The Big Myth Bust: What We Thought We Knew

Last week, Joe stirred my creativity and curiosity when he debunked the 10,000 step rule. This week, we're going to take down 20 more myths that will come crashing down like a penny falling from the Empire State Building. Spoiler. No one's going to get hurt here. Today we're diving into the myths we've all believed at some point. Whether it's the Great Wall of China waving the astronauts or poor, misunderstood Napoleon being forever labeled as shorty. We've got everything from bulls who couldn't care less about red capes to the truth about what's really lurking under the bed. Hint, it's not eight spiders waiting to be swallowed. We're gonna have some fun and laughs, but we hope you're not too disappointed that you can never trust that five second rule ever again. I'm Curtis. My pal over there is Joe. He's the real deal. And we are dudes in progress. Hey, Joe.

What's going on, my fake friend?

This is Curtis AI talking to you. You never know.

I am a myth. I'm not real. All these years has been a figment of your imagination or some rumor that our buddy Clay has concocted.

Joe Taylor, the man, the myth, the legend.

How are you, pal?

I'm pretty good.

Good, good.

Me too. Feeling good. I did my 7,000 steps today. Inspired. Yeah, you inspired me. I'm getting out there. The weather's been pretty nice. I love it. Springtime is feeling like it's close.

Very cool. What fun.

Joe, are you for real?

I am. I am today. I am. I have felt, in a way, in my past. I'm like, is this for real? Am I really living this?

Yeah.

Both on the good side and the bad side.

I think I had that thought even before that movie. What's the movie? The Matrix.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think I had that. And then they had that movie come out. Living in the Matrix. Well, last week you inspired me with your 10,000 walking steps myths. So I researched 20 more myths.

20? We got 20 here. Huh? Wow.

You may have heard that these are true, but they're false.

We better get at it. So these are myths that are indeed. These are things that I guess these are things that we think are true. Right?

Okay. You've heard they're true.

This should be an interesting conversation because I bet there's a lot of these out there talking about myths. This is interesting that we're talking about this. One of my favorite shows of all time is a show called mythbusters. Do you remember that show?

Yes, definitely.

Yeah. These engineers, or I think one of them was a, a stunt man or he worked in movies. Another one was an engineer, Jamie. And I can't remember the other guy's name, but Jamie and somebody else, a bald headed guy with an interesting hat on and then a smaller guy with a beard, I think. And they would do all these experiments based on myths to either prove them true or debunk them. So I, I hope I recognize some of the myths here as we go through them.

I think you will. I think they're pretty common. And I'll tell you what, if, if my research is wrong and you say these things are true, give me the evidence. Anyone listening? But hey, that's the fun about a myth, whether it's true or false.

Yeah, this will be fun, man. Glad, I'm glad you did this.

The first one, Napoleon Bonaparte was short. You've heard that Napoleon complex, right?

I have. When I get in my, when I get in a certain way, I've been accused of having a Napoleon complex. No, I'm a fuzzy little. I'm a lovable little fuzzball is what I am. No, no Napoleon complex with me. But I've said, I've definitely heard that people that are smaller in stature and tend to be strong willed and very directive are said to have a Napoleon complex. I just wonder whose issue that is. Right. Is it the person with the complex or the person that does just doesn't like being bossed around by a short person. I don't know what's the myth here though.

I just want to say I love being tall. When I read this one, I was thinking, and poor Napoleon, he wasn't really short for his time. French records show Napoleon was around 5ft 6th, 5ft 7 inches, which is average for men in the early 19th century. Now the confusion this arose due to differences in French and British measurement systems. A French foot was longer.

Oh, okay, okay.

Propaganda from his enemies exaggerated this myth to undermine his image. For Napoleon been cheated all these years.

This is a really interesting myth because every, everywhere he's portrayed, he's short. In fact, I don't think he's portrayed short in this movie. But Joaquin Phoenix just portrayed Napoleon in a really good movie. It's interesting the guy was troubled, but isn't it ironic, Kurt, that Napoleon's enemies created this myth, seemingly created this myth to show him his weak. But nobody remembers those enemies names, do they? But we sure the heck remember Napoleon and the Napoleon complex.

Thanks for that reminder of the movie. I love historical dramas and this would be really Good. I wonder if they portrayed him short.

Probably not. It was about average height. I don't think that they played on that much.

I think they often get these right in these historical dramas. So that's a good one.

So. No, but. So the myth is Napoleon Bonaparte was not really that short.

That's right. He was not short. Another one. I think you'll recognize this one. Marie Antoinette said, let them eat cake. This is not true either. This quote was attributed to her decades after her death by Jean Jacques Rousseau, who referenced it in a fictionalized context. Contemporary accounts provide no evidence that she ever made such a statement. The phrase itself predates her era. Likely meant as a symbol of aristocratic ignorance in literature. So it was well before her time. But she got tagged with that let them eat cake from the French Revolution.

As is my nature. I know a lot of stuff about meaningless. I know a lot of meaningless stuff. Right.

I thought so.

And I have read somewhere about this quote that the real tragedy behind this is she actually tried to help the poor in her reign in her kingdom. I guess you would say in. In many ways, it's just a shame that she's branded with this let them eat cake saying, because I think she really did care.

