The uphill battle against ignorance

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, today I’m at work, and one of my supervisors (I have two, and this is the one I don’t like much) comes over and hands me this printout that someone sent him as an email. I’ll copy the version from Snopes here:

*If you lick your envelopes . . . You won’t anymore!!!

This lady was working in a post office in California, one day she licked the envelopes and postage stamps instead of using a sponge.

That very day the lady cut her tongue on the envelope. A week later, she noticed an abnormal swelling of her tongue. She went to the doctor, and they found nothing wrong. Her tongue was not sore or anything. A couple of days later, her tongue started to swell more, and it began to get really sore, so sore, that she could not eat. She went back to the hospital, and demanded something be done. The doctor, took an x-ray of her tongue, and noticed a lump. He prepared her for minor surgery.

When the doctor cut her tongue open, a live roach crawled out. There were roach eggs on the seal of the envelope. The egg was able to hatch inside of her tongue, because of her saliva. It was warm and moist…

This is a true story…Pass it on*
The only difference in the version from my boss is that it mentioned that the story had appeared on CNN (of course it did!)

I took one look at this, and remarked, “I don’t think this is for real. I bet it’s an urban legend.” He didn’t know what that was, so I gave a couple examples. (He hadn’t heard them before). I told him to go onto snopes.com and look up “envelope lick,” as I was sure he’d find the story there. He just couldn’t grasp what I was trying to tell him. He insists it must be real. Otherwise, he says, “Why would someone send it to people through email?” Sure, that makes sense. I guess if it’s in an email, it must be true! :slight_smile:

(BTW, my search on snopes, which is where I got the above version, led here: http://www.snopes2.com/horrors/food/tacobell.htm)
So, he spends all day handing out copies of this story, and all but two people doubt that it’s true. He kept saying, “That’s what Jeannie said, but I think it’s for real.”

Sigh.
Maybe some people are just destined to remain ignorant.

2

Don’t feel too bad, Jeannie; I know the feeling.

I work with a guy who is actually my peer, so, no big sweat, who constantly amazes and enthralls the rest of the office with the old ULs he’s gradually discovering (and he reports them as fact). I think I’d probably smell it if it was one I hadn’t yet encountered, but so far he’s only dragged in long-known stiff horses.

The guy knows his shit in oil and gas and I rely upon him to cover 90º of the perimeter, so the negative political implications of calling him on the latest “can you believe this!” tale easily outweigh the gains of fighting ignorance in this local theater. It is agonizing to listen to, and I do discreetly pass the word to my confidants.

C’est la vie…

3

I realize you didn’t get the email yourself but I you do… try the Alfonso Merkin reply.

4

The hardest thing to accept is that this is your supervisor. How can you work for someone who you think of as a total idiot? I wouldn’t be able to do it.

5

You will find as you go through life that half of everybody has intelligence below the average and that bell curve bunches right around the middle. You’ll get used to working for people dumber than you.

6

I work in a fortune 50 company & am supposedly surrounded by bright, college educated people, but I still have to deal with the aluminum pull-tab morons on a monthly basis. Try telling them how worthless their cause is, and you get branded as a child hater or some such garbage.