April Foolishness

Some years ago, an unknown writer came up with a series of humorous explanations for common phrases we use today. The author used "life in the 1500s" as the source for such terms as "raining cats and dogs" and "throwing the baby out with the bathwater." This anonymous joker then emailed out the explanation to some friends, who laughed and sent it on to their friends, and so on...

One online acquaintance recalls that the first time she read the article, it was prefaced with commentary to the effect that this was only a joke. But then, possibly in April of 1999, someone removed the commentary and sent the bulk of the joke out as if it were historical fact -- and a famous Internet email hoax was born.

"The Bad Old Days" (as one version was called) took on a life of its own. It showed up in many variations both in emails and on websites. It has even been used, one of my forum members informs me, in classrooms by unsuspecting teachers. To this day you can find it on more than a dozen websites by running a search on "life in the 1500s."

Don't be fooled. This is only a joke! It never really rained cats and dogs and babies weren't thrown out with the bathwater. Don't believe me? Check out my feature The Bad Old Days, which debunks this long-running joke point by point.