In this post, near the bottom, I cite the legend of St. Urho as evidence for the Medieval Warming Period. The man, if you'll remember, is celebrated for having driven a plague of grasshoppers out of Finland's vineyards long ago.
I was willing to concede that St. Urho himself might be fictional, or that the grasshoppers were, but—and this is my mighty logic in play here—no country celebrates a guy for saving a fictional crop.
Unless, of course, the country doesn't celebrate him at all. I turns out that St. Urho is the creation of Minnesotan Richard Mattson, who invented the tale to complement the Irish's St. Patrick so that the Finnish-American community could have its own blast.
The day? March 16th, one day before St. Paddy's day. Iz in UR holidaz eev, stealin' UR thundr, I guess.
Crap. That was such a good plank in the GW skeptic argument. But I can't find evidence of vineyards ever having existed in Finland during the Medieval period so I'll heave the plank over the side and stop using it in arguments.
Because if it's fake, it's NOT accurate.
UPDATE: OK, now I feel better.
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4 comments:
Oh, darn! I read that story in one of your previous posts, and passed it on. Can't we use the Rather approach of "fake, but true"?
Only if we want to join the camp of those who can say "fallacy of requiring proof" with a straight face.
This is where those kinds of people end up, BTW:
Humping a lightpost on the U of O campus.
Think about it, won't you?
Of course, for Deb's fans, such behavior just makes her a star....
Deb has fans? Who knew?
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