The (Other) End of the Internet

Welcome back!

My sister forwarded me another email this morning that I simply MUST rant about. I’m sure most people have probably seen this email in one form or another; according to snopes.com, it’s been circulating since August of 2006.

The email in question talks about how this person was stung by a bee and they simply put a penny over the wound while they relaxed in their outdoor furniture and the pain was instantly gone and then after 15 minutes there was almost no indication that the person had ever been stung.

I’m not going to get into whether the “cure” talked about actually works. I’ve never tried it and even snopes.com lists it as “undetermined”. What I want to know is what the hell are these people doing to get stung so often?

First the original author claims to have been stung by both a bee and hornet while working in the garden. This person was apparently allergic to bee stings, because this resulted in trips to see TWO doctors - one of whom suggested the penny treatment.

That same evening, the author’s niece was stung by two different bees and also got the penny treatment.

Next, our intrepid gardener is at it again when (s)he gets stung by two more hornets. Again, the penny treatment saves the day.

While our wounded friend is recovering, their friend is stung on the thumb and tapes a penny to the injury.

The friend gets stung again a few days later while cutting the grass. Again, out comes the pocket change to the rescue.

Do these people live in an area infested with killer bees, or do they just like making them angry? Seriously. This email talks about 8 bee or hornet stings in a matter of a couple of days. I’m 45 years old and I have never in my life been stung by a bee or a hornet. I have, in that time, been stung by exactly three wasps. Once was because I accidentally angered them with a lawnmower and the other two were because I was trying to remove a nest from over my front door. All three times, it hurt like crazy for about five minutes and that was the end of it. The poor people in this email can’t seem to go outside without the bees swarming on them and then they have to go see a doctor for it!

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