That's horrible.

Is. I remember reading about it. Yeah.

Yeah, I would. I. All this time I've thought she was a horrible person. What?

Apparently I did too. Yeah. I read this a few. I've read that a few years back.

Yeah. I think there's a good series out there on Marie Antoinette around this time period too.

Yeah.

Check that out. The Vikings wore horned helmets. I think I probably knew that this was not true. But you've always seen them.

Oh, please tell me this is true.

I'm sorry.

I want this so badly to be true.

No archaeological evidence exists to support the use of horned helmets by Vikings. The Myth originates from 19th century Romantic art and theatrical depictions. Practical issues are that horn helmets would have been cumbersome and disadvantageous in battle. That makes sense, right?

I guess. If you trying to hide actually wore these big old horned helmets, why would. Why would they. Right.

It makes sense, doesn't it?

I don't know. Any warrior like the Vikings would not wear such a big target on their head.

That's right.

But it's tough looking. I like the look. I'm a little disappointed in this one. Kurt. I'll be honest with you. You're not making my day with this one. I like that Viking look. In fact, we go canoeing. We go canoeing a lot with me and my Daughter, not my daughter. And I especially like it. I always wanted to get a big old Viking hat to go canoeing in.

They saw him in the Norway Pavilion in Epcot and they. One of my favorite things about Disney is the live entertainment. They had some actors that were dressed up as Vikings and of course one of them wore the helmet. And you can put the helmet on and they'll have fun with you. I have some of my favorite pictures. Matter of fact, I think my Facebook profile has the one where he's laughing at me and I did a selfie with a Viking.

Yep, this one I'm disappointed in, but it makes sense. But it's a pretty intimidating. If they didn't wear it, maybe they wore it to come ashore. I don't know. How did it come about again?

The Myth originates from 19th century Romantic art and theatrical depictions. I don't know. Someone painted it.

So it's in the theater.

Yeah. And then.

Yeah, so it's in the theater.

Of course the. Yeah, the movies portrayed him that way. The Great Wall of China is visible from space now. I was just watching the splashdown of the astronauts that were being coming down from the space station. Just happened as before we started recording. I wonder if they could see the Great Wall of China. Not with the naked eye you can't. Joe. Astronauts and scientists confirm the wall is not distinguishable with the naked eye from space. The walls material, Are you kidding? I kid you not. I told you not to be disappointed by this.

Rough, dude. This is rough. What is. What are some major structures? Are there any major man made structures visible from space? Cities definitely are. Right? You can see the lights. You definitely can see the lights from space.

I don't know. Bear looking up because I've always heard a Great Wall of China could be seen from space. But that's not true. Shaving makes hair grow back thicker. Have you heard that one before?

I have. I remember hearing this when I was a pre teen, I guess you would say, and wanted to start shaving so I could grow a big thick beard. And the more you shave, the, the thicker your beard grows. So I had always thought that was true up until. I don't know I knew this. I. I found out many years ago that this isn't nice. This isn't particularly true. But I do remember hearing women say that they don't shave their legs very often because it'll grow back thicker. They only shave it on special occasions. At least that's excuse I've heard.

Okay.

If you think about it, if it were true Bald men would be shaving their heads constantly to regrow hair. Right.

We could have solved baldness all right.

Just by shaving.

Shaving cuts hair at the surface, causing a blunt tip that feels coarser, but it isn't thicker hair growth, thickness and color are determined by genetics and hormones. Not shaving studies confirm no change occurs in the regrowth characteristics after shaving.

Okay. I don't grow a very good beard anyway. I don't. I tell you what, Kurt. I know I have friends of mine that can sneeze and grow a beard. Me, the only reason I use shaving cream was so I know where I've already shaved.

Is that a blonde thing?

I don't know. I've always been pretty light haired. Yeah, but. Yeah, once. It comes in pretty good, but it takes a bit.

Mine does too. Yeah, that's true. If this was true all these years, would have made it grow back thicker. You can catch a cold by going outside with wet hair. Some of these all your mom told you when you were a kid?

This is my grandma.

Your grandma's told you this one out? Yeah. Colds are caused by viruses like rhinoviruses, not temperature or moisture exposure. While cold weather may weaken the immune system slightly, it's not the direct cause. Controlled studies show no correlation between wet hair and contracting a cold.

That's interesting. I did, for the longest time think that this was true. Not so much because my. My grandma told me, but it somehow, it just rings true. It feels true. And maybe it's. It is. Maybe it rings true because my grandma did tell me, but it feels true. Okay. You're not allowing your body to come to the right temperature because your hair is wet. And because your body can't come to the right temperature, it makes it more susceptible to a virus or it. For a moment, your immune system is momentarily weakened. I don't know if cold weather. Let's think about this one too. If cold weather caused sickness, then all of our friends up in Canada and the Arctic would be sick all the time.

I don't know what is it, though. I guess it says our immunes are. Immune systems are slightly weakened during the winter cold weather. But you do. Boy. We had the norovirus come through. Puke bug, as we call it locally. And flus, they all come during the wintertime, it seems. I'm not sure why. Do you know why?

I do not know why. Because I. I think it's probably because people are in closer. Closer tighter spaces. We have closed clothes that we sneeze on and we're like I said, we're closer together, typically because we're all inside and we're touching each other's stuff more often.

