You Know "They" Say

"You know they say..." has to be one of my least favorite phrases of all time. Who in the heck is "they"? And what are "they's" credentials?

A little background...

I grew up doing science fair and research papers...you know, before the internet. When you had to actually go, heaven forbid, to the LIBRARY and read through encyclopedias, journal articles, books, etc. to find all of the data you needed for your work. It was pure Hell on Earth, and I think I hate creating works cited pages worse than almost anything (does it really flippin' matter that I put the title of the article before the journal's name and put an extra space after that comma? I think not)...BUT what it did teach me, was that there are various sources of information, and you can't come to a good conclusion until you evaluate a good majority of them. 

On top of that, I'm a little skeptical in nature anyway, and given the technological and media outlets we currently have, anyone can say anything at anytime and claim it to be the truth. Unless you follow up with your own research, you can choose to believe anything. Or, you can do like me and combine both "truths" and call it good. "They" say sugar is going to kill me, "they" say Splenda is going to kill me. So, I use half sugar and half Splenda in my coffee. They cancel each other out. 

See? 

Problem solved. 

I'm also a firm believer that anyone over the age of 60 should not be allowed to watch The Doctors or Dr. Oz. The majority of people over that age are retired and typically don't have a ton to do anyway...so why not convince them that the lethargy their experiencing is really a symptom of a rare form of melanoma. No no, the lethargy can't be because you're 68 and have been working for the past 45 years of your life, there must be something wrong with you! That's not to say that these shows don't have their place because I'm sure they have helped people seek guidance/treatment for something they thought was just normal, but was really something very serious. But for the most part, I think it just fuels the elderly's already paranoid persona. 

For instance, my grandmother, God bless her, heard on one of these shows that peanuts help people with ADD. Since then, she has been buying jars of peanuts for my cousin's 18 year old son who has ADD. Poor kid. It was sweet of her to think of and want to help him, but I'm afraid for Christmas we're either going to have to buy him a Vitamix so he can make peanut butter (more useful than peanuts in whole form), or get him a year long pass to the zoo so he can feed the elephants. 

So, I suppose this is just my little PSA. If you hear, see, or read something that you're not 100% certain of...take the time to do a little digging before you act on it or repeat it. It will save you, and the rest of us, a lot of trouble.