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.
Smile for the camera: The, er, happy couple (Public domain) Edward VIII’s marriage to American socialite Wallis Simpson might have led to the Abdication Crisis in the king’s native UK, but in Simpson’s hometown of Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, the imminent nuptials were the cause for considerable celebration. And, in the case of local shopkeeper Hyram L Hegerty, was a chance to exercise an, er, incredible hidden talent. Hegerty ran a drugstore/golf equipment/ammunition sho
When will people learn not to allow the public to name anything? From Boaty McBoatface to, er, Hooty McOwlface, the general public have a long track record of not taking these things all too seriously. Thankfully, things were a little different back in 1925, when film studio MGM signed their brand new 20-year-old silent movie starlet, Lucille Fay LaSueur. Born in Texas in 1905, LaSueur was a dancer who’d already made her big screen debut as Norma Shearer’s body double in Lady
“That’s not the dress code!”: General Lee surrenders at Appomattox (Public domain/Wikimedia) When two sides go to battle, the clean up afterwards can be a prolonged operation. Just like when the old guy who used to live opposite my parents’ house threw a bag of dog poop over his neighbours’ car. That took him ages to clean that up. Though in fairness, he’d been warned not to let his builders spill dolomite over his driveway, so you could say he kinda deserved it. But I digres
I had a friend at college whose house was so enormous that his parents bought a photocopier just because they didn’t have enough furniture to fill all the rooms. So, in their eyes at least, the only solution to having too many rooms is not to move to a smaller house, but to dedicate a room the act of photocopying, which is, of course, a much-needed task in a domestic setting. What is the moral of this story? Well, it’s that with all things considered, and when one thing boils
The flag of Massachusetts: That motto means “Learn to spell” (Wikipedia) Let’s face it, some words are just too goddamn hard to spell. Are there really two Rs and two Ss in embarrassed? And the fact that it’s calendar with an A but cemetery with an E just seems downright sadistic. But thank duck that these days we’ve got autocorrect to help us out. So long as by “help us out” you mean remind us to pick up the dry cloning when we go shipping after work. And when that fails, th
1954 was quite a year in Hollywood. Classics like On The Waterfront and A Star Is Born were among the most successful films of the year. Stars like Grace Kelly, Judy Garland and Marlon Brando were among the most talked about people on the planet. Cinemascope and Technicolour were making films bigger and brassier than ever. And there, among it all—somewhere on a film studio backlot in downtown Los Angeles—was Clark Gable. Saving Lassie from a fire in his trailer. No, really. “