You should look that one up. Humans only use 10% of their brains.

Now, I've been accused of this. Okay.

Is that where you heard it? Did your wife tell you this one? It's not true, Joe. You can tell her. Brain imaging shows activity across all regions of your brain, even during rest. Damaged, even small areas of the brain can have significant effects, proving its essential use. This myth likely arose from misinterpretations or exaggerations in early neuroscience.

I don't know. I understand that it's a myth in the physical sense, right. That, okay, we. We only. We. We use much more than 10% of the physical brain. But I do believe that the brain is much more powerful than we give it. Maybe we have much more of a bit of an ability to use parts of our thinking in a way that we've not used them, and maybe that's why we feel that way. I don't know. But I do get this. I do, again, get the sense that we could. Our brain can do much more than what we're. Than what it's doing right now. I don't know where this myth comes from, but I understand that physically, when we see the brain in action, all. All areas of the brain are being activated. But I don't know. I. I don't know about this one, man. I know what the science says. I. I want to hold on to this one, dude. I want to hold on to this. I want to hold on to. Because it. Because it gives me hope, man. Man, I got 90% to go.

I want.

Gives me hope.

You know what I'm thinking as you're trying to squirrel around with this one is I've heard and. Of studies the conscious brain or mind is quite dumb compared to your subconscious.

Yeah. And how we. I guess how we process things and what we process and our ability to process. I think there's a different. There's something different going on than just the physicality of the brain. It's true. This has to be true. If you think about it, brain injuries wouldn't be such a big deal. Right. If we're only using 10% of our brain.

Yeah.

We could cut off 90% of it and still be good to go.

I've heard it's got the capability of rewiring itself.

If you damage those synapses, those connections.

If you lose some kind of function due to injury, it's been Shown to rewire itself. And that's quite fascinating. Yeah. I think. Isn't this the area of medical science we know the least about? The brain? I think I've heard that, too.

It is a mystery, dude. Yeah, it is.

Maybe that's where it comes from. Are you blind as a bat? If you heard that one said that too.

I've been told that, too. A few years back, I had. I was. All my life, I've. I was very nearsighted, extremely nearsighted, where I. I was way beyond being able to see the Biggie. I couldn't see the biggie on the eye chart. Couldn't read anything. Just terrible. Pretty young to have cataracts. That's what my doctor said. And this was an odd case for her, how fast the cataract grew and that I got it at such a young age. But the cataract surgery dramatically improved my distance vision. But now I can't see anything up close.

Okay.

You know, before I could, the closer something was, the better I could see it. But now it's just the opposite. My distance vision now, because they replaced the lenses, is spot on it. When I first hit it, it was almost like seeing life in high def. It was just crazy good.

Yeah, I remember you saying that to me.

So I've been accused of being blind.

It's horrible to. When I'm working on something up close, I have to take my glasses off in order to see. Bats are not blind. Most bat species have functional eyes and good vision, particularly in low light. Echolocation is a complementary ability, not a replacement for sight. Studies show bats use vision and echolocation when hunting or navigating.

So I wonder what the origin of this blind as a bat is. Were you able to find anything on that?

I didn't. No. I didn't get any more deeper than that. I went. I went wide instead of deep. Joe. Sorry. You have to. That's fine.

But, yeah, it makes sense. If bats were so blind, how do they still manage to avoid obstacles at high speeds that were. That. That echo location is not good enough.

They're flying around in the dark, and they're pretty erratic in their flight path. Maybe that's where it came from.

All right.

Lightning never strikes the same place twice. Not true. Tall structures like skyscrapers and antennas are frequently struck multiple times. The Empire State Building, for instance, is struck by lightning around 25 times annually. Lightning seeks the path of least resistance, often targeting the same prominent spots.

If that were the case, why would we have lightning rods on buildings? That's what lightning rods do they give a grounding point to lightning so it doesn't strike the actual structure.

That's right.

Your buddy Invite invented the lightning rod, I believe.

Ben Franklin.

Benjamin. Benjamin Franklin. Yeah.

Around with a kite and a key.

I guess that makes sense. Lightning can certainly strike the same place twice. I've read stories about people who have been struck more than one time.

I wonder what the odds are that.

Yeah.

Working on a golf course? Maybe. And very tall.

Have you ever been struck by lightning?

Did you think I was?

No, no. I'm just curious. I was almost struck by lightning once.

Close.

Yeah. In fact, we. When I was a little kid, we were in our house and the back door was open and a storm was coming, and I had bent over to pet my dog, and lightning struck right across my. Right above me. My dad saw it and into the living room.

Wow.

There was a mark on our living room wall for the longest time. Yeah.

Closest I ever got as a kid. Also was a neighbor a couple houses down. You can hear when it hits and hit a tree. Sounds like an explosion. But it traveled down the root system of the tree and cracked the foundation of their house.

Oh my gosh.

There's some structural damage there in the garage. Yeah.

Yeah. If there's moisture in the tree, it'll follow that moisture. Right.

And I think he got the neighbor. I think my dad says he got blown off his feet a little bit too. Wow.

I was on a plane one time, actually, a few months after 9 11. And the plane got struck by lightning.

