This reminds me of the year of the exploding chickens. Don't remember it? Let me remind you...

There was a midwest heatwave ( I can't find exactly which one, either 1988 or 1995) and people were dying in Chicago. Livestock were severely affected as well. Hogs and cattle were dropping in overheated barns. The AP wire service also added that chickens were exploding in their battery cages. This was reported calmly by all the evening TV news hours - ABC, CBS, NBC and possibly PBS. There were videos of sweating, sad farmers and obviously heat stressed cows and pigs. Finally, an NPR reporter went to a chicken farmer and asked if the chickens were actually exploding. Nope, said the farmer. Chickens just keel over like the cows and pigs. It's an awful mess, but no explosions. In our family "exploding chickens" has come to represent something that "everyone" knows just because "everyone" says so, without actually looking for a source.