I get a lot of crazy emails. Once a year I get one about a famous atheist doing away with all religious programming on tv. It has been forwarded by a gob-zillion people before I get it. They want me to sign a petition and send it to the FCC. The problem is that this famous atheist has been dead for over a decade. I really doubt she is opposing religious programming from beyond the grave!
I loved the one I got about the woman who was sitting in the car holding her head. She claimed someone had shot her in the back of the head and she was using both hands to hold her brains in. The story goes on to say that it was a hot day and she had just bought several cans of bisquits. One exploded and hit her in the back of the head. She reacted by grasping her head to feel the warm dough and thought it was her brains. If that story was true the woman would have been bragging. She didn't have that many brains!
There are emails that warn us of things that never happened. We have been warned of car jackings, kidney stealings and many other scams that never happened. Somebody, somewhere is getting a great laugh at our expense.
When I get an outrageous email which has been forwarded, I always check it out. I have found that www.snopes.com is a great resource. This website is not infallible but it does have some research attached to it.
The strange thing is that when I tell people that their stories are not true, instead of thanking me, they take me off their email list and continue to send bogus stories. I know this is true because one of their friends, whom they forwarded the bogus email to, forwards the email to me. After I warn that person, I drop off of another person's email list.
Maybe we just like the stories and don't care if they are true.
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