I'm intrigued by the story in Phil Plait's book about equinoctial egg-balancing, a phenomenon he says takes place "across the United States and around the world".
I'm a Scot, and I'd never heard of it until I read Bad Astronomy. I was amazed and amused to read that this bit of nonsense can actually end up as an item on the TV news - I've certainly never seen it in the UK.
And a (small!) survey of friends and colleagues from various European countries doesn't turn up anyone who has heard of the practice.
So I thought I might extend the survey here.
Anyone care to let me know which country they're from and if egg-balancing is a regular feature of March 21 in their part of the world?

Grant Hutchison

On edit, whoops post before reading is bad....

Yes...

In Other news Americans also believe the toilet bowl water spins the other direction south of the equator...

We teach creationism in schools...

And a significant number still think Saddam had WMD's...

Until I read these boards I had never heard of the Egg thing. But just recently I have run into several people who believe it passionately. I was unable to disuade them, even with my uncanny egg balancing skill (my single talent. My very first egg *sniff*(dabs eyes) took 45 seconds, and it almost always takes less than a minute).

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I first heard of this urban myth from an CNN report in the 1980s that uncritically repeated the claim.

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So do how do they explain what they think is happening?

I grew up in England. I'd never heard of the egg thing until I moved to the US in 1993. It would be interesting to know whether it exists in other countries. I've also wondered when it started - the "explanation" includes a lot of semi-digested science, but did this get pinned onto an existing tradition?

I wouldn't be surprised if this all has its origins in an old Elbonian fertility festival.

I recently read a travel brochure for an Australian tour which said "and yes, the water does swirl the opposite way here down under". I wish I had kept a note of the URL.

Just curious as to what Doctor Greg thinks was used to gas the Kurds.

Girl farts, what else?

Sadly, in elementry school we were "taught" about the egg "phenomenon". Who says public school isn't a success?

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That is an excellent question. Because the issue is not raised in Saddams fake war crimes trial. The only thing he has been charged with so far is killing about 100 insurgents in the failed coup after Bush War 1.

Where are those mass graves anyhow?

Given the sheer size and quantity of the lies we have been told about Iraq, it is really easy for me to dismiss this as yet another lie from this administration along with their Saudi benifactors.

So indeed, where are the WMD's that saddam used on the Kurds?

Checking my recent history on this issue, I see the most recent Bushian excuse for this war is "We have to stabilize Iraq so that the mid-east is stabilized"

Oops I did it again....

Wow. So much for rational discourse.

And so much for staying on topic. Could you both take this elsewhere?

Yes. Please. You've already greatly reduced the chance of any more on-topic posts, but I would prefer not to have the thread locked.

Grant Hutchison

I'm from Canada, and this whole thing was a big topic in the news here two or three years ago. As usual, the media played it up like it was some fantastic event, and a number of my friends believed it.

They were quite disappointed when I managed to balance 6 eggs in a row 3 days before. The skeptics of the group used the arguement that we were so close to the equinox that it still worked, so I made a bet I could do it again in 3 months.

Paid for the bulk of my Spetember long weekend!!

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Humanity must rise above the Earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, for only then will we fully understand the world in which we live.~Socrates, 500 B.C. ~

Let every man judge according to his own standards, by what he has himself read, not by what others tell him. ~Albert Einstein~

Stay on topic. Now.

More talk about WMDs will lead to bannings with extreme prejudice.

Got it?

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Phil Plait
The Bad Astronomer
http://www.badastronomy.com
badastro@badastronomy.com

The history of the egg standing legend is traceable. There is a website attached to this bulletin board.

Speaking of keeping "on topic"...look what I found on our kitchen counter...

Thank you, yes, I already read that with great interest. It was the story's subsequent progress (if any) outside the US that was intriguing me. So far it seems that it has made it as far as Canada.
I'd be interested to hear positive or negative reports from other places.

Grant Hutchison

When I first heard about it, it was from a clipping that a friend's mother had sent on--I believe it was her home town paper (the Des Moines Register?), in about 1974-75. The article had a photograph, and interviewed some people who claimed it was an tradition in some eastern european nation, I think. But I believe Martin Gardner!

I am from Denmark, and I had never heard of it until this bulletin board.

I have yet to manage to balance an egg--I need more patience, and to try more than once for 5 minutes.

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