Lies You Learned at School by Michael Powell

A pick up from a dollar book sale. This book attempts to factually dispute the myths and legends we've been taught in grade school. It's kinda like a textbook version of TV's Adam Ruins Everything, without the abrasive, whininess of Adam Conover.

When author Michael Powell talks about how George Washington really didn't lie about chopping down a cherry tree, much less actually cut such foliage down to sizes, Powell is great. I learned a lot of inside detail about the midnight 'ride' of Paul Revere, that Mount Everest is NOT the tallest mountain in the world and baseball wasn't invented in the US of A. However, I felt completely lost when Powell attempted to explain how certain mathematical theories such as '2+2=4' have been taught in error.

You know, that's kinda the danger when you write a book that covers a myriad of all topics. No matter how well you might understand a subject, that doesn't mean that you were meant to explain it to others. I think if Powell had stayed away from the complexity of the sciences and focused more on the human element, (and general fun facts debunked) I would have enjoyed this book more thoroughly. He had me when talking about how that apple probably never fell onto Sir Isaac Newton's crown. But when the author tries to explain the science behind the theory of relativity, I was begging for a chance to turn the page.

There will probably be some of you readers who prefer Powell's explanations of equations instead of the truth behind whether Mussolini made the trains on time. However, if you are like me and you can't visualize math without a step-by-step graph on how to solve for X, then you may not enjoy this book completely. This is a book that has a little bit of everything. I just don't think it's a book that will appeal to everyone.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Alligators in the Sewer and 222 Other Urban Legends: Absolutely True Stories that Happened to a Friend...of a Friend...of a Friend by Thomas J. Craughwell

I've been interested in Urban Legends ever since I read this 3-volume set my mom had back in the 90s. It was written by some noted folklorist and while I read them in high school, I think the books had been published years, if not decades prior.

I'm not 100% certain when or where I got this book either. It was at a used bookstore somewhere in North Carolina. I've got 2 prime suspects. Both on either side of Durham County. Regardless, I don't think I paid more than a dollar for this book.

You don't get to the title alligators in the sewer or many of the most well known urban legends until the last chapter of this book. For someone who was hoping to come across some new myths, that's a very good thing. But if all you wanted were those all-time classics, like the Mexican Chihuahua or the vanishing hitchhiker, you'll either want to stick to just the final chapter or find another book of urban legends to peruse. 

Personally, I was hoping for more inside stuff. I was wanting to know some potential root causes for why these urban legends came about. There are a couple of times that author Thomas J. Craughwell digs a tad under the surface. But out of 223 urban legends, he probably only goes in depth on about 2 dozen of them.

I watch a lot of Travel Channel's Mysteries of the Museum. Oddly enough, several of the urban legends in this book, I've seen presented as fact on the Don Wildman hosted series. So am I to believe that all these museums across the world are presenting urban legends as historical fact or is there a little bit of truth to these urban legends?

I also felt that Craughwell's definition of an urban legend didn't fit with one chapter of this book. The 7th chapter deals with UFOs and aliens. Now, I'm not saying that they are real. However, I've read my fair share of accounts of unexplained phenomenon and books on conspiracy theory to know that many  if not all of the accounts in the UFO chapter are documented facts. With urban legend being about stories that happened to 'a friend of a friend of a friend', if it's been documented by the US Air Force, you can't consider it an urban legend, no matter how outlandish.

There were quite a few personal favs that were not included in this book. For instance, there's a tale of a naked lady who all she could find to wear was a football helmet. When some repair man approaches her he exclaims 'I'm not sure which team you're playing for, but I sure hope they win.' Maybe that is something that started out as a joke and became an urban legend. I just don't know. But that's the kind of information I was hoping this book would have about these types of stories. Maybe the next book on urban legends I get my hands on will provide such knowledge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.