Old wives tales & silly believes

[The Burgomaster]

* Filling an ice cube tray with warm water will make it freeze faster.
* A four-leaf clover will bring you good luck.
* If you swallow gum it will stick to your ribs.
* If you have a craving while you are pregnant, and eat the food you crave, your baby will look like that food (this one was from the old folks on the Italian side of my family)

[Flick James]

* Filling an ice cube tray with warm water will make it freeze faster.
* A four-leaf clover will bring you good luck.
* If you swallow gum it will stick to your ribs.
* If you have a craving while you are pregnant, and eat the food you crave, your baby will look like that food (this one was from the old folks on the Italian side of my family)

hah! I like the warm water one. There's actually a good reason for that misunderstanding. Technically, that is correct, but only on a semantic level. If you put two cups of water in the same freezer at the same time, one being at room temperature and one being 20 degrees warmer, the warmer water will start dropping in temperature at a faster rate, because the of the temperature differential. The closer the water gets to the temperature of the surroundings, the slower the temperature changes. So, at first, the warmer water is moving toward a state of freezing at a faster clip, but, here's where people misundestand, it won't reach freezing point sooner than the water that was at room temperature. In fact, the water that was at room temperature will probably reach freezing point sooner because it is closer to that state already. But technically, the warmer water is "freezing faster" because the temperature is changing more rapidly. Purely a semantic consideration.

I love this thread.

[Paquita]

If someone hits you on the back while you're making a funny face, your face will stay like that forever.

If you swallow seeds of any kind, a tree will grow in your stomach.

The "green stuff" under an escalator will suck you in if you let your foot touch it.

Not really an old wives tale, but my mom and grandmother were constantly telling me that anything I wanted to do that they didn't want me to do was "illegal".  My mom would make up laws, go into detail about how she or I would be arrested and/or have to pay large sums of money for whatever it was that I wanted to do.  These illegal activities were things like touching the telephone, walking around the corner, sitting on someone else's porch, and my mom insisted curfew was 8pm, I'm pretty sure it wasn't though.  She even put an age limit on it too, first it was illegal for me to be out after 8pm when I was under 12, and then as soon as I was 12 she said it was on the news last week that they changed it to 14, and when I was 14 it changed to 17.  I'm still not even sure if half of the things I think are illegal really are.

I was terrified of a lot of things when I was a kid.. I actually still kind of am.

[JaseSF]

Don't make funny faces too much or your face will stay that way.

If a woman has a serious food craving during pregnancy, the baby will be born with a birthmark in that shape.

[The Gravekeeper]

My grandma told us that whistling in the house would invite the devil inside.

I'm pretty sure she made that up just to get us to stop whistling in the house. It didn't work as well as she thought, since we just stopped when she was in earshot.

[RCMerchant]

.Hold your button on your shirt and spit when passing a graveyard.(keep away spooks).
.Cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis.
.Drinking booze in cold weather warms you up.(It actually thins the blood-making you colder-of course if yer real snockered you may not know how freezing you are... )
.Drinking coffee will sober you up.
.Waking up a sleep walker will give them a heart attack and they'll die. I usta wake my sister up when she sleep walked-it was like she was in a trance or something.
.If you say Candyman 5 times while looking in a mirror-a scary guy covered in bees will kill you. (Oh,wait...thats a movie... )

[Raffine]

Cats steal the breath of babies.

When my brother and his crazy-ass wife came to visit with their new baby for the first time I learned they both feverishly believed this. They frantically insisted I put my cat outside even though we were having record low temps - below 0.  They finally relented and 'allowed' me to keep the cat in my bedroom.

[macabre]

hi
I am sorry for bringing this subject down to gutter level, but i was hoping Menard would have mentioned this but alas i shall have to do so.
You will go blind if you Mastubate too often:
this one refers to women
Smart head,bad in bed;

Macabre

[AndyC]

Drinking booze in cold weather warms you up.(It actually thins the blood-making you colder-of course if yer real snockered you may not know how freezing you are... )

Actually, it dilates the blood vessels in your skin, bringing more warmth out where you can feel it. The downside is you lose heat a lot faster. Your body naturally constricts those vessels in the cold, to maintain your core temperature. Drinking alcohol to stay warm circumvents one of the body's natural protections against freezing to death, so you feel warmer as you get colder overall. Still, in situations where there's less danger of hypothermia than there is of frostbite or discomfort, I'd take a couple of snorts if I had the option.

[The Burgomaster]

When I was a kid, we lived beside an elementary school that had an iron fire escape attached to it.  All the kids in the neighborhood used to say if you stepped on a certain spot on the top level, the fire escape would expand and go way up into the sky.  I remember me and some of the neighborhood kids going almost to the top, but being afraid to step on the top platform because we thought we'd be raised up into the clouds never to be heard from again.

[Newt]

Peacock feathers are bad luck inside a house.
Elephant figurines must have the end of the trunk turning UPwards or they are bad luck.
Horseshoes hung up for luck must have the open side (heels) pointing up or all the luck will fall out.
A female animal is 'ruined' forever for breeding if she has been bred to an inferior male.
A horse is worth $100 (now more like a thou!) for every time he rolls over completely, in a row.
Horses that are lying down are so sick they are dying (this is a movie staple!)
Changing a horse's name changes its luck.
Another horsey one:
"One white foot, buy him
Two white feet, try him
Three white feet, eye him
Four white feet, deny him
Four white feet and a white nose, knock him on the head and feed him to the crows"
(And a whole bunch more about colours, markings, hair whorls and "thumbprints")

[Rev. Powell]

The size of a man's hands or feet will tell you how he's hung. 
Chewing gum takes seven years to pass through the human digestive system.
You have to wait an hour after eating before you go swimming or you'll get cramps.
You should store batteries in the refrigerator to make them last longer.
PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE was the worst movie ever made.

[Paquita]

You have to wait an hour after eating before you go swimming or you'll get cramps.

That's not true?  I've been anxiously waiting  a whole hour to go swimming after eating and that's not true?!  Darn it MOM!!!!!

[The Gravekeeper]

You have to wait an hour after eating before you go swimming or you'll get cramps.

That's not true?  I've been anxiously waiting  a whole hour to go swimming after eating and that's not true?!  Darn it MOM!!!!!

No, but going in five minutes after a big meal can give you cramps so bad you throw up.

[Leah]

If you spill salt, toss it over your shoulder- umm, wouldn't you just still be wasting salt?
never look up and have yer mouth open. take a wild guess why?