Don't Believe Everything You Read

Kind words bring life, but cruel words crush your spirit. 15:4

Today's Game
Mavericks 74
Heat 98
Final

Our Mavericks have just lost bad to Miami, but I have a funny Mavs story to tell anyway. Tonight we had dessert with friends whose son had dressed up with three of his friends to see if they could win free tickets to get into the first Mav's game of the finals. We saw the home video of these boys dressed with their graduation caps, aviator sun glasses, and bare bellies that spelled out M-A-V-S. Their winning audition included a song and dance routine and they added a dramatic touch by turning to the camera and saying things like, "Grandma, I'm sorry you came all this way to see me graduate, but I really wanted to watch the Mavs win tonight, so I won't be there."

Well, the gullible Miami Herald reporter picked up on this, and wrote the following story.

Miami Herald, The (FL)
June 9, 2006
Section: Special Section
Edition: Final
Page: 2NB
Memo:NBA FINALS


WHAT'S HOOPENING? GO TO GREAT LENGTHS
CAMMY CLARK, Miami Herald Staff

When Pomp and Circumstance was played at Rusk High School in Rusk, Texas, on Thursday night, the friends and family of senior Troy Harrison were in for a shock.
Beloved Troy and his three buddies were playing hooky from their own graduation. Instead of getting their diplomas, they were three hours away in Dallas - wearing their caps, but not their gowns. Their stomachs were bare, spelling out: M-A-V-S.

``I didn't tell them I was coming,'' Harrison conceded. ``We got other friends they can cheer for.''

The teenaged quartet was among about 250 people who looked like they were going to a Halloween party and acted like they had just escaped from the Cukoo's Nest.
...

And the followup to this story: when the Miami Herald actually printed this story, the boys were shocked. One of them told his mom, "I've really learned a lesson here." She then expected him to say something like, "Surely your sins shall find you out." But no. He said, "I've learned not to believe everything I read in the newspapers."

Overheard:

There's a lizard in my bathroom.