So, what’s this "Fact or Fiction" blog about anyway? Well, surely, you remember back in the fourth grade when every single one of your classmates believed that Mikey from Life Cereal commercial fame had died of an overdose of candy pop rocks and Coke. It was around the same time that there was a rumor about Rod Stewart, but I won’t get into that. I remember the Mikey story so well because I was the only one who refused to believe. It may be too much to say that I was ostracized, but they certainly made fun of me for not believing their story. I know it’s been twenty-five years, but I was right! In the name of full disclosure, I must admit, however, that I certainly wasn’t the first one in grade school to figure out Santa Claus.

You can call me a skeptic. Although, I prefer to be called a critical thinker. Anyway, I’m going to put my skepticism to good use by writing about a common misperception, a myth, or an argument that just doesn’t hold water. I’m also going to include facts or happenings about which people (probably including myself) are skeptical, but which turn out to be true.

It just seems all too common that an argument isn’t logical. And, it seems that half the time statistics are used to bolster a point, the numbers turn out to be distorted or misinterpreted. (Although, maybe this just happens when I disagree with the presenter.)

A common error is to conclude that just because thing A occurs when thing B occurs, that thing A must be causing thing B. There are lots of storks (thing A) in areas where new babies (thing B ) show up. From this, one might conclude that storks deliver babies. Well, just maybe thing C (population density or families with chimneys or whatever attracts storks) is the real cause of both thing A and thing B.

If this doesn’t make sense to you yet, I promise that it will be made clear in coming installments. If it does already strike you because of an argument you heard or something you doubted recently, then please let me know. I can’t do this job without your help, so feel free to provide ideas or things about which you are skeptical.