Wanky McWankypants

In the past few years I have become somewhat of a cynic. You can make that a giant, unforgiving, cranky cynic, I guess, if the truth be told.  If someone “tells” me something that sounds even a little bit odd, I nod and say “Is that so?” and wait for them to leave so I can google it.  I’d have to say that most of the time what I’ve just been told as the gospel truth is hogwash.

Mr Knits and I were driving into work recently and the topic of rabies shots came up and he remarked, “And, who would want shots in the stomach?” I agreed with him and then immediately said, “But, we don’t know you get shots in the belly for rabies, do we?”  With that we both went on our rant about how everyone’s an expert, blah, blah, blah. So, when I got to work I looked it up and sure enough if one gets bitten by a rabid or suspected rabid animal, you don’t get shots in the belly anymore – that hasn’t been done for a long time in fact. Here’s a link to a blog post that describes the whole procedure in the first person. She actually experienced it. None of this “my sister’s brother in law’s best friend’s cousin’s kid’s best friend” said it was so.

We’ve been kind of cranky about all the self proclaimed experts recently. The day before, a gentleman who works at a car dealership told Mr Knits that a certain $35,000 2011 SUV’s diesel option cost an additional $50,000. Mr Knits thought that was crazy, and figured the guy meant $15,000. When he told me about it, I thought $15,000 was crazy and it was probably $1,500. A quick trip to the manufacturer’s website, and I “built” me the SUV in question, and it was confirmed the diesel option was :drum roll please: $1,500. The entire SUV all tricked out cost $48,513, including taxes and freight. A far cry from a base $35,000 model  plus $50,000 for the option. Holy cow! Talk about crazy talk.

Over Christmas a few of us were discussing Alzheimer’s disease and its causes. One person said quite authoritatively that doctors' conventional wisdom was that aluminum was the cause. I have to admit I guffawed and snorted and said “What!!!!! That theory was disproven back in the 80s.” Well, the authority wouldn’t believe me, so out came what I lovingly call The Google Machine (my little Nettie McNetbook) and we looked up the information on Alzheimer.ca , Alzheimer.com and the World Health Organization. Mr. Authority still wouldn’t concede he was incorrect in his statement, and kept arguing it.

Another Christmas thing we hear a lot is that the words “Fa la la la la” in Deck the Halls are actually replacement words for profanities. Not really. The Fa la la bit is to simulate the sounds of the harp that was supposed to be played at that part in the song. I guess you’d like me to cite my sources. Here you go (from answers.com)

It is a cheap way of simulating the playing of a harp:
""Deck the Halls" is a traditional Yuletide and New Years' carol. The "fa-la-la" refrains were originally played on the harp."

"The English words generally sung today are American in origin and date from the 19th century, but the original lyrics are Welsh."
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deck_the_Halls

And then there’s the whole crapity crap about the origin of candy canes. And no, it’s not the J for Jesus, nor the red for his blood. They weren’t invented in Indiana either. Google it.

I have to clarify here and now that I don’t believe everything on the interwebz is true and factual. I actually do some research before I am satisfied with the answer.

So, there you have it. My wankity wank for the week.  Just call me Wanky McWankypants.