Thursday, April 1, 2010

Happy Lirpa Sloof Day


Well in the spirit of the day I have decided to pass along some of my favourite April Fool's day pranks that have been perpetrated on the public over the years. An expanded list can be found at http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P0/
Swiss Spaghetti Harvest – In 1957 BBC reported that thanks to a warmer than normal winter and the elimination of the Spaghetti Weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper crop of spaghetti. The story included photos of happy farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees. The BBC received many calls from people wondering how they could get their own spaghetti tree.
Left-Handed Whopper – In 1998 Burger King Restaurants announced that they would be offering a left handed whopper for their left handed patrons. The burger would have all the regular ingredients but the condiments on the burger would be rotated 180 degrees for better enjoyment of left handed people. Thousands of people requested the new sandwich and many complained that there was no special right handed version.
Metric Time – In 1975 Australia's This Day Tonight news program reported that the country would soon be switching to Metric Time. Under the new Metric Time system there would be '100 seconds to the minute, 100 minutes to the hour, and 20-hour days'. Along with the new time system would come new names – 'seconds would become millidays, minutes become centidays, and hours become decidays'. The report went on to state that new 10 hour Metric Clocks would be introduced.
Wisconsin State Capitol Collapses – In 1933 it was announced by the Madison Capital-Times that the Wisconsin State Capitol building had been rocked by a series of mysterious explosions and had collapsed. The explosions were attributed to the 'large quantities of gasses' expelled by legislators during debates.
MITkey Mouse – In 1998 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology web page broke the news that the famous tech school had been sold to the Disney Corporation. It went on to report that new schools of study would be offered and would include 'the School of Imagineering, the Scrooge McDuck School of Management, and the Donald Duck Department of Linguistics'.





 

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