Yeah.

And pilot made no big deal about it. Little lightning. It was loud. It was like a.

Okay.

And it was after 9 11, so we thought a bomb was going off or something. And it was a lightning strike.

I don't want to get this one wrong. We don't want to get this wrong. Because I've always heard the best, safest place to be is in your car. Cause the metal around you and the.

Tires, I think it's because the tires being rubber, prevent grounding. And if you can't ground something, it. The electricity dissipates. Even if the car does get struck.

By lightning, it travels the metal too, all the way around you. Yeah, I've seen that in a science museum. But you stand inside this sphere that's all metal, and they strike it with. With electricity. It doesn't hurt anybody inside.

You're braver than me, man.

Humans swallow eight spiders a year in their sleep, Joe.

I've heard this one.

Yep.

I've heard this one.

I heard this one. A long time ago.

Just thinking about it, it creeps me out.

Right? This is not true. Spiders are generally repelled by human breathing and vibrations, making this highly unlikely. There is no scientific evidence or credible reports supporting this claim. This myth likely originated as an early Internet hoax designed to spark reaction.

I have seen video of spiders making their way into somebody's ear. Imagine that. Man, it does make sense that maybe not spiders, but at some point, maybe some creepy crawly things make their way in there. But if you were a spider, I mean, you had the whole world to freaking explore, why would you go into my mouth?

Oh, I'm thinking about disgusting horror movie where someone has this pimple on their face and I don't know if this is true. Like, they laid the eggs inside there and all these little spiders pop it and crawl out of the face.

We need to move on. I'm. Now I'm disgusting.

Am I creeping you out?

Yes.

Oh, I like this one. The five second rule. Do you know what the five second rule is, Joe?

Sure. It's what you teach your kids, man. When something falls on the ground, as long as five seconds don't pass, you're safe to eat it.

Bacteria can transfer to food almost immediately upon contact with a contaminated surface. Research shows the type of surface and moisture level of the food play a larger role than the amount of time it's on the floor. This rule is more about human comfort than science. It's not a reliable safety standard.

And the truth is, any bacteria that's probably found on the floor is probably on your countertop too. We're. We are filthy animals for the most part.

My wife would differ with you tremendously. Because I have to take my shoes off when I come in the house because she doesn't want the bacteria all over the floors. All through the house.

When you eat on the floor.

I know.

I get this. It. This makes sense. There's. No. It's not. It's not like bacteria is waiting for food to fall to crawl up on it, and they're. They move at 5 seconds per inch or something like that, but it's still fun.

This next one I find annoying when people do it. I can't do it. I don't know if you can, but cracking your knuckles causes arthritis. Studies, including one conducted over decades by a physician on himself, show no link between knuckle cracking and arthritis development. The popping sound is caused by gas bubbles bursting in the joint fluid, not damage to the joint. Arthritis is primarily caused by age, genetics, and injury, not joint manipulation.

Ever since I Was an early teenager, I could crack my knuckles at will. I can squeeze my hands and crack them over and over and over again. Just crack. And my grandma again would tell me, you're going to get arthritis if you keep doing that. Apparently not. I think this was on a mythbuster show, too, about cracking your knuckles. I think this was featured on a mythbuster show, and they brought in a doctor and knuckle doctor or whatever they're called. Yeah, I get this. Yeah, I understand this one.

You must have a lot of gas.

Yeah, yeah, it migrates to my knuckles.

I like this one, too. The color red makes bulls angry. Bulls are dichromatic and cannot distinguish red from green. They're essentially colorblind to red bullfighting. Capes are read for dramatic effect and tradition not to provoke the bull. It's the movement of the cape that stimulates the bull's response, not its color.

Yeah, I guess I understand this one. If they're colorblind, then of course, it doesn't make a difference. But do you know what I like the most about bull fighting? The rodeo clowns. Aren't rodeo clowns cool? Those are some tough cats, man. Their whole job is to keep the bull rider from getting hit by the bull by getting in between the bull rider and the bull. That's crazy, isn't it?

That's not a bull fight. That's rodeo.

Oh, that's right. I'm sorry.

You got your sports mixed up there. Yeah.

Well, if that's the case, then if they reacted to red, then the big old red nose on a clown would be in big trouble, right?

Absolutely. They do chase the clown in the rodeo, but that's intentional.

Bull fights aren't. Bull fights aren't bull riding. Yeah, I got that one wrong here.

I thought you were so smart. I've heard this one before. Lemmings commit mass suicide. They go over the cliff, right? One goes, starts going down the road, and everyone starts following the lemming and then right off the cliff. This myth originated from a stage scene in Disney's 1958 documentary White Wilderness, where lemmings were pushed off cliffs for dramatic effect. In reality, lemmings migrate in search of food and space, sometimes resulting in accidental drownings. But there's no intentional mass murder behavior, mass suicide behavior, mass murder. The myth is perpetuated in pulp culture, but it's not supported by biological evidence.

Okay, I'm just going to read my mail out loud here and ask you, my friend, what is a lemming?

It's a little rodent, is It.

Okay. Yeah, gotcha. Okay.

Little rodents, I believe. Yeah. But yeah, this is.

