Don't Swim After Eating Bread Crusts

I've never really thought of myself as a total pessimist. I am rather skeptical about some things however, such as fad diets, miracle supplements, urban legends, and other old wise-tales. My favorite being those parents that hammer on their children to eat the crust of the bread because, "That's where all the nutrients are" when in fact bread crust is simply burnt bread that is mostly void of nutrients. It's a science thing. Trust me. Another recently debunked fable that still makes the rounds is the whole, "Don't swim for a half hour after you eat because you'll get cramps and drown" thing.  An instance of drowning due to swimming on a full stomach has never been documented.  The American Academy of Pediatrics  and the American Red Cross has never made any recommendations about waiting after eating before going swimming.  Sorry, Just the way it is.   

The art of coffee-talk might as well be dead. With the ease of access to the internet, one can't even make up phony bologna stories or twist the facts of one they know to be true in order to impress the listeners. The minute I hear something that sounds like it might bea little tooconvenient of a story, one you don't want to ruin with any facts, I'm googling it on my smart-phone. After I depose the unwanted facts to the listeners, I often find myself feeling smarter than them, yet oddly setting by myself. 

I remember a buddy of mine up north that was famous for believing that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line in the opposite direction. This guy had family members scattered all over the upper-Midwest. When he would travel to see them he seemed to take the longest, slowest route possible, yet totally believe it was shorter or faster through some kind of wishful thinking disease because someone said, "Ya, so-and-so thinks it might be faster going this way.  (Maps, my protests and common sense be damned) Someone else went that way once and thought it was a good way to go".  That person might be thought of as the brains of the operation and everyone believes them at face value, so it becomes law.  I've often wondered how it's faster to go from Sioux Falls to Rapid City by traveling through Huron, Pierre and Philip .  My arguments as well as generally accepted common sense were finally redeemed when the internet became a useful tool. 

Ever hear this?  "Well I heard from a good source..."  Trust me, their source isn't good and they are probably embellishing or they would have used their sources' name.  When you hear something such as that assume you are hearing something that isn't true.  You will be right four out of five times.  I've heard stories about a lot of you that I know aren't true.  I've heard stories about me that are physically impossible to be true.  Never the less, I would love to see it become a crime to knowingly exaggerate about a person in a way that could be harmful to them.  Unfortunately, our courts are too busy.  Our jails are too small. There aren't enough lawyers to handle the workload.  Life is hard enough the way it is without the help of people that talk just to hear their head rattle.  I personally would never repeat gossip, unless I am absolutely sure I can get away with it.