Teens Only | Don't Believe Everything You Hear

You've seen that commercial -- and I can't even remember what it's advertising -- with the woman who says "It's true...I read it on the Internet."

We don't believe everything we read or hear, right?

Made me think of those urban legends. What's an urban legend, you ask? According to Merriam-Webster, an urban legend is an often lurid story or anecdote that is based on hearsay and widely circulated as true. 

The Library has quite a few books on urban legends, or urban folklore as the library catalog likes to say. One of them you might want to check out is Ngaire Genge's Urban Legends: The As-Complete-As-One-Could-Be Guide to Modern Myths. It's cool to figure out whether those legends are really true...or totally false!

I had always heard a "rumor" that there is a private club in Disneyland. When I went there a few years ago, I searched high and low for this private club. Couldn't find it. But then I asked my Disneyland expert, Amy, and she confirmed that one does exist! It's called Club 33 and it's in Disneyland's New Orleans Square. And not that I can't trust everything Amy tells me, but I checked snopes.com just to make sure; it's true. There is a private club in Disneyland. Who knew!?!

Then I started thinking about other things I've been told over the years. Are they really true or just some silly made up story? You probably remember being told by a parent or other adult not to swallow your chewing gum because it takes 7 years to pass through your digestive system. It freaked me out completely the first time I accidentally swallowed a piece of Juicy Fruit gum. That thing was going to be inside my digestive system for 7 years? OMG! So I went to snopes.com to check this out. 

Whew! Not true. You can find the explanation for the debunking of this childhood myth here. (But it's still not a good idea to swallow gum.)

If you're wondering what this snopes.com thing is, let me explain. Snopes.com is a website which researches urban legends, Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin. It is a well-known resource for validating and debunking such stories in American popular culture.

 

I think there's a good lesson here: don't believe everything you hear. You can always check snopes.com or, novel thought, visit the library and do the research on your own! Every library branch has a reference section filled with dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a whole bunch more.

 

And if you need another reason to visit the library, check out the calendar of events for exciting programs at a library near you, or if you want to volunteer to be a Summer Book Buddy at the Cesar Chavez Central Library, give me a call at (209) 937-7012.

Have a great week!

Teens Only | Urban Legends

An urban legend is a secondhand story told as true and just plausible enough to be believed....about some horrific, embarrassing, ironic or exasperating series of events that supposedly happened to a real person.

We've all heard an urban legend or two. But which ones are true? And which ones are just myth?

As you probably know, you can go to the Snopes website and find out which legends are truth or myth. But let's try our own "urban legend" knowledge. Admittedly, these are pretty mild. Do you know which ones are truth and which ones are myth?

1. Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell out of a tree he was sitting under and hit him on the head.

2. The height of the Eiffel Tower changes by as much as six inches depending on the temperature outside.

3. During the day, you can see the stars from the bottom of a well.

4. Bats are blind.

5. A Japanese man -- hoping that his father would miraculously come back to life -- kept the man's corpse in a coffin-sized freezer for 13 years before authorities intervened.

Coconut milk for plasma?

6. Coconut milk can be used as a blood plasma substitute in an emergency.

7. A 22-year-old New York waiter was drowned in Coca Cola by a Russian mobster angry that his drink was removed from his table before he was finished with it.

Still thinking? If you'd like to check out some books filled with urban legends, stop by one of the SSJCPL branches. If the one you want isn't on the shelves, ask library staff to help you place a request! Here are a few cool ones:

Urban Legends: The Complete-As-One-Could-Be Guide to Modern Myths by Ngaire Genge

Urban Legends: The Truth Behind All Those Deliciously Entertaining Myths That Are Absolutely, Positively 100% Not True! by Richard Roeper

And now for the answers: 1. (Myth); 2. (True); 3. (True); 4. (Myth); 5. (True); 6. (True); 7. (Myth)

See you next Saturday!