I never knew, never bothered to ask, never bothered to look it up. But it is interesting that of course you had to sneak a Disney one in here. No surprise. But that's okay.

I didn't do it. Yeah, my research did that part. I've heard this. This is definitely when someone's criticizing people for following the crowd.

So this was staged in a documentary. That's what it is. That what happened.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's crazy. And everybody believed it from then.

Yeah, fooled us all. Poor little lemmings.

We got a. We got hundreds of years of sayings out of it, right? Or not. Hundreds of years, but we will.

They've been accused of running off the cliff for no apparent reason except to follow their other lemming. It's not true.

Poor lemmings. Bad rap this whole time.

Many in history got a bad rap. Like Einstein. Einstein failed math. It's not true. Albert Einstein excelled in math from a young age, mastering calculus by the age of 15. The myth likely stems from a misunderstanding or mistranslation of his school records. Einstein himself refuted this claim in interviews, saying he always excelled in arithmetic and geometry. Now that makes sense.

I think this is one of those myths that were. This is one of those myths that were made up just because of the. The parody of it. Just because. Yeah. Einstein's extremeness. Now he failed at math. Right. He's a great quarterback now he was cut from the junior high football team. That kind of stuff, right?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. To inspire kids. If you're doing poorly, you can still succeed. Keep working at it. Sorry to dip on.

You're not Einstein. I mean this. He was a prodigy. Yeah, he's a child prodigy. You're not getting that one by me. I never believed that one.

There you go. The Bermuda Triangle is a mysterious area where ships and planes disappear. While many mysteries attributed Bermuda Triangle have been explained by human error, natural phenomena or equipment failure, there is highly traffic region for shipping and aviation which may inflate incident statistics. Scientific analysis show no abnormal activity compared to other parts of the world's oceans. That one surprised me because I watched all those crazy science fiction stuff.

I love those shows. Who loves those shows? Kurt is one. My wife loves those paranormal shows. And again, I'll. Maybe she won't like me saying this, but her and I were talking last night and she said, hey, there's a Bigfoot conference down in Tennessee coming up in May or something. Do you want to go down there? Okay. I think it's interesting to believe in that. Or interesting. This kind of stuff is interesting to me. The bermuda triangle, Bigfoot, UFOs, paranormal activity, all that kind of stuff. Right. Loch Ness Monster, all that kind of stuff I find extremely interesting. Not necessarily because I believe it, but what's most interesting is that people believe it and the little slivers of truth that we will hold on to. But if you think about it, Kurt, let's think about this myth for a second. If it were so dangerous, if this area was so dangerous and provable dangerous, why do air flights and ships still continue to go in this area? Right.

They don't avoid it, do they?

All right. Yeah. The mystery, the real mystery is why do people still believe it? That's what I like. I like reading about people who believe in this stuff. And I do love those shows, the paranormal, the Bermuda Triangle, the Bigfoot shows, the UFO shows, Loch Ness Monster, all that stuff.

Don't tell your wife that. Bermuda Triangle is not mysterious at all. If I was at a Bigfoot conference, I'd be people watching and talking to people, because I gotta be some really interesting people going to the Bigfoot conference.

There are interesting people. There's no doubt about that.

Did you go?

No. Okay, I'm going to.

All right, I'll go.

Heck, yeah. My wife wants to go. We'll go. That's pretty fun. A full report.

You can sweat out toxins. The liver and kidneys are the body's primary detoxifying organs, not sweat glands. Sweat is primarily composed of water, salt, and small amounts of minerals, not toxins. Exercise and sweating improve circulation and overall health, but they don't expel significant toxins. So if you got the flu or not feeling good, sweating it out isn't going to help you.

Joe, did you ever believe this one?

Yeah, I bet I did. I bet. Yeah. Work it. Get a good workout and sweat it. Sweat that problem out. Yeah.

I believed this one up until probably March 18, 2025.

What's today?

March 18, 2025.

So now you don't believe.

You would have asked me if. You would have asked me 30 minutes ago. If you sit in a sauna, does it help you sweat out toxins? I would have said, heck, yeah.

No kidding.

I do know that it does help you with circulation and just general overall health, but I also thought it helped you expel toxins.

Okay. And you can go research more if you like, Joe, if I've inspired you, I believe you.

I believe you. But sweating is just really the body's Air conditioning, right?

That's right.

We sweat to so cool your off. We can cool our bodies off, but yeah, boy. I've heard that saunas though, do improve circulation. Extreme temperatures generally, I've heard, improve circulation and overall health. Ice baths and saunas and those types of things and. Have you ever sit in a sauna? Do you ever do it?

I have.

I like it. Something about it makes you feel good. I think it is the improved circulation or whatever it might be. But daggone it, you're not sweating out any toxins, boy, there's one for you.

My dad would never be sick because he sweats profusely. I got some of that from him too when I played ball, basketball. My friends would laugh at me because my. I could take my shirt off at the end of the game and drain it, wrench it out, wring it out. Yeah, sweat would come out. Gotta get a lot of fluids back in. Ostriches bury their heads in the sand. Here's another poor animal accused of something they're not.

Where'd this one come from? I've heard this one. You see it in TV shows and cartoons and all of that. This is interesting, but this is not true. Huh?

