Whats the best myth/old wives tale you've ever heard, and/or believed?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I would be interested to know.

― Mckenzie (Mckenzie), Thursday, 17 October 2002 12:07 (twenty-three years ago)

just to immediately bring this thread into the gutter, i was once told, and believed for all of about 10 minutes, that men twisted their penises in one direction to start the flow of urine, and the other direction to stop it. i don't think this is either a myth or an old wives' tale but i'm still stunned that i believed it.

― angela (angela), Thursday, 17 October 2002 12:25 (twenty-three years ago)

...'and believed for all of about 10 minutes'...

Come on now, you only found out that wasn't true this morning.

― Mckenzie (Mckenzie), Thursday, 17 October 2002 12:32 (twenty-three years ago)

no, at lunchtime. (not).

― angela (angela), Thursday, 17 October 2002 12:40 (twenty-three years ago)

I can't really think of anything, but I did have my b/f believing that Lee Evans had died last nite. We were in the pub after the football & a pic of Lee Evans came on the screen but the sound was turned down & naturally I thgt of that! Look on b/f's face = classic, lee evans being dead = dud!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 17 October 2002 12:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, this is really mean! (but i did laugh loads!) I apologise to all of those that may have been affected!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 17 October 2002 12:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Lee Evans is alive!!!

― Mckenzie (Mckenzie), Thursday, 17 October 2002 12:54 (twenty-three years ago)

That Jesus watches you masturbate

― Mike Hanle y (mike), Thursday, 17 October 2002 13:09 (twenty-three years ago)

hot peppers put hair on your chest. although i believe this one.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 17 October 2002 13:11 (twenty-three years ago)

My parents told me when I was very, very little that eating sugar gives you worms. Lying bastards. I am quite slim, though, so it may have worked.....

― lol p xx, Thursday, 17 October 2002 13:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Is it true that sitting on cold stone can give you piles?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 17 October 2002 13:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Not unless it's a stone that you have a lot of problems getting back out again......

― lol pxx, Thursday, 17 October 2002 13:48 (twenty-three years ago)

That Jesus watches you masturbate

Is this supposed to encourage or discourage you?

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 17 October 2002 14:00 (twenty-three years ago)

In my house, eating your crusts didn't put hairs on your chest, it made your teeth curly (this was meant to be a good thing, not a deterrent)

― Madchen, Thursday, 17 October 2002 14:24 (twenty-three years ago)

crusts made your hair curly in my house, which resulted in me never eating them as i already had curly hair and wanted it to be straight like everyone else. now i don't care less about my hair being straight or curly but i still don't eat crusts out of habit.

― angela (angela), Thursday, 17 October 2002 14:27 (twenty-three years ago)

that somewhere in south Dublin there is a housing estate where houseowners can pick whatever number they want for their house, regardless of where the house is on the road.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 17 October 2002 15:00 (twenty-three years ago)

... where the streets have no name?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 17 October 2002 15:04 (twenty-three years ago)

That Jess is the anal fun boy of ILX

― SPAZZ!, Thursday, 17 October 2002 16:47 (twenty-three years ago)

I have heard this many, many times, and it may be true: That somewhere near where I live (in Central Virginia) there is a small town (no pun intended) populated entirely by midgets, with houses, etc. built to scale. They built this town as a place where they can feel "normal," and if outsiders show up to gawk, they get very mad and occasionally attack with bats, guns, whatever. This is a stereotypical urban legend, as everyone I've heard this story from has a friend who has supposedly been there/attacked.

― Nick A., Thursday, 17 October 2002 16:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Are these Midgets blue? And is your friends name Gargamel?

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 17 October 2002 17:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh no.......

― My sides! My sides! (Dan Perry), Thursday, 17 October 2002 17:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Chris V. = winner of the day.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 October 2002 17:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Smurfs - Classic or Dud?

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 17 October 2002 17:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Everytime you masturbate god kills a kitten. Amazingly the two cats I have are still kicking.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 17 October 2002 17:17 (twenty-three years ago)

i was told that eating raw bacon gives you worms. which didnt stop me, i still disgust my friends and family by doing it.

― donna (donna), Thursday, 17 October 2002 18:16 (twenty-three years ago)

i think that can be true, though, donna.

Rather than old wives' tales specifically, I still to this day have occasional moments of realisation that things my dad explained to me in answer to my questions when very young are actually complete nonsense. Does the action of turning a lightbulb on or off actually reduce its lifespan by an hour a time?

