This really happened!

• No, Steak n Shake does not prohibit prayer in its restaurants.
• No, Febreze isn’t unbelievably toxic to dogs and cats.
• No, the Queen Elizabeth 2 does not use a gallon of fuel per six inches traveled. (Come on.)

Et cetera. Ad nauseum. Veni, vidi, vici.

Snopes.com is the best urban legends reference on the Web. It’s run by Barbara and David Mikkelson, a California husband and wife team. (“Snopes” refers to a family appearing in several works of William Faulkner, and it was (is?) also David’s Usenet handle.) I “met” both of them on alt.folklore.urban in 1994. They are personable, highly intelligent, thorough, and funny–all of which serve them well in their quest. I’ve not often heard about or received something before snopes.com knew about it, and when I have, it’s generally been reasonably attributable to geographically specific interest (the nonsense that went around about Alabama bringing an elephant onto the field for football games this fall, for example). I’ve had it bookmarked since its debut.

Almost no one sends me this stuff, but I still have a couple of correspondents who haven’t yet fully absorbed the message: I appreciate your concern for my welfare, but please check snopes.com before you forward me that email. It doesn’t take long. There’s a search engine and everything. If it says “false,” believe it. It’s been researched to within an inch of its life, baby. Move the mouse pointer away from Send and toward Delete.

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