[Buddha-l] My favorite commonly believed falsehood

[Richard P. Hayes]

Mr Vriens's recent Inuktitut gaffe reminded me of something I have heard
for almost my whole life, namely, that the Eskimos have 427 (or
substitute the large number of your choice) for snow. (Or maybe it was
that they have 354 words for Eskimo Pie. I forget.) One time I asked an
anthropologist who had spent his life learning the language of the Inuit
(who used to be called Eskimos before people caught on that it hurts
their feelings to be so designated.) The anthropologist told me there is
one word for snow in Inuktitut. (I recently confirmed this by looking up
the word "snow" in the on-line Inuktitut Dictionary
(http://www.livingdictionary.com/). (For those of you who are not
inclined to look it up for yourself, the Inuktitut word for snow is
"aput". And the Inuktitut word for "Eskimo" is "Inuk". The dictionary
has no entry for "Eskimo Pie".)

Remember, folks, you heard it here on buddha-l, the source of all things
true and trivial. So next time somebody says to you "Did you know the
Eskimos have 397 words for snow?" ask them if they know how many words
the Eskimos have for bullshit. (You'll want to be ready to give the
right answer to this question. According to the on-line Inuktitut
dictionary, the Inuit have no word for that particular substance. They
do, however, have the expression "anaqsituq", which politeness forbids
me to translate for you. You'll have to look it up yourself.)

By the way, Inuktitut also has no word for Buddha. No word for bullshit.
No word for Buddha. Now what does THAT tell you about their attitudes
toward us Buddhists, eh?

What is YOUR favorite commonly believed falsehood?

ᓴᐃᒧ ,
Richard