Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids

Ken Jennings

Simon and Schuster, Dec 4, 2012 - Family & Relationships - 237 pages

New York Times bestselling author and all-time Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings delivers a characteristically engaging and surprisingly useful new book, revealing the truth behind all the terrible things our parents used to warn us about.

Don’t cross your eyes or they’ll stay like that!

Feed a cold, starve a fever!

Don’t touch your Halloween candy until we get it checked out!

Never run with scissors

Don’t look in the microwave while it’s running!

This will go down on your permanent record

Is any of it true? If so, how true? Ken Jennings wants to find out if mother and father always know best. Yes, all those years you were told not to sit too close to the television (you’ll hurt your eyes!) or swallow your gum (it stays in your stomach for seven years!) or crack your knuckles (arthritis!) are called into question by our country’s leading trivia guru. Jennings separates myth from fact to debunk a wide variety of parental edicts: no swimming after meals, sit up straight, don’t talk to strangers, and so on.

Armed with medical case histories, scientific findings, and even the occasional experiment on himself (or his kids), Jennings exposes countless examples of parental wisdom run amok. Whether you’re a parent who wants to know what you can stop worrying about or a kid (of any age) looking to say, “I told you so,” this is the anti–helicopter parenting book you’ve been waiting for.

Contents

• Run between the raindropsyou wont get so wet: 3
• You can still get sunburned on a cloudy day you know: 9
• Dont touch your Halloween candy until we get it checked out: 17
• Put on a hatmost of your body heat escapes through: 23
• Feed a cold starve a fever: 29
• Nope nothing but soda Itll settle your stomach: 36
• Take off the BandAid and let the cut air out: 43
• Those are just growing pains: 49
• Stand in the middle of the escalator or you might get sucked under: 56
• If you crack your knuckles youll get arthritis: 63
• Never play around refrigeratorsyoull get trapped inside: 66
• If you swallow watermelon seeds theyll grow in your stomach: 72
• Apple seeds are poisonous: 79
• Breakfast is the most important meal of the day: 85
• No snacks youll ruin your dinner: 91
• Stop opening the door and peeking in the oven All the heat: 97
• You need eight glasses of water every day: 103
• Dont chew your ice its bad for your teeth: 110
• Put down the lid before you flush Youre spreading: 115
• Dont swallow your toothpaste its bad for you: 122
• Yuck get a Qtip and clean out your ears: 129
• If you keep wearing lip balm your lips get addicted to it: 135
• Dont cross your eyes or theyll stay like that: 141
• Its too dark to read in here youll hurt your eyes: 147
• Youll shoot your eye out: 154
• Dont eat that right before bed youll have bad dreams: 159
• Dont give those bones to the dog: 172
• Chew on your pencil and youll get lead poisoning: 185
• Dont flick the light switches off and on it wastes money: 198
• Never run the microwave empty: 201
• If youre mad just go let off some steam: 214

About the author

Ken Jennings grew up in Seoul, South Korea, where he became a daily devotee of the quiz show Jeopardy! In 2004, he successfully auditioned for a spot on the show and went on an unprecedented seventy-four game victory streak worth $2.52 million. Jennings’s book Brainiac, about his Jeopardy! adventures, was a critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, as were his follow-up books Maphead and Because I Said So! He is also the author of Planet Funny. Jennings lives in Seattle with his wife Mindy and two children.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids
• Author: Ken Jennings
• Edition: illustrated, unabridged
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2012
• ISBN: 1451656254, 9781451656251
• Length: 237 pages
• Subjects: FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS; Family & Relationships / Parenting / General; Humor / Form / Trivia; Humor / General; Humor / Topic / Marriage & Family; Reference / Curiosities & Wonders; Reference / Questions & Answers; Reference / Trivia