<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18928"> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>This is actually often true in oral interviews, that people will abbreviate information, and shorten the distance between themselves and the source (generationally speaking).  It's human nature, not intentionally lying.  It's good story telling.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><A href="http://people.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend2.htm">http://people.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend2.htm</A></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But any good interviewer knows how to get around this kind of thing, and begin to prove or disprove it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Note that sometimes it will be friend saying "friend of a friend of mine".  Other times they'll simply drop one generation making it "friend of mine".  As the article says it's not lying, it's just wanting to be closer to the story, a near participant.  Or sometimes because the friend believes it happened to someone else, it becomes "it happened to me", dropping two links in the chain.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>And then chances are it will remain "friend of a friend".  I bet someone on the list will say "a friend of a guy on the APG list" sent money (dropping one of the generations).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>as I said, it's one of the pitfalls any interviewer has to watch out for (grandparents become the source when they actually heard it from their grandparents, and so on)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Larry</DIV></BODY></HTML>