanograms per milliliter) for what is considered a significant result for morphine. The IU lab's cutoff is 300 ng/mL, Dayton said, as anything between 300 and 2000 is dubious and may need further investigation. Since a single muffin would usually only produce a result of 100, you should be able to eat one and urinate at the IU lab without too much worry.
The football stadium is haunted by Michael Plume.\nThis myth is actually part homicide speculation, part ghost tale. Many students may be familiar with the case of Michael Plume, a student who was found hanging by a rope in Memorial Stadium in 1960, which was under construction at the time. Plume's father has spent the better part of 40 years trying to prove his theory that his son was actually murdered and staged to look like he had committed suicide. \nThe mythical nature resides in the spooky sounds that have been heard on occasion by people such as Michael Sheehan, a middle-school teacher in Bloomington. He believes an eerie incident he experienced at the stadium in the late 1980s could be a sign of the lingering ghost of Plume. \n"I heard strange noises that night and also witnessed a power failure inside the facility," said Sheehan. \nAccording to IU senior and Bloomington native Matt Barnes, other people have reportedly experienced similar oddities, including hearing what sounds like a body hitting the press box and a rope rubbing against the metal roof.\nThis one required a little firsthand investigation. Unfortunately, no ghosts were found. All that was found on this expedition was that Memorial Stadium is way too easy to breach, and the steps to the press box are entirely too slippery.
The Kinsey Institute has the world's \nlargest collection of pornography.\nWith an interesting derivation, this myth also sometimes includes a caveat: Kinsey's collection is second to that of the Vatican (the Catholic Church). Sources on the ever-trustworthy Internet seem to advance both ideas, although the urban-legend-busting Web site Snopes.com claims the Vatican aspect is completely false and that Kinsey's collection is indeed the largest.\nThe Kinsey Institute, however, stops short of touting itself as the world's largest repository of Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson memorabilia. Jennifer Bass, Kinsey's director of communications, said it's difficult to define what does and does not constitute pornography. \n"A lot of what we have is historical artwork, which in a different time may have been considered pornographic," she said. \nOne has to wonder if former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart would agree, who famously wrote that he could not define pornography, but \n"I know it when I see it." \nIn terms of educational materials, however, the Institute houses the largest sex-research collection in the world, which includes items that, at least by today's standards (or perhaps in Justice Potter Stewart's eyes), would be considered pornographic.\nAsked to speculate about the holdings of the Catholic Church, Bass is unsure what the Church's archives contain. \n"Who the heck knows what the Vatican has?"
If you suffer emotional or physical duress at the University's expense, the University will compensate you.\nTwo myths are embedded here. The first is that if a student gets hit by an IU bus, they will receive free tuition. The second was advanced by the movie "Dead Man on Campus," starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack from "Saved by the Bell"). This latter one holds that if a student's roommate dies, they will be compensated with a 4.0 GPA for the semester.\nDean of Students Richard McKaig is familiar with both myths, but is unsure of their origins at IU. \n"I have heard them repeated for years, and they are not unique to our campus," he said in an e-mail. \nAdditionally, McKaig is unaware of any student ever trying to bring either claim of compensation before the University. But if you're thinking of doing so, your efforts will likely be fruitless.
