Myths & Stuff
Mumbai, India: photograph by Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock, posted at theguardian.com:
Not a single kid knocked on my door last night. And now it’s All Saints Day or, as my mom called it: “Tutti Santi.”
Headline from newsmax.com: “Report: WashPost Pays to Promote Anti-Trump Stories.”
Among today’s many celebrations, it’s National Author’s Day. Yay me.
Excerpts from 36 Debunked Misconceptions to Help You Gain Superiority Above Those Who Still Believe by Cracked Writers, posted at msm.com, edited by yours truly:
Myth: Siberia is a frozen wasteland. Reality: Parts of Siberia have beautiful summers. Novosibirsk reached 87.80F last June.
Myth: The Dueling Banjos scene in Deliverance (1972) was unscripted. Reality: It was not.
Myth: Bonnie & Clyde, Legendary Bank Robbers. Reality: They mostly robbed small grocery stores and gas stations. LOL!
Myth: Mussolini was known for making the trains run on time. Reality: the railway system had already been improved before he came to power.
Myth: Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment. Reality: He made the story up.
Myth: Condoms are 98% effective. Reality: They’re 82 % effective.
Myth: Spartans threw sick newborn babies off a cliff.
Myth: The Coriolis Effect and the Earth’s rotation make Australian toilets flush backwards.
Myth: Organic food is better. Reality: It has not been found to be significantly healthier.
Myth: Food should be thrown out after the expiration date. Reality: The FDA doesn’t require expiration dates, except for baby formula. The date on most food is an estimate and is often placed to encourage consumers to throw it out and buy more.
The forecast was for a possible shower, and it certainly looked that way when I arrived at my nook, but a gaze in the distance spotted at patch of blue and I decided to gamble it was heading our way. It was and it led to a good haul for the Anti-Inflation Book Shop that would have been highly unlikely at the nearby viaduct. My thanks to the Latino restaurant worker, who I hadn’t seen in months, who bought seven DVDs, a CD and a mini Bible; and to The Quiet Man, who purchased Daddy’s Little Girl by Mary Higgins Clark and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson; and to Jay, who took home CDs by Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong; and to the woman who chose three books in Russian; and to the one who donated two of said; and to local porter Robert, who delivered six books, four of which I put in the free kiosk… Happy Birthday to two of my best customers, Herbie and Steve, the poet laureate of Sheepshead Bay.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts
Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza
