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Untrue Urban Legends

I had better begin this with a modifier: allegedly. The person who originated or forwarded the eMail I received a few days before Christmas neglected to employ it.

" Facebook has forbidden Nativity Scenes to be used on their social network," was the headline on the call to arms.

"Let's band together and prove Facebook can't get away with it!!!!!!" was the message under an image of one of the many impressions rendered by artists of the creche at Bethlehem.

(I always shrink when anyone puts more than one exclamation mark at the end of a sentence. I feel as if the writer is shouting at me. Beyond being rude, it is ungrammatical.)

The Defender of the Faith neglected to be specific about whatever punishment Facebook's stockholder deserve.

The person who originated this myth added,  "Facebook said it doesn't want to offend anyone."

Such as Druids, I suppose.

All untrue. To begin with, there is nothing in Facebook's Terms of Service forbidding the posting of religious images. The point being, someone intentionally lied - and to a lot people. Why?

Just like Hoax #2: Neither the late Mr. Fred Rogers or anyone in his TV Neighborhood has been a much decorated Navy Seal nor a former trained assassin for the government. Of course one had to wait for this wonderfully warm and talented person to be buried before concocting a tall tale about him making a target out of himself on Iwo Jima in order that Japanese machine gunners would be less likely to aim at the men under his command.

What is one to believe when cyberspace is being saturated with lies? Such as the bulletin I received recently, urging me to contact the National No-Call Registry because the writer swore that the FCC had decided that all cell phone numbers were to be made available to marketers and a directory of cell phones would soon be published. "Furthermore, if you are called by one of these peddlers, you will have to pay for the call."

No way. But I wish I could figure out how to bring this about.

Some of it is harmless. A good stink could have been caused by claiming that uncooked leftover onions were were "poisonous" because "they are a magnet for bacteria." (I thought everything became a bacteria magnet sooner or later). This claim was soon countered by other persons giving testimonials about how raw onion slices absorb flu germs.

420 is not the number of a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives or Senate legalizing marijuana. There is no bill. Neither is 4/20 Bob Marley birthday, nor is 4:20 p.m. the time when pot heads are called to light up a doobie.

I really hate to reveal this: Hercules, once touted as the World's Biggest Dog, is the result of some clever photo shopping.

Oh, that 9 foot, 97 pound "Texas" rattlesnake (everything is bigger in Texas) has been around for years, having been claimed in Louisiana, Oklahoma and even North Dakota, where there are no rattlesnakes.


73,
Phil Richardson, Observer and Story Teller.


Phil's current post can be read at:  http://www.imrightagain.com

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