Missiles, X‑Rays and Mustaches: True Tales from Nevada

In a dusty Nevada town a legend lingers: a man with a mustache kissed a woman in Eureka, and the rumor goes that the town passed an ordinance to stop such smooches. The image is absurd and intimate — a single kiss sprouting a community rule — and the story follows the way folklore can outlive official records. As the episode peels back layers, it contrasts this charming bit of folk law with laws that are anything but whimsical: Nevada’s surprisingly broad felony against launching “missiles” at buses, and the real public‑health ban that retired vintage X‑ray shoe‑fitting machines. Each law has a grain of truth that explains why the stories stick, even when the original ordinances fade. Through first‑person quips and small‑town detail, the episode moves from chuckle‑worthy gossip to the stranger-than-fiction ways rules evolve — and why some legends refuse to die. Next stop: New Hampshire’s nighttime seaweed ban.