Website Wednesday

We live in troubling times. Well, I guess the world has always lived in troubling times only some times the times are less troubled and some times not everyone is troubled. (I'm beginning to sound like Bilbo's birthday speech.)

When times get troubled, rumors abound. They abound all the time really, just like troubles, but these times they get believed, and that can be dangerous.

People start to lose jobs and the rumor flies: Oh, that's because (fill in the blank) are buying up all the companies or: That's because they give all the good jobs to (fill in the blank.) Neighbor tells neighbor and ignorance flies through the air. And we all know that the rumor will beat the truth every time.

That why:

http://www.snopes.com/

is so important. Snopes tackles the rumors and the urban myths and gets to the bottom of them.

I knew Snopes when it was just a puppy. It's grown up to be a very nice looking and helpful dog.

Snopes lists categories and subcategories of rumors. Click on a category and you get a listing of rumors. Click on a hyperlink within a rumor and you get a separate page listing the claim (rumor), its status, an example, the origin of the rumor and the date of the page's last update. Now, that’s thorough.

Snopes tackles rumors from the important (“Barack Obama admitted to being a Muslim” - something that might have determined the U.S. election in other times) to the mundane (Archduke Ferdinand’s limo is jinxed).

Check the links across the top of their home page. Included are a free e-mail newsletter (to which I just subscribed) and a message board which, on a cursory glance, looks free of trolls.

Read Snopes for pleasure (I didn’t know that Subway used a fat Statue of Liberty - and she was fat - on their tray liner in Germany in 2004) and read it for truth, something we can never get enough of.

And to all, whether they are celebrating holidays this month or not: Much Joy.