Sports apparel manufacturer Lacoste, whose world-famous logo is built around the image of a crocodile, will roll out a new sneaker this spring paying homage to the urban legend about giant alligators lurking in the sewers of New York City.

The shoe features a black leather croc pattern with blue or yellow highlights and an etched manhole cover graphic on the heel.

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Last Friday the 13th a New York man decided to flout superstition and blow $3 on a Mega Millions lottery ticket.

He won $26 million.

Moral: Flouting superstition brings good luck.

A "pharm party" (aka "pharming party") is a teenage get-together in which participants toss all the prescription drugs they can pilfer from their parents' medicine cabinets into a communal bowl and down them "by the fistful" to get high.

News of the phenomenon, which was first mentioned in print back in 2002, exploded into the mainstream on June 12, 2006 when USA Today published an exposé linking pharm parties to "the rising abuse of prescription drugs by teens and young adults." Other media outlets followed suit, lending credence to what really only amounted to a fistful of anecdotal reports.

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It's Day 3, and the Wal-Mart gang initiation rumor rages on. There are too many reports from too many sources to attempt a formal tally, but judging by the sheer volume of news stories from around the country and firsthand sightings by hundreds of About.com users (thanks, commenters!), it's safe to say the rumor has swept through every state in the union.

There have been zero reports of actual gang violence. In Durant, Oklahoma a shoplifter was caught trying to steal a case of beer from a Wal-Mart store. Two men were booked for impersonating police officers and mugging a pair of teenagers outside the Wal-Mart store in Fall River, Massachussetts. A woman was arrested at Wal-Mart in Austin, Texas for attempting to return merchandise under false pretenses. A man was randomly assaulted while pumping Wal-Mart gas in Belmont, North Carolina. None of these crimes were connected with gang activity.

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