Dead Skunks, Buzzards and Being Honest

Last night, coming back from a bluegrass concert out of town, we drove miles and miles through the distinctive aroma of skunk. It must be mating season because where ever I go, I smell the unmistakable "perfume" of skunk. They are usually dead in the middle of the road.

I was wondering today, coming back home from church and getting yet another whiff of you-know-what, if buzzards would eat a nasty smelling old dead skunk. Of course, buzzards eat nasty smelling corpses of, I guess, just about anything. So, it stands to reason that a buzzard will eat a skunk and not worry about the smell.

So, I typed in the question into trusty old Google. I found one website that answered just about any question on the subject and in graphic detail. And, I might add, in so much detail that I came away feeling a little nauseated and disgusted. Ah, on the positive side, this might be a good day to start a DIET since I can't imagine eating anything after reading what I read.

On the other hand, I wonder how much of the skunk article is true? Maybe as much truth as is on the Internet? I figure (my own estimate and I am such a skeptic) that only part of what we read on the Internet is true. You know what "they" say, "You can't believe everything you hear (read or even see.)"

In writing my own stories, about 80% is actually true. Now, I am going to be 100% honest: I take a "seed" of what really happened, add a bit of creative fiction and a whole lot of "well, if it didn't happen that way, it SHOULD have!" I think 80% is a pretty close estimate.

Take my story "Nightmare," posted back in April of 2010. On the truthful side: I really did have an Uncle Bucky and all of the other names are correct. We really did ride the roller coaster named "Nightmare" and the twists and turns were just as I remembered. Joyland, the amusement park, was just as I described it.

Now, on the not-so-truthful side: it is "rumored" that Uncle Bucky swallowed his cigar (I have heard that story all my life) and the dialog "could" have gone as I wrote it. So, there you are, 80% truth. The rest is fiction.

So, whether you are talking about dead skunks, buzzards or roller coasters, when YOU hear a good story and pass it on, don't you want to make it just a little better? Now be truthful !