Six Untrue Facts I Have Believed My Whole Life!

Do not believe everything you hear! You will be astounded to learn how many factual things are myths. Want to know six untrue facts I have believed my whole life?

While at a wedding this past weekend, I became involved in a conversation regarding the city of Chicago. Having lived there for ten years, I mentioned how much I missed it. If not for missing our family, my husband and I could have easily made it our permanent home.

I was asked how we handled Chicago’s cold and windy winters. It is usually assumed that since Chicago’s nickname is “The Windy City,” it must be pretty chilly. The truth is Chicago’s nickname has nothing to do with the weather. The nickname was coined by 19th-century journalists referring to Chicago politicians as “windbags” and “full of hot air.”

This untrue Chicago fact was the only one I was familiar with since Mike and I had lived there. Chicagoans love telling the story of how the Windy City isn’t windy. Too funny!

The Untrue Fact About German Chocolate Cake

Who doesn’t like to imbibe in a generous slice of German Chocolate Cake now and again? Would it surprise you to learn that German Cake was created in Texas? Yup, y’all heard that right!

In 1957, a recipe for German Chocolate Cake was printed in the Dallas Morning News, credited to Mrs. George Clay. She called her creation a German Chocolate Cake because she used German’s Sweet Chocolate in the recipe. The baking chocolate was named German’s because Samuel German created it in the 1850s. Sam was never a resident of Germany!

You can find additional info here: https://www.allrecipes.com/article/how-did-german-chocolate-cake-get-its-name/.

The Untrue Fact About Bubble Gum

Here’s an untrue fact that I have believed since childhood–it does not take seven years to digest chewing gum! Really? Isn’t that why everyone stuck their gum on the bottom of their chair in a movie theatre? This is a startling revelation!

Actually, the gum will pass right through you and leave your body within a matter of hours or days. According to Healthline, the ingredients in gum can’t be digested at all, so your body will move it along and pass it as a bowel movement.

Unbelievable!

Truthfully, it thrills me to learn we do not eat an average of eight spiders yearly. Are you familiar with that untrue fact? I’d get grossed out when someone said that because I thought it was true! According to an article in Buzzfeed:

“Arachnid experts speaking to Scientific American said that such a claim ‘flies in the face of both spider and human biology.’ Spiders ‘regard us much like they’d regard a big rock,’ since we’re so comparatively huge that we’re ‘really just part of the landscape’ to them. Additionally, the vibrations of a sleeping human (snoring, breathing, and beating of a heart) are terrifying to spiders. As far as humans go, even if the rare, brave spider does wander across your face whilst you snore, you’d most likely feel it there and wake up before it crawled inside your mouth.”

This makes me so happy!

Twinkies Never Expire or So I Thought

In the event of an apocalypse, stocking up on Twinkies was always suggested since they (supposedly) had no expiration date. Yet another untrue fact is revealed! Twinkies have a 46-day expiration date. While the thought of stocking up on Twinkies as a kid appealed to me, I’m perfectly content that this untrue fact has been uncovered. Have you tried a Twinkie lately? No, thank you. Yuk!

Lastly, eating rice does not make birds explode! As a kid, I remember there was a big to-do about throwing rice at brides and grooms when they left the church. Although it had been a long-standing tradition at Catholic weddings, we suddenly could no longer do it.

Evidently, the rice could expand inside a bird’s belly and cause the poor thing to explode. Do you remember being told that? Weddings started using bubbles instead.

Turns out, that was another untrue fact we had all been believing. This Mentalfloss article will explain the difference between rice and bird seed and its effects on our tiny furry friends: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31421/does-wedding-rice-really-make-birds-explode

The bottom line on the birds is that you can throw all the rice you would like at the next wedding you attend. No harm will come to any of them.

Life Truly is Stranger than Fiction

So, there you have it, six facts that we have all believed for very long are exposed as untrue. I had so much fun researching this article! It is amazing how many untrue facts exist in our world. Some things are actually folklore that turned factual as the years accumulated.

However it happens, it doesn’t really matter. But you can now be the most interesting person at the party! You have six conversation starters right here:

• Chicago is not called the Windy City because of its weather
• German Chocolate Cake originated in Dallas, Texas not Germany
• It does not take seven years to digest bubble gum
• None of us eat eight spiders yearly
• Twinkies do have an expiration date
• Rice will not harm birds, so throw all you want at weddings

I hope you have enjoyed my little ditty on untrue facts. Please comment below with any untrue facts you have come across. Don’t forget to share my blog with a friend or colleague. I am always trying to grow my following.