Ostriches often bend down to the ground to eat or check on eggs in their nests, which may give the illusion of burying their heads. This myth was first described in the Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder that has persisted in popular culture. Ostriches rely on their speed and powerful legs to evade predators rather than hiding and burying their heads. Yeah, they can run.

Yeah, this is where the, this is where that, that saying goes. You're just burying your head in the sand if you refuse to bleed something or. Yeah, or you're out of touch with reality or you're ignoring the facts. Here's one fact to ignore. Ostriches buried in the sand. Right.

They're not guilty of that.

Think about that. If an ostrich, when it was scared or being attacked, buried its head in the sand, what a terrible survival strategy, right? Instead of just ostriches, I think can run pretty fast.

Yeah, they're one of the fastest birds, land animal on God's green earth. They're not going to bury their head in the sand.

And the predator coming evolution would have taken its toll on them by now.

Bit them right in the ass.

That's funny, man.

That's true. That's funny. So you got to think about these things. You got to challenge them, Joe. Touching baby birds makes their mothers reject them. Boy, I heard that one before. Most birds Have a limited sense of smell and rely on visual and auditory cues, not scent, to identify their chicks. Parental abandonment in birds is rare unless the nest is disturbed repeatedly or significantly damaged. This myth likely spread as a cautionary tale to keep people from interfering with wildlife.

I'm not sure I've heard this myth before. The myth about touching birds was always baby birds and adult birds or grown birds was always. They carry, like, crazy diseases that can only be spread by touching them. I've heard. I heard that myth growing up. But I guess if you're an animal handler in a zoo, then you're hooped, right?

Well, I was. As a kid. I was into a lot of the reptiles, the snakes and lizards and anything around the house. Frogs, baby birds. If I. Yeah, I was. So I. My parents definitely said this one to me. Don't touch the bird's nest. Mother will reject them.

Yeah. Just leave them alone. Anyway.

Yeah.

Maybe that's the reason. Right? Just leave them alone.

They could. In a little small bush next to the house, they might build a nest, and you can hear the little baby chicks in there chirping. Leave them alone.

Leave them alone. I agree.

All right. My number 20. If you drop a penny from the Empire state building, you can kill someone. I heard all these as a kid. I think.

My gosh, I've heard this one. Any high building, right?

Yeah. The velocity would take out somebody down below. A penny is too light and lacks the necessary aerodynamics to cause serious harm. When dropped from a height, Air resistance limits its terminal velocity, meaning it would reach the ground at about 25 miles per hour. Not fast enough to penetrate. Skin experiments and physics calculations confirm this myth is more dramatic than factual still.

Okay, so I want to make sure I understood what you just said. Even at terminal velocity. What was it, about 25 miles an hour?

Air resistance limits its terminal velocity.

Understood? Understood. I think mythbusters featured this as well. They tested this by launching pennies at high speeds. Right.

I believe it. This would definitely be one that they would try.

You see that? Who wants to throw an object from a. Some. An object of some size could seriously hurt somebody. I. I know going up on the Eiffel Tower at Kings island, which is a major feature of a handful of parks in the area. Here is a replica of the Eiffel Tower. But you see those signs all over the place. Do not throw objects. Thrown wool. You know, it's against state code or whatever it might be.

Yeah. It's horrible.

This is interesting. Yeah. You. This is one of those that seem to make Sense. If you think about it, it seems to make sense that. Hey, that, that Penny, man, it's got. If it's got enough distance to travel, it could kill you if it hits you in the head. Right. Like a bullet dropping out of the. Like a bullet being shot from a gun. If it gets enough speed up, it'll. It could really hurt you. But I guess according to the, the people who've debunked it, the physics behind it is the. There's. It doesn't have enough mass. Right. It doesn't have enough.

That's right.

It can't. It can't build up that much speed because of the wind resistance.

I think I've heard of it. Penny's going through the concrete, which probably wouldn't be true either if we can't go through skin. There you have it, Joe. There's 20 myths that have been debunked.

What an interesting show. I like this. In fact, I have another idea for a show that I'm not going to tell you because you stole this one from me and no, I'm kidding around. But wouldn't it be interesting to do a show that does just the opposite? All the things that we don't think are true. But are.

Is there such a thing?

Oh, I'm sure there are.

I bet you could do the research. The other thing I was thinking about, you know, all the sayings that you hear. What, what are the. What's the history between some of those strange sayings that we have that like.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Stuff like that.

Yeah.

Don't eat the yellow snow.

Yeah. But I was thinking of people trying to learn English and they're trying to get the literal understanding.

Yeah.

Of some of those sayings.

Right, right.

That was the other one I was thinking of. But this was just for fun. Little.

This was fun. I like this. I like this. And I learned something here. Look at this. I learned something here. So I'm pretty glad. I'm pretty glad we did this one. Good job.

What was the one you learned?

Let me go back here.

It was you can sweat out toxins.

Yeah. You can't sweat out toxins. That was it. That was it. I believed that up until this moment.

I'm glad I could educate you. Joe. Did you ever win for the week?

A lot of books written on it. So thank you for doing this, man. This was fun and a little light hearted show and good for the time. So here we go. My win for the week is an interesting win for the week. My father in law makes amazing chicken and dumplings. Amazing.

