h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wish someone would make up some weird and wonderful rumour about me, that'd be fun!

If only, eh?

Indeed! The current one is ok, but doesn't have that much street cred...

When I moved to my previous house (before my aforementioned problems) all the neighbours had been told by someone that I was a Jehovah's Witness with 6 kids and 3 husbands. It was over a year before I found out about it and it suddenly explained all the odd comments had been receiving. However, as it was untimately harmless I could see the funny side.

my best friend's all through schools little sister who lived down the road so our mothers were good friends (you following this?)had this boy friend right? who was in the same school year as me right? and we didnt really get on even though i dont think we have ever spoken to each other for more than about a minute. he once dated another friend of mine by the way. anyway, he stared all these rumours about me and told his girl friened, the one that lived down the road, loads of stuff bout me. now, there were already rumours going round that i was ultra religous about to become a nun/ a complete swot/ frigid/ etc...... the rumours he started were that i was gay/a druggy/sleeping with everything that moved/into all the really bad places in town/etc....... well, closer than the other lot of rumours. anyway, said bloke told his little girl friend who of course told her big sister (my frined) who thought it was quite funny and not thinkning told her mum who told........you guessed it......my mum.

fortunatley my mum thought that the first lot of rumours were the closest to the truth so i was saved, but what if i hadn;t been so lucky, what if my mum was more prepared to believe rumours going round the village than me. i could have really been in trouble.

the little bas**rd.


interesting fact, i once tried to tell someone i worshiped the devil (i dont but i was sick of the nun rumours) and they were convinced i was trying to tell them i was gay.

ho hum

never mind.....


people who start untrue rumours are dangerous, it's not so much the hurt that bothers me. it's things like were mentioned earlier, not being able to get a job etc. because of it.

they should all be denied

FABT



oh, and the nun rumours werent true either.

Perhaps the best thing is to never join in any gossip.It might be a bit boring but at least you never get to hear anything about yourself.I try to be noncommital when someone offers me any revelations and say that it's best to ignore such comments as it may not be true.These days the only person who gives me any gossip is my husband and I KNOW what a lia...tall tales person he is.

Incog.

Yeah, I try to stay above gossip, especially at college where I'm surrounded by silly little idiots all day.....hi class!

I know the feeling. I was the token weird one at school and thus beyond the comprehension of townies. Partly, I was responsible for some of the rumours about me, cos I started them (like the one about my plan to have a mass nude outdoor wedding) just to see how much they'd believe. A lot, it turned out. Due to some misunderstandings and mysterious absences, in the space of one morning a rumour exploded that 3 of us had been suicidally gathered for some kind of crack-smoking death ritual, and if we'd taken any more drugs we would have died. But of course!
would've merited a day off school, at least.
They were still talking about me after I left (pride!); kiddies I'd never set eyes on would approach me and say 'Oh, my mate sez you worship the devil.' A common complaint. 2 years after I'd gone they all thought I was a lesbian (because I had friends who were also strange... apparently that's all the criteria needed. Course, they were half-right on that one. Precognition? Disturbance in the force?) I tried to organise spies to get any news back to me, but it seems to have died down now. Still, I'm a famous name there.
A friend managed to convince a few people (my mother included) that the science department had put up a bust of him in his honour.

I found out many years after the fact that people in my home town thought I was gay because I didn't date.
I never did date and I had three women convince me I wasn't gay.
But I have since heard that there were parents who warned their daughters away from me because I was 'gay'. Is this what is called 'not quite clear on the concept'?
Besides, all they had to do was ask. The local queens could have told them. I knew most of them. Didn't mind them. Just didn't care to.

Oh yes, keep your daughters away from the gays. We all know how they love young girls in skimpy clothing.

parents hmmmmm, the font of all knowledge.


no wonder their kids are so pig ignorant if that what their parents tell them.


FABT

And the truly disturbing thing is, I can't figure out how they ogt their kids to listen to them! I didn't listen to mine. I thought hey were ignorant and out of it. Now my springoff thinks the same of me!

Sympathies to all people who had vicious rumours started about them. One sprang up about me, about my lesbianism... trouble is that at a girls' school, half the pupils are disgusted and the other half are fascinated. I wasn't lesbian, I was just shy, and the rumour (more like bullying, than rumourmongering) resulted in my absolute paranoia for about five years.

I never minded other women's love affairs, I was just terrified of looking at another woman myself! It took my beloved husband to convince me that lesbianism doesn't matter. Now he has done, I'm a bit short of rumours... don't fancy any others, though - they've done more than enough to me!

x x Fenny (UT except for vicious rumours)

kids will be kids, Tonsils Ah, whadda they know?

Then it isn't really universal is it?

To Xanatic - "Ouch!"

Actually, I try to be tolerant of people, not of abstract things like 'vicious rumours'. Universal Tolerance is my reminder that humanity is made by a diversity of different people... it's not only a reminder to you, but also to me.

To everyone - sorry for that brief digression... I didn't come here to preach, but you're welcome to read my Zero Intolerance page.

x x Fenny (Still UT!)

Personally I still don't tolerate intolerance.

Once a guy fell down while on his bike with an epileptic attack. I helped him out since nobody else was around. I guess someone from my school must have seen it, some of them seemed to think I had run him over on my bike and that's why he was laying there. I don't know if they still believe it.

The ability to pay attention seems to be in short supply.
Many folks minds seem to be reduced to 'label makers'.
I have one truly inescapable prejudice: Inappropriate footwear...
No tolerance there.
If you're not taking care of your feet, you're not taking care of your back...and a person with sore feet and a bad back, who has not honestly earned them, but begged for them with inappropriate footwear is probably not thinking too clearly, either.
I have walked many a mile in my life and I know what a difference good shoes can make.




done talking for now. Carry on....

To Xanatic, and Tonsil Revenge - we're on the same side! I'm not saying anything about tolerating... ooh, self-abuse, for example! I'm not saying we should tolerate wife-beaters! I'm just trying to remind myself to tolerate other people...

For example, and not specifically: the person in the traffic jam in front of you - don't beep at him, just let him go his own speed; your neighbour, and her late-night rock parties; just let it all happen!

Now - shall we get back to rumourmongering?

I once started a rumour at my school (and I'd hope it wasn't a vicious rumour - just that a teacher who had left was returning)! I wanted it to reach my friend in a roundabout way, so I told two kids from a year below, and asked them if they could tell a couple of people as if it were true... An experiment in mob psychology, which took three days to get around the whole school!

Me! Me! Me!

x x Fenny (UT)

I've never felt the need to play with rumour (I'll leave that to Graham Parker). I have enough trouble getting people to deal with reality.
I stared unfeelingly through a stack of National Enquirers from the library free table yesterday. What people are willing to do to others in the name of....you name it...never ceases to amaze me.
And this internet rumor/hoax phenomenon....absolutely tired of it.
The least bit of common sense would tell you not to believe everything you read!
Yet, people seem to seek the gospel in anything a body is willing to sit down and type!
Deposit brain in crib before sitting down to the interactive idiot box...



sorry, one of those days...