Did you hear about why Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to KFC? Or how about the person who bought a yucca plant and when they watered it, it hissed? There’s always the one about the hitchhiker who leaves an attaché case in the car that is full of duct tape and knives. Or even the story about leaving a tooth in a glass of coke overnight. My favourite is always the one about how tourists befriended a long-tailed, short-haired, short-legged dog that turned out to be a giant rat.
A long, long time ago, before even my mum was born, people would sit around village fires and tell stories that “happened to a friend of my friend who lives in the other village“. Then the telephone was invented and people could sit around and tell stories about what happened to “a friend of my cousin (on my mother’s side)“. Now, thanks to the internet, and the Forward button, we can pass on stories that happened to “a close family friend of my local butcher“. Don’t get me wrong, I love the internet. I love the fact that within 0.32 seconds Google can find me 47,526 hits to the question I just asked. I love the fact that the facts are instantly available. But sometimes the internet is just full of stories that “happened to my hairdresser’s best friend“. Sometimes the internet can be like a village fire, everyone sits around and tells a scary story, and the best told story (the scariest story) gets retold, and retold, and forwarded, and forwarded.
Today, I was informed by the girls in my class that drinking water from a plastic bottle that had been left in a car to heat up, causes cancer. Now, far be it from me to argue with the persuasive facts (I got an email about it) or the poof (a friend of my mum told her that she had heard about a woman who had got cancer this way), but as a teacher I feel that it is my job to calm nerves rather than set all my students into a fully-fledged panic. It doesn’t take too much thought to realise that if this was really the case, by now bottles would have been taken off the market – the ability to sue for damages is a fantastic way of making sure that companies aren’t killing/poisoning/maiming me. However, if all else fails, I turn to snopes.com. I type in the relevant facts of the story into the search engine: plastic water bottle cancer and hit return. I am then told that plastic water bottles do not contain the toxins that cause cancer. I am informed that some baby bottles/hard plastic bottles might have caused cancer in some animals, and some governments have banned then. But, snopes.com will tell me if something is true or an urban legend. Try it, it’s fun. However, don’t blame me if you lose three hours of your life just reading through all the urban legends about Disney!
Oh, and in passing: I do believe in aliens; I don’t believe in UFO sightings; I have no opinion on Area 51; I believe that JFK was assassinated by one man – there was no one on the grassy knoll; man has walked on the moon; there was no curse on Tutankhamen’s burial site; and gang members don’t drive around with their lights switched off.
Secret Santa started today! Well, it sort of started for most people. For some people their secret friend either didn’t make it into school today, or forgot that it was starting today! However, the upside of that is: double pressies tomorrow! In the maths lesson we moved on to “logical reasoning“. This turned out to be a lot easier that it sounded, as it appeared that logical reasoning just meant a series of crosses and ticks in different boxes. I say “easy peasy“, you say, “lemon squeezy“.
The English lesson saw the end of the battle between Secret Agent 003½ and the evil Dr. Evil. Will they return now that oo3½ foiled evil Dr. Evil’s plan to assassinate the President and place his accomplice (the Vice President) in the White House? Who knows? We shall have to wait for ages to find out – well, at least until 2011!
Recess was made all the nicer thanks to brownies supplied by Polette. Oh, and have I mentioned? Today is Roberto’s birthday?
The geography lesson turned into a history lesson. However, you cannot study Russia without talking about its history. And somewhere in the history of Russia is the story of Napoleon’s invasion, the retreat from Moscow, and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture (which would could all hum). This lead to the fact that Napoleon might of died from arsenic poisoning. Which led to the fact that arsenic was found in old wallpapers. And then to water pipes that were made from lead. And then to schools that were made with asbestos. And, finally, to the fact that plastic drinking bottles might give you cancer…which they don’t!
English Word of the Day. Basketball. It is not, and never will be, referred to as “basket“. Sometimes “B-Ball“, most times basketball, never basket. Oh, and no Englishman would ever use the term soccer. It is football! And the game they play in the USofA is American Football. Right. Off to play on my bouncy castle.
Homework:
- Maths: Reteaching something-something Practice something-something no:1
- Reading: you should be reading for 20 mins every night.