How come?

They're the best I've ever had.

Yeah.

No matter where you go, I don't care if you're going to Cracker Barrel or what restaurant you're going to. There's something about my father in law's chicken and dumplings that I just love. Big thick dumplings and they're chewy, so they're not fluffy. Love them. Well, I've been on a pretty good plan so far, Kurt. I decided to explore the keto lifestyle and the keto eating regimen and I am liking it a lot. However, my father in law came over yesterday and he said, hey, Joe, I'm getting ready to fix some chicken and dumplings and I'd like you to come over and hang out with us. And he knows that's the way to hook me, right? He knows that's the way to hook me. And usually chicken and dumplings, for me, my father in law's chicken and dumplings are one of those things that I can never get enough of. Do you have food like that, Kurt? Food that you just can never get enough of? It feels like you could just eat it forever. Chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant. What happens? Do you run out of chips or do I die?

I mean, I love nachos, like loaded too, with cheese and salsa and stuff. For sure. Yeah.

I've been known to have four or five bowls of my father in law's chicken and dumplings. Wow, he makes a huge pot just because of this. And I went over and I wanted to honor him by. I didn't want to say, I'm sorry, man, I'm on this plan. I can't have any. When he had already fixed a big pot of it and then came and invited me over for dinner because he wanted to hang out. I could not do that to him and I would not do that to him. So I wanted to honor that. But I told him, I said, hey, man, I've really got to watch what I eat and so forth. But I ate a bowl and there's two things there I wasn't. So there is. The reason I call this a win for the week is I wasn't so strict and stringent that I was going to disappoint my father in law because he's a really good guy. That I was going to disappoint my father in law, but also had the discipline to just have one bull. And so that's my win for the week.

I must confess, I don't think I really know what chicken and dumplings are. That's not something that we have here.

Well, somebody from Connecticut wouldn't. Okay, I'll just say that somebody from the Northeast in their hottie toddy silliness wouldn't understand chicken and dumplings.

So you gotta explain it to me.

Chicken and dumplings is basically a. There's many ways to make it. But think about a big, thick homemade noodle. Have you ever had homemade noodles? Yeah, like a big, thick homemade noodles. It's just a big clump of flour, an egg cooked in chicken broth, and then it's creamed up by whatever method you use to cream it up. Put a. Put together a roux and cream it up. And maybe you'll throw in some vegetables and you'll take a whole chicken and debone the whole chicken and throw that in there and whatever spices you use. Basically a dumpling. Chicken and dumplings is the dumpling. Is chicken, of course, is the chicken. But the dumpling is this glorious ball of flour and egg that is chewy to me. I like. You can get them fluffy and make it many ways, but I like chewy, thick dumplings.

It's a soup.

There you go.

It's a chicken soup.

Everything that keto is not.

Okay, yeah, it's.

Yeah. Everything that keto is not. But it's not chicken soup. Don't insult it that way. This is thick and creamy.

Okay.

Or like a stew with big old fat flowery dumpings.

Get me hungry. I'm not on keto. My win. I completed a three shelf shoe rack from free wood pallets, put it on the entrance of my house in the family room, and now my shoes are all organized. My wife, she gave me a funny look, but I think she's getting used to it.

So you're back to the pallet craft. Awesome.

Yeah, well, you know, the weather, when it gets a little nicer, I like to go out and scavenge some if I get an idea. This was something. Again, useful also. To try to take something from nothing and turn it into something useful is a little hobby of mine. Yeah. Built a shoe rack. It's pretty wide. Get lots of shoes on there and stack some stuff on top of it, but three shelves and it's done.

I like these projects that you work on, Kurt, and it inspires me to find somebody to build one for me.

I was thinking someone else might want one of these.

Yeah, no, these are. These kind of projects are fun. And I've had my own little shelving projects and little projects like this. But yeah, a few years back you started down this road and you've built a ton of stuff and I'm excited, pretty excited to see a picture of this one.

I did send it to you, I think. Yeah, I did.

I know, but I didn't want to. Oh, I wanted to add a little drama to it.

What's your resource?

I could say I'm excited to see a picture again. I'll just look at it again on my phone.

What's your resource?

Well, this is another interesting resource for me. Unwashed farm fresh eggs. Now I say unwashed and I've known this for a long time and I've bought, I've bought farm fresh eggs before and I've known this, but I've really come just to appreciate how good a farm fresh egg is, how rich and the dark yolk and how it just tastes so good. I do notice a difference. The unwashed part is very important because did you know? Now don't hold me to this, folks. If you try this and you get sick, it's not my fault. Consult an egg expert. But I have had, I've let unwashed farm fresh eggs sit out on the counter at room temperature for weeks and they're still good. Now you got to wash them. Now unwashed means just that. If you know how, you know where an egg comes from. So understand that unwashed egg means that they've not been run any, under any kind of water or anything like that. They've just been a kind of a, a light scraping or a light picking to get the junk off. So you have to wash them. You should wash them before you cook them. But they can sit out on a counter for weeks. Unwashed farm fresh eggs.

So when you go and they're good.

Man, I've heard really good.

Now you go to a farm and I always wonder about that. They have them in a cooler or something outside. Throw a few bucks in the cooler and you get your eggs.

