Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Killer Playdough

"Playdough can kill you."  She said it calmly, but with a definite air of authority.  "I learned it on the Internet."  That back-up sentence definitely sealed the deal, because the other five-year-olds around her immediately stopped their squashing and shaping.  One boy, in particular, was very alarmed by this new piece of information, because he stopped his little wooden rolling pin mid-roll and moved over to the action figure mat. 
 
I have never understood the gullibility of some people.  Maybe that's why lawyers are rarely out of a job.  My sister-in-law, Terri, says if you say anything with authority, people will automatically believe you.  I hate to get all political, but case-in-point:  the G.W. administration...

When I was a kid, we had a neighbor who got all her news and current event information from a couple of tabloid "newspapers".  She believed these "facts" because they were in print and readily available to the public.  But really, when you think about it, who doesn't want to believe that an 83-year-old man just had triplets or that a cat in a far-away unnamed country can speak fluent French?

Truth is stranger than fiction, right?  (I saw that written somewhere, so it must be true.)  Maybe that's another reason that I write fiction.  I guess I just prefer the mundane...

3 comments:

Tim Haywood said...

One time I was sure I saw Satan's face in the clouds over Las Vegas. Then I realized I was lying on the sidewalk looking up at my Uncle Jimmy.

Annie said...

You must have had some of that killer playdough.

Jame said...

I've also been thinking about this Wiki Web 2.0 World where there is no right or wrong there's just stuff out there in the ether, hanging around, taking on a truthfulness of its own if no one contests it. Like if one person says a lie, and even if they admit it is a lie, emphasize that it is a lie, and another person repeats it...it suddenly has some weight, or endorsement. Instant mythology!

Word verification: redorc---(v.) to dorc again