Do You Have any Old Singer Sewing Machines?

One of the weirder stories of the day is this one from the BBC citing this Saudi Gazette article among others, to the effect that Saudis are rushing to buy old Singer sewing machines for up to $50,000 because of a rumor they contain "red mercury" and that foreign buyers are buying them up. Quoth the Beeb:

In Dhulum, it was reported that people had broken into two tailors' shops to steal the machines.

In the city of Madina, people were holding mobile phones up to the machines, due to the belief that they could be used to detect the presence of red mercury.

The picture of the old Singer in the BBC story looks like one my mother had about 50 years ago in Missouri. Should I have held on to it?

Well, of course, there are a couple of issues here. First of all, this is a classic urban legend, the sort that spreads rapidly in the age of E-mail and instant messaging and texting and Twitter, and no one in their right mind would, or at least should pay $50,000 for an old sewing machine. Similar stuff runs the rumor rounds in the US and Europe so we shouldn't feel superior to some Saudis for biting. (I have a really interesting business prospect involving the widow of a former Nigerian general . . . Well, somebody must be biting.) And clearly the Saudi government is debunking the story.

Secondly, there's the little problem that there's no such thing as red mercury. I will pre-empt the conspiracy theorists here by noting that yes, I suppose its existence could just be really highly classified, and that's why they say it doesn't exist, but nuclear scientists, the IAEA, and others say it's a myth. The British found themselves prosecuting people for trying to buy red mercury, even though it doesn't exist. (For some alternative views, you can check Wikipedia's "Talk" page for the "red mercury" article. Personally I think next we'll be hearing it was invented by either the Knights Templars or the Illuminati.)(Or maybe UFOs brought it.)

My old newsletter The Estimate (some articles online free at this inactive old website) used to have a "Coffeehouse Gossip" column to track the wilder rumors and speculation that is pretty common in the Middle East, especially among the denizens of the coffeehouses. I hereby create a new "coffeehouse gossip" category on this blog, for just this sort of story.