THE BABY TRAIN AND OTHER LUSTY URBAN...

THE BABY TRAIN AND OTHER LUSTY URBAN LEGENDS by Jan Harold Brunvand (Norton: $9.98; 367 pp.). In his fifth collection of columns, professor of folklore Jan Brunvand examines the latest bizarre occurrences that supposedly happened to an FOAF (“friend of a friend”). The stories range from coating CDs with a green marker to improve the sound to the one about the man who tied up his naked wife and donned a super-hero costume to “rescue” her, but knocked himself unconscious during the preparations--leaving her to call 911. Brunvaln traces the origins of these stories and offers parallel accounts from other countries, once again proving that fiction is stranger than truth.