On Old Wives' Tales

Old Wife

As requested by reader Andrew, I did try to look up the origin of the term "Old Wives' Tale". The best I could do was a reference to The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms.

A superstition, as in Toads cause warts? That's an old wives' tale. This expression was already known in ancient Greece, and a version in English was recorded in 1387. Despite invoking bigoted stereotypes of women and old people, it survives.

So it seems too old to trace back to any one spot, it was indeed quite old.

Also, if it seemed like my beard article was a bit dated, it was. (I found a debunking to that myth dating 1928!) What's important here is that a reader asked for the info, and I went out to get it and make it easy to interpret, to the best of my ability. So by all means, ask for articles on particular subjects and I'll do what I can to write on them and maybe provide you with some new info. Even if the myths are bunk and/or old. As for gum in the digestive system, it goes right through just as fast as any other food, even though it doesn't get broken down. (http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/chewgum.asp)

In the future, as suggested by one of my readers, I may start commenting on political goings-on. Though it's not really my area of knowledge, I can try. What does everyone think of that? Do you want to start seeing some politically themed articles?