No, interestingly enough, eggs. I learned this when we went to Europe. Eggs in Europe are not put in the cooler or not put in the, in a, in a refrigerator. They're left out. And I think that they're bought unwashed without because there's apparently there's a membrane or there's a coating or something on an unwashed egg that when you wash it, it removes that coating so it spoils faster. It doesn't keep as long, but as long as it, it remains unwashed, it can sit for weeks. And I get my eggs from a couple sources. I live in suburban Cincinnati, right outside of Cincinnati on the east side, but not too far from me, is country. And I could. I know three or four people that raise, trick and raise chickens for eggs. And I could get them at any time. They're more expensive, of course, because it's not cheap to raise a chicken for eggs.

I see this. I live pretty much in the country. I know you never believed me before that Connecticut has country, but it does. And this is a very popular hobby, if you want to call it that. They raise chickens and you often see this all over the place. Not hard to find, but I've never bought any.

They're good and they keep for a long time just sitting out on the counter.

I love eggs. I like to have an egg sandwich every day. Made one today, as a matter of fact.

I eat eggs every day myself.

I know my resource is probably only important to me, nobody else. Maybe. Maybe there's some music lovers out there that haven't tried this particular artist. He's one of my favorites. I was excited to see he's got a new album out. His name is Jason Isabel. He comes from. I was reading his bio a little bit. The Drive By Truckers, an all country band. He played with them for a little while, went solo. I watched this website called allmusic.com. i really like their descriptions, the discographies. I go there and read reviews. Usually they're pretty spot on. They got a five star review kind of system. So that he had. Spotify gave me a notice that he had a new album and I have it on order at my record store. My buddy's gonna order, has ordered me a copy. It'll be in this week. And I've been listening to on Spotify, it's called Foxes in the Snow. All acoustic Joe. Just Jason Isbell and an acoustic guitar and some great songwriting. Yeah, he's pretty good. I like him. So there.

Yeah. I think a couple weeks back or several weeks back, you recommended an album by Jason Isbell and Good stuff, man. Really good stuff. I'm excited to listen to this one and maybe we'll chat about it. But yeah, I like. I. He is, He's. He's good. He's good.

Oh, you do know who he is.

Yeah, I know he is. Okay from you.

All right. Yeah. Great lyricist. I like his very interesting, intriguing lyrics. It takes me a while to get used to an album. When we were kids, you had to buy the album and play the whole thing backwards and forwards. Oh, yeah. Over and over again. Didn't have a lot of money. Didn't buy a lot of albums.

You'd pay $18 for a whole album just to hear one song for the one song.

So you gotta like the other songs.

Yep.

Let's finish up with our quotes for the week.

I took into account the subject matter of today, and you can't always believe what you hear, right? You can't always. You can't always take things at face value. And one of my favorite sayings from a president is small and pithy. From Ronald Reagan. Trust but verify.

That is brilliant, isn't it? Yeah, we've heard that many times.

Trust but verify. It's brilliance and its brevity and it's brilliance. It's brilliant. And its message, it means to me, it means it's okay, I hear what you're saying and I receive it at face value. But I'm going to check it out. It has nothing to do with you. It's just my standard, trust but verify. There's another saying that's very similar to that. That is assume the best while scoping out the facts.

Ah.

I say that a lot. Assume the best while scoping out the facts.

It's a lot harder to say than trust but verify. Ronald Reagan was a good orator.

Oh, he was one of the best. Great timing.

Inspiring.

Absolutely inspiring. To me, he was. His speech after the Challenger disaster. Oh, you cannot watch that speech and not realize that you were in the presence of a man that felt deeply about what he was talking about.

How about your quote, get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. From our old pal Mark Twain.

Oh, I love this, man. I love this. Speaking of politicians, base your foundation on the truth and then you can warp it as you go, right? What's life without a little hyperbole? I like this a lot, man. Get your facts first and distort them as you please. Don't we all anyway, Mr. Dwayne?

Don't we all do?

Yes, sir, Mr. Twain.

That's probably where all these myths came from that we've debunked today.

Joe, this was awesome. Good show, man. I like this one a lot.

Thank you. Take us home.

Well, our website, of course, is dudesinprogress.com and we're telling the truth on this one. It's dudesinprogress.com and our email address is Dudes in progress or is dudesinprogress.com? you can ask us any questions you want to ask us, reach out to us however you want to reach out to us. But the best way to do it is through the website dudesinprogress.com or our email address, [email protected]. hey, listen, the facts that we have may not be the facts. They're not perfect. But as long as we're making progress, we're all the better for it. So remember, progress is better than perfection. Just keep moving forward. And that's the truth.

Hey, Joe, one of our listeners is pretty perfect when you said 10,000 steps to stay healthy, or even 7,000. Our pal Kevin, our UK correspondent, does like 20,000 a day. So he's better than most of us.

Yeah, he reached out to us and he said, I don't know how the heck I'm going to manage to shave my steps down to 30 minutes a day, something like that. That was awesome. Thank you, Kevin Curtis Allen. We appreciate you, dude. We really do. Thank you. That was awesome.

I don't know if all these myths are true or not, but we'll try to do better next time.

All right, man, talk to you soon.