Thursday, November 26, 2009
TT # 136
I first visited this topic back in 2006--same time of year, too. How odd. If you want to check out that post, it's here: Thirteen Things We "Know".
| # | details | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Beam me up, Scotty." --Captain James T. Kirk, in the Star Trek series. | The closest that Captain Kirk ever got to this was "Beam us up, Mr Scott", in the 'Gamesters of Triskelion' episode. | click here |
| 2 | "Elementary, Dear Watson" --Sherlock Holmes | In fact the line doesn't appear in the Conan Doyle books, only later in Sherlock Holmes' films. | click here |
| 3 | "Play it again, Sam." --Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), in the 1942 film Casablanca. | Bogart's supposed line from Casablanca. This is well-known as one of the most widely misquoted lines from films. The actual line in the film is 'Play it, Sam'. | click here |
| 4 | "You dirty rat!" --James Cagney | This line didn't appear in any of Cagney's many films. In a speech to the American Film Institute in 1974 he made a point of saying: 'I never said "Mmm, you dirty rat!"' | click here |
| 5 | A duck's quack doesn't echo. | A duck's quack does echo. The misconception may be because "the way a duck quacks, with a long 'aaaacckkk' on the end of the call, tends to mask any echoes that are produced." | click here |
| 6 | Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny) hated carrots. | He did spit them out after crunching them for the taping, but that was because it would take too long to chew and swallow. | |
| 7 | Water goes down a drain counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere | Hurricanes do rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere, but the Coriolis effect doesn't extend to drains. | click here |
| 8 | If you don’t wait an hour after eating before you go into the water, you’ll get stomach cramps and drown. | This rule showed up in the 50s and 60s with some shaky pseudo-scientific rationale that blood needed to keep muscles moving would be busy digesting food instead, which isn't true. In fact, some competitive swimmers eat large meals just before meets to give them energy. | click here |
| 9 | Sitting too close to the TV can damage your eyesight. | In the 60s, there were some televisions that emitted excessive X-rays, and parents were warned not to allow their children to sit close to the TV for more than an hour. Mostly, though, it's a case of mistaking cause for effect: children who are already nearsighted sit close to the TV so they can see it. | click here |
| 10 | Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis. | Not so. It can, however, damage joints and cause swelling. | click here |
| 11 | Drinking coffee will stunt a child's growth. | No. There are other effects you might want to avoid, though, such as the obvious one of giving a child a stimulant, the calorie content of many coffee drinks, and staining and decay of teeth. | click here |
| 12 | If you swallow gum, it will stay in your digestive system for 7 years. | Nope. | click here |
| 13 | The first Thanksgiving included turkey, pumpkin pie, corn on the cob, and cranberry sauce, and was eaten by Pilgrims dressed in black and white with those big buckles on their hats and shoes. | Well, they did have turkey. | click here |
Happy Thanksgiving!
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