The Ricker makes up facts.

When the Ricker explains history or geography or anything like that, there are bound to be a few "Ricker facts" that can't be verified. He says the baby animals are cute so that their mothers don't eat them. He says don't hit cardboard boxes in the street, because one time a kid was playing in a box and was struck by a car and killed.

My all-time favorite Ricker fact involved Idaho. When I was younger, we were driving through Utah and Idaho on our way to Oregon. I was fairly sick, and the Ricker wanted to give me some hope, so he told me that Boise was the Flashlight Capital of the World (if you read the post on bad Christmas presents, you may remember that the Ricker had somewhat of a thing for flashlights). I believed that Boise was in fact the Flashlight Capital of the World for years, even passing that on as my own fact. It wasn't until college that someone (possibly my future wife) pointed out the absurdity of that fact that I began to doubt the Ricker.