I’m trying to start an Internet rumor.
You know that salad with the crispy bacon, avocado, egg, chicken, Roquefort cheese and other tasty stuff in a vinaigrette dressing? The thing they call a Cobb Salad? Well, I’m trying to convince people that it was invented by the ball player Ty Cobb. Maybe he ate it before each game to get his energy up, give him an extra edge. Yeah, that’s it. Ty Cobb invented and ate that salad to play better baseball.
Together, you and me, let’s convince people that it’s true. I bet we could do that!
We can do this. Really. We just need to publish it a few places on the web. On a site, on social media. In a comments section on a blog. Don’t make a big deal about it—just a passing reference. Like it’s something everybody knows.
Because pretty soon it’ll be spread everywhere. Wikipedia. Trusted news sources. Maybe Swopes will catch the lie, but who reads Swopes?
Look, it’s plausible. I mean, General Tso had a chicken recipe. Unless that’s just a rumor popularized by Chinese restaurants. Either way, it’s accepted fact.
And how about the incredible, seemingly impossible things that are true. Like Thomas Jefferson dying 50 years to the day after his Declaration of Independence? How is that possible? And really, they’d like us to believe that John Adams died the same day?!
I don’t know what to believe any more. But I do know this: anything that just sounds credible has a great chance of becoming “true.”
So, let’s all enjoy a Ty Cobb salad. Let’s add some oomph to our game. And I’d like to propose a toast to the venerable salad with a glass of Pinot. You know, the wine popularized by the Chilean dictator Pinochet.