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I agree it cannot stay as it is. I suggest leaving it on the discussion page in case anyone can make a definitive judgement on the matter and write a more clear-minded entry. I think the problem here is with what "common sight" means; they could have been a real phenomena while still being rare and getting magnified in popular recollections.
Stories don't tell us monsters exist; we knew that already. They show us that monsters can be trademarked and milked for years.My sincere thanks to all of you, and especially you Hashiriya.
I serve at the pleasure of President Pritchart.

I deleted the following example from Dated History because it was utterly pointless ("we thought this, but then someone said otherwise, but then that person was disproven" does not count as an example and is just cluttering up the page). Someone else put it back. Verdict?
- "No Irish need apply" signs were once thought to be a common sight across the United States until Richard J. Jensen wrote a 2002 paper arguing that they were mostly a myth and there was no significant anti-Irish discrimination in the American job market except by a handful of English immigrants who still held the Hibernophobic sentiments common in their homeland. That being said, this paper was itself disproven in a 2015 rebuttal by 8th-grade student Rebecca A. Fried, who listed numerous instances of American signs and advertisements bearing the phrase between the 1840s and the early 20th century.
Edited by RoseAndHeather