Three On a Match
Early in the twentieth century, Ivar Kreuger, a match manufacturer, cornered the match market. Through various deals, he ended up with the exclusive rights to sell matches in many countries, including most of Europe, but this monopoly was not enough for him. Back then, it was a common practice for two or three people to light their cigarettes from the same match. Ivar realized that if he could somehow keep that third person from using the match, he could greatly increase his sales, so he had his advertising department start the rumor that it was unlucky to light three cigarettes from the same match. Tales were told of dreadful things happening to the third person who used a match, like the bride who had been left at the altar and the soldier who was killed after each had lit a cigarette from a match which two others had already used. Even today, though most people use lighters, the superstition that it's unlucky to light three cigarettes from the same match still persists.
Contents at a Glance
The Match King
Speculative deals, pyramid schemes, monopolistic practices, fraud, and long term unsecured loans make this classic film seem as if it were taken from today's headlines.
Books About Urban Legends
The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings
Amazon Price: $11.86 (as of 12/07/2009) 
Urban Legends: 666 Absolutely True Stories That Happened to a Friend...of a Friendof a Friend
Amazon Price: $10.36 (as of 12/07/2009)
Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends
Amazon Price: $20.48 (as of 12/07/2009)
Urban Legends: The Truth Behind All Those Deliciously Entertaining Myths That Are Absolutely, Positively, 100% Not True
Amazon Price: (as of 12/07/2009)
Bertram's Books
More Deaths Than One
Bob Stark returns to Denver after 18 years in Southeast Asia to discover that the mother he buried before he left is dead again. He attends her new funeral and sees . . . himself. Is his other self a hoaxer, or is something more sinister going on? And why are two men who appear to be government agents hunting for him? With the help of Kerry Casillas, a baffling young woman Bob meets in a coffee shop, he uncovers the unimaginable truth.
Amazon Price: $16.00 (as of 12/07/2009)
A Spark Of Heavenly Fire
In quarantined Colorado, where hundreds of thousands of people are dying from an unstoppable disease called the red death, insomniac Kate Cummings struggles to find the courage to live and to love. Her new love, investigative reporter Greg Pullman, is determined to discover who unleashed the deadly organism and why they did it, until the cost - Kate's life - becomes more than he can pay.
Amazon Price: $18.00 (as of 12/07/2009)
Bertram's Blog
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