It’s all the rage to talk about right now– “fake news.”  What’s so crazy is that people tend to think that it’s a new thing.  Oh, no.  It’s been happening for a very long time, only it’s been historically called by different names:  “yellow journalism,” “communist propaganda,” “disinformation,” “media hack,” and more recently “digital deception.”

As soon as Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1439, “fake news” became a staple commodity in selling papers.  Some would print almost anything to increase circulation and readership.  In 1835, The Sun (a small, struggling news outlet in New York City) began printing fake stories about an alien civilization on the moon, even presenting scientific facts and multiple endorsements from well-respected scientific communities as proof.  It was all a lie, but it established The Sun as a leading, profitable New York morning newspaper.  Later it all became known as “The Great Moon Hoax,” but The Sun remained a major news outlet until 1950!  For 115 years The Sun laughed all the way to the bank!

Continue reading FAKE NEWS NOT NEWS →

In last week’s post, Snake Doctors and All Things Southern, I shared some of my family’s most colorful Southern sayings.  It’s just part of the Southern way of communicating, and each is full of meaning.  Today I want to continue with other sayings that were heard often in the Sims household. My sister, Donna, and I were sharing a ride to the town of our birth, and had so much fun reaching back into time and pulling these sayings out of our memory banks.  Some of them were common to many people around us, but a few were only spoken in our family circle.  Enjoy.

Continue reading SKIN A CAT, AND MORE THINGS SOUTHERN →