― Mark C (Mark C), Friday, 18 October 2002 09:28 (twenty-three years ago)

It does reduce its lifespan quite significantly, Mark. A light globe left switched on for 50 years would have very little reason to deteriorate. It is the expansion and contraction of the filament due to heat that causes it to eventually break.

I'm not sure how accurate 'an hour' is. The lifespan of any particular light globe is pretty unique, and depends on a lot of difficult-to-control factors during production and transportation of the globe.

― Andrew (enneff), Friday, 18 October 2002 09:40 (twenty-three years ago)

byron the bulb to thread!!

(or shd that be "bayonet" ahahaha)

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 18 October 2002 09:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Mr brother told me that a certain type of flower was "where bees come from". As I was scared of bees I spent quite some time kicking the shit out of every member of that species I came across

― Sofa King Alternative (Sofa King Alternative), Friday, 18 October 2002 11:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Tapeworms can be transmitted from pigs to human by eating raw or undercooked meat from that magical animal, whether pork ham or bacon. I'd advise stopping, Donna.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 18 October 2002 18:13 (twenty-three years ago)

o no! and i have been doing it for YEARS i love raw bacon. i wonder if i am riddled with worms?
nah.
i eat raw beef too.

― donna (donna), Friday, 18 October 2002 18:45 (twenty-three years ago)

this is more of an unbelievable myth, but it's great. supposedly in the garden of eden it was adam and an elk. only the elk and adam weren't quite compatible so the elk was replaced with eve...at which point all elk devoloped a terrible hatred of women, especially pregnant one. so armenian women who were pregnant slept with knives under their pillow to guard against elk coming into their rooms and sucking their livers out through their mouths.

― Maria (Maria), Friday, 18 October 2002 19:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Boy, and I thought Lilith was vengeful.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 October 2002 19:07 (twenty-three years ago)

that saddam has nuclear weapons.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 18 October 2002 22:21 (twenty-three years ago)

When you first arrive in prison, someone will offer you a cirgarette. You must refuse it. He will insist, and call it a gift. You must not take the cigarette under any circumstances. If you do, he will come to you later and claim that you owe him a cigarette. If you give him a cigarette, he will know you will agree with anything he tells you to do and he will own you. If you don't give him a cigarette, the unpaid cigarette will accrue interest, becoming two cigarettes, then three, then four, until you cannot possibly repay him and he will own you.

Also, when you first get to prison, you have to kill someone right away so people know not to mess with you.

― felicity (felicity), Saturday, 19 October 2002 23:36 (twenty-three years ago)

this is a myth?

― donna (donna), Saturday, 19 October 2002 23:50 (twenty-three years ago)

I believed in Santa, and the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny WAY longer than I should have. My dad seemed to think that crawling around outside the house on X-mas eve, ringing sleighbells and playing myriad other 'this is proof' mind tricks on us kids was soooo cute. Yeah great dad, thanks for coming clean AFTER my first year of public school.

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 20 October 2002 00:17 (twenty-three years ago)

I've always liked the seagulls explode if they swallow food spiked with Alka Seltzer one...also the one about birds choking if they eat rice at a wedding (sense a pattern? I'm also a big Tom Lehrer fan...)

― Joe (Joe), Sunday, 20 October 2002 14:33 (twenty-three years ago)

There is probably some truth to the exploding seagull thing - I imagine they can't burp, so the gas would build up inside them until it did damage. It would be more of a rupture than an explosion though.

Some people kill rats (which also don't burp) by leaving cola for them using the same physics

― Sofa King Alternative (Sofa King Alternative), Monday, 21 October 2002 07:35 (twenty-three years ago)

When my mum was breastfeeding my sister she told me that one breast was the main course and the other was desert. I believed this wholeheartedly for many years. D’oh.

― Plinky (Plinky), Monday, 21 October 2002 07:52 (twenty-three years ago)

"Today the left teat is offering beef wellington, while the right teat is serving a luscious creme brulee."

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 21 October 2002 13:22 (twenty-three years ago)

My grandma often told me that if a child drank alcohol, his/her belly buttom would turn blue.

― arantxa, Monday, 21 October 2002 13:32 (twenty-three years ago)

A housemate of mine once made some cakes and when they came out of the oven, we all went into the kitchen to taste them. He looked a little perturbed and said "don't eat cakes while they're hot, they'll make you sick".

We looked at him : "Gary, did your mother tell you this?" "Yes" "How old were you when your mother told you this?" ...Slow realisation... "Um.... er... about... seven.... or eight...."

― Steve.n., Monday, 21 October 2002 14:52 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.