Can You Contract Poison Ivy by Touching Someone Who Has it?

No, many people think that you can, so they avoid them (personal experience). You can only get poison ivy from touching poison ivy oil, which is on the leaves and vines. People think this, because sometimes you may still have oil on your clothes, and people who touch your clothes may get it.-John Baskin

Can Porcupines Shoot Quills From Their Back?

No, many people think that this myth is true, but it is actually false. When startled a muscle that is below each quill on the porcupine allows the spines to stand up straight. Usually a porcupine runs away from danger, but when it attacks it jumps towards the predator, then it sticks its quills into its attacker. After a fight it only looses a small percent of all of its quills. After a while its quills will re-grow, so it never runs out of quills. - John Baskin

Was The Pentagon Originally Supposed to be a Hospital?

No, this myth started, because the Pentagon has wide ramps, instead of stairs, which would be used to roll stretchers, wheel chairs, and supplies to different floors. It also has many bathrooms. It is even located near the Arlington Cemetery. The reason for all of the bathrooms, was because at the time there was racial segregation, and there had to be different bathrooms for blacks, and whites. The ramps were used to save steel that it would have taken to make all of the stairs and elevators. They couldn't use too much steel, because at the time World War II was happening, and they needed steel for the war. For the Arlington Cemetery, it is located next to the Pentagon just by chance.-John Baskin

Can a Duck's Quack Not Echo?

No, this is a fact in one of the e-mails that has many annoying facts, that aren't usually real. Well first, the male and female ducks quack sounds very different from each other. Also there are many different breeds of ducks, and each breed has a different sounding quack. Tests from the University of Salford revealed the truth of this legend. The tests show that a ducks quack does echo, but not very well. A duck quacks quietly, and the sound dies out over time, so that may be how the rumor was started.-John Baskin