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The Truth About Tom Hanks' Dad

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:31:14 +0000

Contrary to rumors circulating via Facebook and forwarded email, Amos Mefford Hanks — the father of actor/film director Tom Hanks — was not the lead singer of the popular fifties vocal group The Diamonds. Tom says his dad was "an itinerant cook" who spent his entire life in the restaurant business. Read more...

Confirmed: 'Woolly Mammoth' Video a Hoax

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:11:54 +0000

That "jaw-dropping" video presented by The Sun last week of a woolly mammoth crossing a river in Siberia has been confirmed a hoax by the videographer who shot the original footage, in which there is not a single extinct ice-age pachyderm to be seen.

Anyone surprised?

From LiveScience.com:
• 'Live Woolly Mammoth" Video Proven a Hoax

Did Rick Santorum Declare War on Heavy Metal? Nope.

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:12:50 +0000

An article claiming that presidential candidate Rick Santorum gave a speech in which he condemned heavy metal music as "Satanic" and the "single most dangerous force in America today" has sparked an outbreak of viral indignation on Facebook and Twitter, despite the fact that there's no public record of such a speech, and the article, credited to blogger Keith Spillet, is transparently satirical.

"If you listen to the radio today, many of these brand new, so-called heavy metal music bands like Black Sabbath, Venom, The WASP and Iron Maiden use satanic imagery to corrupt the minds of young people," Santorum supposedly told attendees at a fundraiser in Valdosta, Georgia last week. According to Spillet's account, the conservative Republican went on to call for the "internment" and "forced re-education of metalheads," who would be required to listen to "values based" music promoting the American way of life and the free market, and "sing the chorus to at least one Celine Dion song."

Some Facebook responders clearly get the joke, but at least as many seem to be buying the spoof hook, line, and sinker. "Oh and this is the same guy that 'will declare war on Iran if elected.' What a big bag of f***," railed one poster this morning. "I've lost all hope in America," lamented another. Still another wrote, "Metalheads, time to vote Democrat!"

This isn't the first time (nor will it be the last) that gullible folks have taken fictitious political quotations as gospel, of course. I've had more than one visitor to this site tell me they think it's perfectly plausible that candidate Barack Obama advocated replacing the National Anthem with the "less bellicose" song "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" on TV four years ago. He said no such thing, of course.

Come to think of it, it's probably not gullibility per se that makes so many of us suckers for this sort of thing. Maybe it's our habit of thinking of folks with political beliefs different from our own as cartoon characters instead of crediting them with a rational point of view.

Guilty as charged? Me, too. We can all do better. (Oh, and it wouldn't hurt to read more carefully, too.)

Updates:
This, believe it or not, is true: Megadeth Singer Endorses Rick Santorum
Or perhaps not: Megadeth Frontman Didn't "Endorse" Santorum

Obama's Left-Handed Flag Salute

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:02:13 +0000

Circulating via forwarded email for the past two years and now trending on Facebook:

FW: Clueless.....

Now is it just me, are both of them as dumb as they appear. I guess this could have been taken in a mirror which would screw it up, or maybe it is authentic. I would not doubt it being authentic!!!! Note both have rings on their ring finger and most likely on their left hand. I think they are truly clueless!!!!

I think we know who's truly clueless in this scenario. Read more...

'The Half-Time Flush' and Other Super Bowl Myths Debunked

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:03:08 +0000

In an interview with the LA Times a few years back, renowned folklorist Alan Dundes ventured to explain why Super Bowl Sunday has become the focus of so many larger-than-life "urban beliefs" in the United States — for example the claim that every year during half-time the water systems of major cities verge on collapsing because so many people flush their toilets simultaneously.

Wrote Dundes: "Every culture's legends express that culture's values. Super Bowl legends usually involve numbers and a sense of enormity. The idea of big numbers, of being bigger than other people, is very American."

Or maybe we're just prone to exaggerate. Who isn't? Read more...

Eddie Murphy Isn't Dead

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:44:47 +0000

I'll keep this short and sweet.

Despite the fact that "RIP Eddie Murphy" is trending on Twitter, and Facebook jabberers are busily sharing the "news" that the comic actor died in a snowboard accident in Switzerland, Eddie Murphy is just fine.

The false report originated — as most premature death notices do these days — on the prank website Global Associated News. Murphy is only the latest of literally dozens of celebrity victims of similar hoaxes perpetrated via the site.

Will people never learn? (I think we all know the disheartening answer to that question. Forget I asked.)

In the News:
• Eddie Murphy: Not Dead, Not in Switzerland (E! Online)
• Eddie Murphy: I Ain't Dead... Yet (TMZ.com)

More undead celebrities:
• Jon Bon Jovi
• Tiger Woods
• David Beckham
• Charlie Sheen
• George Clooney
• Jackie Chan
• Adam Sandler

The Long, Long Snake

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:40:39 +0000

The first time I saw this photo (about eight months ago), it was attached to a forwarded email claiming it was taken near the Morganza Spillway in Louisiana. The second time I saw it, it was on a message board posting entitled "King Brown Snake. Branxton, NSW, Australia." The third time I saw it (just last week, in fact), it was on Facebook, and according to the posting it was taken Jan. 25 in Delray, Florida. None of the above is true.

Feb. 2 Is Groundhog Day

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:00:52 +0000

Though Groundhog Day proper is a North American tradition of fairly recent origin, its historical roots stretch back through the medieval Christian feast of Candlemas to ancient pagan midwinter celebrations. For the past 100 years, Groundhog Day has revolved around the ceremonial de-hibernation of a domesticated Pennsylvania woodchuck named Punxsutawney Phil.

Every February, Phil is hauled out of his artificial burrow on Gobbler's Knob (a hilltop near Punxsutawney, PA) to "predict" the next six weeks' weather. If Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, legend has it, the cold winter weather will continue into March; if he doesn't, there'll be an early spring.

True? Of course not. It's folklore. Historically, the groundhog's "predictions" have more often been wrong than right.

Learn More About Groundhog Day

Can You Guess What This Is?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:33:50 +0000

No, it's not frozen yogurt. It's not soft-serve ice cream. It's what's known in the meat processing industry as "mechanically separated chicken." After being stripped off the bone by machinery, sieved and extruded in the form of an appetizing pink paste, it will end up in hot dogs and lunch meat to be consumed by you and me. Read more...

Navy SEAL Team 6

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:20:08 +0000

"This is what the Navy SEAL team looked like when they went in to get Bin Laden," says a forwarded email touting the shock-and-awe-inspiring photo above. A closer examination suggests otherwise. Read more...