General Chat

Does it grate on anyone else when they hear the old urban myths trotted out in conversation as if they were absolute facts and when you point out that its not true, the other person goes off in the huff?
My tops ones are:

The V sign dates back to when the French cut the fingers off English archers

Friday the 13th is somehow unlucky and all other stupid superstitions

You will get cramp if you go swimming within an hour after eating

Jews make love through a hole in a sheet (bigoted ones are the worst myths)

You only use 10% of your brain (that may be true for people who believe this one)

Science can’t explain how a bee flies (it can)

Any quote from Nostradamus or The Da Vinci Code that claims to be true/will come true/has actually happened

Anything circulated by email starting with 'this is not a hoax' or 'Warning - virus alert'


:-D

I really hate the 'glurge' tales; those which are supposed to provoke much eye dabbing - triumph over adversity sort of thing, often with a moral thrown in. I'm sure some of them have roots in truth, but have become so sugary and schmaltzy as to be ludicrous. I don't reach for the tissues, just the bucket.... ;-)

Oh dear god, yes, the ones with an orphan, an angel, a puppy dog, a kindly veteran from WW2 and a runaway train in them. They make me cringe as well.

did you know swan can break your arm :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

and sitting on a cold surface will give you piles - piles of what I have no idea!!! :-D

If you swallow an orange pip it will lodge in your appendix or chewing gum will strangle your appendix

oh yes and chewing gum takes 7 years to pass thorugh if you swallow it

I always make point of walking under ladders - I do check first in case something could drop on me though - like paint!!!

I think something makes you go blind too, can't remember what that was :-P

I always thought the V sign meant sod off!!

Nearly right, Ann lol

I think it's sticking pins in your eyes that make you go blind. Yes, thats the one.

Nice swerve Eldrick...lmao :-D

yeah but, did you know, my aunties, sisters, uncles, gran, was filling her car up with petrol, when the attendant frightened her, and she jumped in her car n drove of,

and well................


oh yes i hate them too, slly urbam legends :-D

remember one from my youth regarding white horses......


no matter when you cross london bridge there will always be a white horse on it.......


more modern on a trip up the A1 will always spot an eddie Stobart lorry.......

or the boy that waved his arm out of a car window and it got ripped off...


Being as its nearly Football Euro time ...the one I hate is ...which has already started doing the rounds...is " our English flag offends you but our benefits don't " thick moron springs to mind. :-(

:-0

I thought it was the middle finger sign, not the V sign that originated from the French...ie an archer couldn't pull the bow without his middle finger, so when caught that finger was always cut off. Therefore, if they weren't caught, they'd wave the middle finger...

Either way, as you say, urban myth. Like old wives tales, little or no truth in them at all....such as bats will get tangled in your hair. Err...no they won't.

** removes hair net ** :-D

No it doesn´t grate on me everybody is entiled to believe in what they want.

By the way a swan can break your arm if you get in the way of her and her babies, trust me on that. They are vicious creatures ..as are all mums protecting their young.
As for the crap that people spout well it´s upto them if they believe or not. I wouldn´t spout paganism at them so why should I change their believes. ??

I think thats true up to a point, but if people believe and repeat urban myths they then go on to become true in the minds of many others. And I think its morally wrong and demeaning to anyones intelect to listen to people spouting rubbish and refusing to accept it for what it is. For me, it's all about the infuriating inability to apply critical thinking and dispense with gullibility. This is the age of information and science and people still believe and act upon total nonsense. Its a total waste of an education and a brain to believe that 13 is an unlucky number or that your life is ruled by some planet or star.

As for swans, I reckon that for a swan to break someones arm the victim would have to be suffering from brittle bones syndrome, be 2' tall and tied to a chair leg while the swan spends several hours battering away. Swans have lighweight bones in their wings, otherwise they wouldn't be able to fly. A full grown male mute swan weighs no more than 30lb, the size of a very small roe deer and with considerably lighter and weaker bones. The bulk of its weight is in its chest muscles for flight and its weapon of attack is it's beak.

No, I'm afraid trhat, barring an accident, I can't see a swan breaking any arms. No more than a roe deer, a fox, a badger or a very annoyed coypu.

off down the lake now to feed the swans :-D