I had a boss that always had an answer to everything. Problem was, sometimes he'd just make it up. Like the time he told someone that corned beef was named because it was traditionally serve with corn. Um... no. It's called corned beef because of the peppercorns used to season it during the boiling process.
Now, he's not alone in telling this kind of lie. People want answers, and often making them up is the easiest way to satisfy everyone. I've done it on occasion. And parents, in particular, seem to be huge perpetrators of this kind of lie.
Martin and I were actually talking about this the other day. Sometimes I'll be going about my normal day and it will suddenly dawn on me that some "fact" my parents instilled in me (when I was an impressionable, malleable child) is completely without basis. And not just the old wives' tales like don't swim for an hour after you eat.
No, no. These were outright lies they made up so they would have some sort of factual reason for making us stop our annoying behavior in a way that we couldn't argue with. On long car trips, they told us that the back seat reading lights would blind other drivers and we had to keep them off. "For safety." Clearly, they just wanted us to stop playing with the lights and sleep. But to this day I still get nervous when someone turns on interior car lights when I'm driving at night.
Anyway, back to my former manager. One time we were doing inventory of our ice cream novelty items, and I mentioned that sales would probably drop off now that it had started snowing. He told me that ice cream sales actually go up during the winter. I was properly amazed by his knowledge of all things sales-related, and then moved on to counting individual sticks of cheese.
But the other day, I was actually discussing ice cream consumption in winter, and my brain immediately piped up with that long forgotten factoid. After thinking about it for a minute, I became a bit suspicious. I decided to turn to my pal, the Internet to get some real answers.
See? I knew Internet would tell me the tru...
Wait a second... NONE of the top results can agree with each other? Internet! You have failed me! Can I trust no one?
*sigh*
5 comments:
You didn't use any of my examples! Why did you even ask me?
Two guesses--either Doug or Shanny. Am I right? Shanny once told us that Asian people don't like cheese so they wouldn't eat a lot of pizza.
That is kind of hilarious. But this one was Doug, bless him.
Wait...it's ok to turn on the lights in your car? D: I feel so decieved!
No, the rear lights don't blind other drivers. Actually, turning on the lights in your car ruins the driver's night vision so they can't see lines and obstacles on the road well. It's true. Ask my kids.
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