Lies
"Apparently, ring-a-ring-a-roses dates back to the 17th century. Apparently it's all about the plague: apparently the rings of roses are skin lesions, the first sign of infection; the posies are, apparently, doomed attempts to keep the illness at bay; the sneezing is the symptom of the advancing disease, apparently; and "all fall down" is, apparently, the impending death.......apparently"

Lies. The earliest recorded form of the rhyme is dated at 1790 and originated in Massachusetts - not too much bubonic plague there and then one assumes! It's just the lure of such an "obvious" fact is too much for most people to question.

How many times has someone told you a fact - qualifying it first, of course, with a cursory, "apparently"? Ranging from the trivial - "apparently it's going to snow next week" - to the academic - "apparently Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone" and even the personal - "apparently she's having an affair", it’s all inaccuracy, falsification, balderdash, fabrication...well, simply put, LIES! People use apparently-facts in order to achieve social-status-satisfaction, safe in the knowledge that they are 'doing their bit to fight against ignorance'...hmm...filling the world with dross more like!

It seems that anyone can get away with saying anything whatsoever by simply mitigating the lie with "apparently"! See how many of these "facts" someone's told you recently –

1) Apparently polar bears cover their noses when they go out to hunt
2) Apparently the lead in pencils is poisonous
3) Apparently you can see the Great Wall of China from the Moon
4) Apparently one 'human-year' equates to seven 'dog-years'
5) Apparently it isn't racist to call someone "the Indian" when referring to a house-mate.

Apparently...that's all bullshit!