myths

Cliff and I have a three-month trial of HBO going right now.  The last time I downgraded our channels to save money, they threw that in for free, hoping, I suppose, that we'd get hooked and keep it (to the tune of $15 a month).  
That isn't going to happen.  There are SO few movies that hold my attention.  We paid $6 to watch "The Help" on Pay-per-view this week, and it was well worth it.  But a movie has to be really good if I'm going to waste time on it.  Thanks to the Internet, I have a short attention span these days.  
The thing about HBO is that even though the package consists of about ten channels, the same movies are rebroadcast on all those channels over and over again, so that before long, I've already seen the few shows that would interest me.  
Yesterday there was one movie that was worth my time, even though I saw it years ago:  Fargo.  Oh, it's a bloodbath, but it is so well done!  
Why am I rambling on about movies?  Because Fargo begins with these words scrolling down the screen:  "This is a true story.  The events depicted in this film took place in 1987.  At the request of the survivors the names have been changed.  Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred."  For years I believed that!
It's a lie.  Check it out HERE.   Or, you can watch the credits at the end of the movie and see this statement in tiny print:  "No resemblance to any persons living or dead."  
There's actually more of a grain of truth in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" than in Fargo.  I never saw the remake of the chainsaw movie, just the old one from the 70's.  It was so ridiculous it was laughable.   
Which brings me to emails.  Some people seem to believe anything they read in emails, and then they forward the falsehoods to everybody they know.  
There's the story that John Wayne accepted Jesus on his deathbed.    There is some truth in that one, since he converted to Catholicism toward the end of his life, but the story you'll read in an email is all dressed up in lies.  Because we love the Duke, don't we?  And we love a good story with a happy ending.
What is it about soda cans that inspires so many lies?  If you've received an email warning you about soda cans in any way whatsoever, it's probably fiction.  Oh, and those pull tabs aren't worth anything, either, except for their aluminum content.  Check out the dozens of myths about pop cans HERE.  
I can't believe people are still forwarding emails about a "virus that will wipe out your hard drive!!!!!"  
Anybody who has an antivirus and keeps it updated won't have to worry much about a virus.  Besides, most of the email warnings you read are about some virus from three or four years ago that is no longer a threat.  
Can you unlock your car door with a cell phone?  No way.  Is your personal information on your motel key card?  Nope.  
But if you'd rather accept all the garbage that comes your way in emails as fact, go right ahead.   
As for me, I'll go to Snopes and check out those little gems, unless it's so far-out that any fool would know it's a lie.  Then I won't bother.   


One thing I've learned over the years, most people don't want to hear that the emails they're sending out are fabrications.  So I don't usually tell them; I just hit the delete key.  


But don't you DARE tell me there's no Santa Claus!