90 Miles From Tyranny : Fallacies

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Fallacies

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cropdribble.jpg (8727 bytes)Despite their reputation, there have been no deaths attributed to tarantula bites recorded in history.
There is no species of fish called the sardine. Usually small herring or pilchard are processed as sardines.
Americans use the word "macaroni" to mean a specific kind of pasta, but in Italy, maccherone (or "mixture of elements") refers to all types of pasta.
Klondike isn't in Alaska, it's in the Yukon Territory—in Canada.
"Nice" didn't always mean what it means today. Originally, it came from the Latin nescius (ignorant), and grew to mean "foolish" in the 14th and 15th centuries.
The American robin isn't a robin, it's a thrush.
Cleopatra was not an Egyptian queen. Actually, there were seven women who reigned under that name—the seventh is the one we are most familiar with. None of the women were Egyptians, they were Macedonians.
Mississippi Bay is nowhere near Mississippi. It's outside of Yokohama, Japan.
Yams and sweet potatoes are actually unrelated vegetables.
The Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea aren't seas. They're lakes.
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Alaska is the most northern, western and eastern state.
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Many are surprised to discover Alaska is the most eastern U.S. state. Alaska is the most northern, western and eastern state.
Black-eyed peas aren't peas. They're beans.
People in the time of Columbus did not believe the world was flat. Not since the days of Greece had anyone thought that.
Rabbits are more closely related to horses than they are to rodents or mice.
George Washington didn't have a middle name.
People weren't always said to "smoke tobacco." That phrase didn't become popular until the 1750s. Before that, the expression for smoking was to "drink tobacco."
The Romans did not use chariots in ancient wars. They used them for sport and transportation, not in war.
There is no one place known as the Kremlin. Moscow has one, but so do lots of Russian cities. In Russian, Kremlin means a citadel or fortress. Also, Moscow's Kremlin is not a specific building, but a complex within a large walled space.

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