Grandpa in Wallmart, 87 year old Rose in a College and Kittens in Bottles

Remember the Grandpa who was tired of following his wife to the shopping at Wallmart and got banned from the supermarket because he - among other things - placed condoms in other people's carts and made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women's restroom. *

Image often attached to the Wall Mart hoax. A documentary photo kind of makes the story more valid?

Or perhaps you remember the story of a 87 year old Rose who fulfilled her dream to study in college - and died just one week after graduation? **

Photo of a 87 year old college student Rose is actually a photo of Nola Ochsin who in 2007 got in to the Guinness Book of Records as the olders college graduate (95) ever

Or a farmer who made gigantic table and chairs to his horses when he was denied construction permit by the local government? ***

These furniture are not constructed by an angry farmer.

Anatomy of an hoax

All these are good examples of the stories which have been circulating in the internet since its early days. Stories which are constructed like a true story - often accompanied with a photo "verifying" the story - and which people perceive so. Stories are often written in a way that they tell a good old-fashioned pedagogical history (do this and you'll succeed) or they are motivational, humouristic or horrible in their style. Horrible like the "Bonzai Cats" circulating in e-mail a decade ago.

Bonzai Kittens is very known meme around there. In a time they caused a storm of fury in the internet.

Stories are often wrtitten in a good urban legend style. The story has happened to a writer himself or s/he has heard it from his close friend - or his/her grandfather told the story for him/her. Somehow people are very weak for the stories written in "believe me, this story is true, it happened to me" -style.

Snopes.com

It is funny to receive sharings of these inspirational and motivational stories from Facebook friends. I would start to collect these great stories and put them to an internet site, but luckily I do not have to. Barbara and David P. Mikkelson have been collecting these modern (and older) urban legends circulating all over the internet already since 1995. Their Snopes.com -database has hundreds if not thousands messages of which the oldest ones have been circulating around for centuries - and still we believe them to be true.

So, please, next time you have an urge to share a great inspirational, humouristic, motivational, educative story which has been shared to you by your friend, check out whether you find it at the Snopes.com database. Remember, if the story seems too good to be true, it often isn't true.

What Tapio Rautavaara got to do with this?

Many of Finns have heard Tapio Rautavaara's great story from the Second World War, korttipakka (Deck of Cards). A soldier is accused to have played cards in the church and in the front of the military justice he starts to tell a story "When I see an Ace, it reminds that there is only one God..." and so on. In addition, the card deck proved also to be a very handy calendar too! Sorry to say, Finns, but this legend has been circulating around since 1788 - and not since the Continuing War from 1942.

Those little stars in the beginning

* The story is based to an old joke where someone was humouristically giving instructions for men, how to avoid going shopping with wives. Some brainer realised the story would be more effective if it was written as in the first person. And it started to fly.

** There has been a college students even older than that, but the story of 87 year old Rose is based on an American author Dan Clark's history of a fellow college students. Whether the story is true or not has not been verified but the one which is circulating in the internet is written, again, as in the eye-witness first-person style. Good story though.

***The photo of the table and the chairs was actual but the story written to it was fake. Gigantic furniture were just an advertisement for a furniture company in Germany.

Slavery was abolished in USA in 1865, in Finland it was done in the 1950's

In 2010 Finland's National Brand Committee lead by former Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila presented its paper to a former Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb. The committee stated proudly that Finland was the forerunner of democracy since Finnish women became the first in the world to have unrestricted rights both to vote and to stand for parliament. But something was left out from the report. Something which was part of the Finnish Social Policy in many decades of the 20th Century. In many countries this would be called slavery. And this is something which is quieted story of the Finnish history. A modern time slavery. Finnish historician Jouko Halmekoski writes about the modern slave market which was the fact in Finland as late as in the 1950's. He interviewed 25 persons who had been auctioned away by the local government in order to save money in sustaining the children. The lowest bidders won the custody of the child for one years period. Ironically the auction was held in the 29

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Today's Rudolf Koivu would be a Game Designer

Rudolf Koivu (1890 - 1946) is one of the illustrators which has affected me most. Even if Finland's most known illustrator died already in 1946 there is no one which has escaped Koivu's sensuous lines, magical creatures from childrens' stories and Christmas cards. I claim, Koivu is for Finns the same than Carl Larsson for Swedes or Mucha for Czechs. Or perhaps even more than that. Last summer I visited an exhibition full of Koivus drawings to different Childrens' stories. It blew my mind out. Pictures to the stories by Grimm, Topelius, Andersen were all presented. Thinking of the fact that the world was not full of images Koivu's characters, trolls, sceneries and mystical creatures were amazingly original ones. Unlike today's illustrator who has grown in a world full of images, Koivu had to bring these creatures from his mind. That is a thing which often has been neglegted. My first memories of Koivu, though I did not know that by then, were the sensuous cov

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Kasvien keruu ja herbaario - prässäämisohjeet

1970-luvun peruskoulu-uudistus unohti kasvion! Kuulun siihen peruskoulusukupolveen, jonka ei tarvinnut kerätä kesälomansa aikana herbaariota eli kasvikokoelmaa. Se oli sääli, sillä pläräsin useasti veljeni keräämää upeaa 50 kasvin kokoelmaa. Selasin usein sen sivuja ihastellen kauniisti kuivattuja ja prässättyjä kasveja. Olisin halunnut koota sellaisen itsekin. Se jäi, kunnes vihdoin tänä kesänä pääsin kannustamaan poikaani hänen kasvinkeruuretkillään. Sain seuratakin häntä ja hänen serkkujaan metsien siimekseen ja peltojen pientareille. Hienointa oli, että hänen opettajansa jopa kannusti vanhempia ja isovanhempia sekä lapsia liikkumaan yhdessä luonnosta nauttien - kunhan lapsi valitsisi poimittavat kasvit. Matka aurinkoisella soratiellä kohti luontoa ja kerättäviä kasveja. Kasvienprässääminen palasi takaisin Jossain vaiheessa kasvien kerääminen palasi peruskoulun opetussuunnitelmaan. Vapaaehtoinen, mutta numeroon positiivisesti vaikuttava, kasvikokoelma kerätään yleis

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I write in margins

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