This is the Yes or BS blog, where you can play the game for yourself. Either pick a random story from the pictures below, or choose your specialist subject from the categories listed here. Just read the story through and decide whether, YES, you think it’s true, or no, you think it’s total B.S—then click you answer in the box at the bottom of each post to see if you’re correct.
Missouri: So flat, those people who left your house yesterday are still on the horizon (Pixabay) In 1961, a map called ‘Family Vacationland’ was produced by the Missouri State Highway Commission, listing all of the state’s major tourist attractions. Unfortunately, one of the state’s most popular, most lucrative, and most isolated tourist hotspots—the town of Noel in McDonald County, in the far southwest of the Missouri—was accidentally omitted from the map. A simple mistake,
“And to all a good night...and a reminder I’ll be back in four weeks’ time” (Pixabay) Everyone has a favourite Christmas song. Silent Night. Deck the Halls. Reet Petite. But if Jingle Bells is your Christmas carol of choice then you might want to reconsider your vote—because back when it was written in 1851, Jingle Bells was originally intended to celebrate Thanksgiving, not Christmas. Legend has it that it was on a cold November night at a boarding house in Medford, Massachu
It’s illegal to throw confetti in Mobile, Alabama. In Iowa, it’s illegal for a moustachioed man to kiss a woman in public. In Vermont, a married woman is technically still legally obliged to ask her husband’s permission to wear false teeth. And in the tiny Montana town of Summer Junction, it’s illegal to dance across a pedestrian crossing. Yep, weird laws still survive on the statute books—in surprisingly robust numbers—all over the place. But in 1997, that gave the good peop
Manateeny: Size isn’t everything in the Everglades (Wix) The oceans cover some 71% of the surface of the planet, while the Earth’s waters provide some 99% of all the world’s liveable space. But despite all that empty marine real estate, things can get pretty congested beneath the waves. So it’s good to know at least that when things get a little too bumper-to-bumper in the waters in and around Florida’s Everglades, there is apparently an improvised underwater highway code in
“Honest Abe”. “Handsome Frank”. “Landslide Lyndon”. Some American presidents’ nicknames could be used with pride. Others—like “Rutherfraud”, “Bullshit Johnson”, and John Adams’ “His Rotundity”—perhaps less so. And then, of course, you find out that Grover Cleveland’s nickname was “Big Steve”. Big Steve Cleveland. Plate of pies just out of shot. (Wikipedia/Public domain) Why? Well, “Grover” was actually the two-time President’s middle name; his first name (by which he was know
When the storm surge of Hurricane Sandy struck the coast of New York in late October 2012, it flooded streets, submerged subways, and caused billions of dollars in damages. It also gave a Mr John Whittier Norris of Montauk, NY, a somewhat unexpected addition to his garden pond. The tiny hamlet of Montauk lies on the northernmost tip of Long Island. It escaped the worst of New York’s flooding, but was still badly effected by the storm, with waves crashing far up the islands’ b
