Fairy Tales
I have recently added a new pet peeve to my list - people who forward articles just to be able to be the first one with the “scoop” without giving much thought to whether or not it's worth it.
Take for example a couple of weeks ago, when I got emails (all in 1 day) from about 7 friends containing the story of how Keanu Reeves married Alan Cummings.. A couple of days later, my fave radio station announced the same with much fanfare and a respected journalist from a widely circulated broadsheet deemed it big enough to devote an entire page to discussing its impact on Keanu's career. Boy, I never knew his lovelife was of such interest to sooo many people. What pissed me off was that people didn’t even take the time to validate it and just automatically assumed it was true. Hey, am no fan of Keanu (never liked Matrix) nor of Alan (I remember him most as that freak in the X-Men movie), but pleeease, it just takes a couple of clicks to check out if this tale really is to be believed. If considerably smart people can believe this then no wonder the world's so messed up! Think of all the lies perpetrated by the media to promote or discredit individuals through the years which may have affected history...
The internet is a veritable treasure trove of all things fascinatingly true and made-up. One just has to be able to discern which ones are to be taken in with a grain of salt. What surprised me is that not one of them had noticed that the article seemed to be too short – thus leading one to conclude that it may have been lifted from a much longer one. Had they taken the time to do so, they would have seen that said article was posted April 1st – hello, the international day of tomfoolery and hijinks! Plus the fact that the site itself had a disclaimer at the end which states, “Ironically, we ran a similar story on the SAME DATE last year." So there! How others can be so gullible is beyond me...To know what I am talking about, log onto http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=3952 and the just-as-fantastic yarn from the year before http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=1419 Alternatively, go to http://www.gfamilynet.com/askthetoad.html and http://artwells.com/oracula/modules.php?op=modload&name=Newwings&file=index for a similar dose. The latter is cryptic as hell - just don't base major decisions on any one of 'em.
Take for example a couple of weeks ago, when I got emails (all in 1 day) from about 7 friends containing the story of how Keanu Reeves married Alan Cummings.. A couple of days later, my fave radio station announced the same with much fanfare and a respected journalist from a widely circulated broadsheet deemed it big enough to devote an entire page to discussing its impact on Keanu's career. Boy, I never knew his lovelife was of such interest to sooo many people. What pissed me off was that people didn’t even take the time to validate it and just automatically assumed it was true. Hey, am no fan of Keanu (never liked Matrix) nor of Alan (I remember him most as that freak in the X-Men movie), but pleeease, it just takes a couple of clicks to check out if this tale really is to be believed. If considerably smart people can believe this then no wonder the world's so messed up! Think of all the lies perpetrated by the media to promote or discredit individuals through the years which may have affected history...
The internet is a veritable treasure trove of all things fascinatingly true and made-up. One just has to be able to discern which ones are to be taken in with a grain of salt. What surprised me is that not one of them had noticed that the article seemed to be too short – thus leading one to conclude that it may have been lifted from a much longer one. Had they taken the time to do so, they would have seen that said article was posted April 1st – hello, the international day of tomfoolery and hijinks! Plus the fact that the site itself had a disclaimer at the end which states, “Ironically, we ran a similar story on the SAME DATE last year." So there! How others can be so gullible is beyond me...To know what I am talking about, log onto http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=3952 and the just-as-fantastic yarn from the year before http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=1419 Alternatively, go to http://www.gfamilynet.com/askthetoad.html and http://artwells.com/oracula/modules.php?op=modload&name=Newwings&file=index for a similar dose. The latter is cryptic as hell - just don't base major decisions on any one of 'em.
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