Writing About a Bunch of Pooh

Most people would be surprised just how much of our written history is nothing but a bunch of ... well ... POOH!

Also, there are a lot of so-called scientific facts that we have accepted over the years that are also a bunch of ... POOH!

I have decided to devote a few of the upcoming Thursdays to uncovering and debunking some of the history we have been taught.

I'll also set the record straight on some of those scientific faux pas' we've been spoon-fed over the years.

So be careful where you step and you may want to get some nose plugs because some of these are gonna be real stinkers!

George Washington Was Not the First U.S. President
The United States was established on July 4, 1776. George Washington was inaugurated president thirteen years later, on April 30, 1789. During the intervening years, the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia drew up the Articles of Confederation (the first American constitution). In 1781, Maryland representative John Hanson was elected the first president of the Congress of the Confederation. His official title was "president of the United States in Congress Assembled."

After Hanson, seven other men served as president: Elias Boudinot, Thomas Mifflin, Richard Henry Lee, John Hancock, Nathaniel Gorham, Arthur St. CLair, and Cyrus Griffin. In 1787, Congress held a constitutional convention. The delegates wrote the current constitution, ratified by the states in 1788.

The following year, the ratifying states elected George Washington our nation's ninth president. He has been considered our first president ever since - under the technicality that he was the first under the new Constitution.

"As Time Goes By" Was Not Written for Casablanca



"As Time Goes By" (music by Herman Hupfeld, lyrics by Irving Kahal) was originally sung in the 1931 Broadway stage show Everybody's Welcome, and Rudy Vallee recorded the song later that year.

Casablanca premiered eleven years later in 1942. The popularity of the movie prompted RCA to re-release the Rudy Vallee recording.




There you have it, that's just two examples of the POOH that has been shoveled upon us through the years. Come back next Thursday for some more jaw-dropping facts calculated to boggle your mind and to dispel the POOH that may have had you misinformed for all of these years.

(The above POOH was "borrowed" from the Random House publication "Contrary to Popular Belief" by Joey Green.)

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