Duped?

Editor's note -- The Museum of Hoaxes compiled a list of the top 100 April Fool's Day hoaxes of all time based on the number of people duped. The BBC tops the list with an elaborate prank called ...

Swiss Spaghetti Harvest!

On April 1, 1957 the British news show Panorama broadcast a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. The success of the crop was attributed both to an unusually mild winter and to the "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil." 


The audience heard Richard Dimbleby, the show's highly respected anchor, discussing the details of the spaghetti crop as they watched video footage of a Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and placing it into baskets. The segment concluded with the assurance that, "For those who love this dish, there's nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti." 


The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest hoax generated an enormous response. Hundreds of people phoned the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this query the BBC diplomatically replied, "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.

To this day the Panorama broadcast remains one of the most famous and popular April Fool's Day hoaxes of all time. It is also believed to be the first time the medium of television was used to stage an April Fool's Day hoax.

@HoaxMuseum  Museum of Hoaxes

Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time

And it's kooky!

Editor's note -- To celebrate the centennial of the late, great cartoonist’s birth, Google feature on Jan. 7th a deft ghoulish “Doodle” in honor of Charles Addams, the longtime New Yorker magazine contributor who was a master of the macabre and a brilliant wit of the weird.

“I think he was so far ahead of his time by realizing that horror was funny,” Robert Mankoff, the New Yorker’s cartoon editor.

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karenagardner k. a. gardner 

It's creepy! -- CHARLES ADDAMS GOOGLE DOODLE: Spooky ‘Addams Family’ logo celebrates macabre cartoonistwashingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-ri…

Giant elliptical galaxy

Editors note --  NASA's "image of the day" last Tuesday was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in July 2010.


NASA ellaborated, "Resembling looming rain clouds on a stormy day, dark lanes of dust crisscross the giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A." 

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

"Centaurus A contains the closest active galactic nucleus to Earth, at a distance of just over 11 million light-years. The center is home for a supermassive black hole that ejects jets of high-speed gas into space, but neither the supermassive black hole or the jets are visible in this image." 

NASA NASA 

[Image of the Day] Active Galaxy Centaurus A go.nasa.gov/rubWIC #iotd

On this day

Editor's note -- Emperor Julius Caeser consulted with the most prominent astronomers and mathematicians to design a calendar that aligned with the sun's orbit naming Januarius 1, 46 B.C. the first day of his Julian calendar. 


Romans celebrated with sacrifices to the two-faced god Janus, decorated their homes with laurel  branches and attended raucous parties.

Namesake for the Gregorian calendar

But Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar in 1582 because the year was too long. After 13 centuries, the vernal equinox had moved to the wrong day.

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HistoryChannel History Channel 

Julius Caesar had to add 90 extra days to the year 46 B.C. when he introduced the Julian calendar. bit.ly/t9M7W4

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Vlad and Kim

Editor's note -- The Washington Post feted our Dear Leader's death with a stunning pictorial of his treacherous life during possibly the worst Sunday Night Football on NBC in weeks.  

Kim Jung Il dead at 69  

Aug. 23, 2002 Vladimir Putin and KimJung Il "party down" in Vladivostok.

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karenagardner k. a. gardner 

NEWSFLASH: #DearLeader with horribly overprocessed hair dies. @washingtonpost wants us to take a look at his life. Much better than #SNF

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En L'an 2000

Editor's note -- SAD AND USELESS the most depressive humor site on the net found "Illustrations by French artist Villemard in 1910 of how he imagined the future to be in the year 2000". Unfortunately, Boing Boing already ran a Villemard post on Wed. Sept 12, 2007. 

S&U's post wasn't entirely useless as it featured more than one postcard but, sadly, the blog does not have "BB's Paris liaison, Alex Boucherot, editor of
Fluctuat".

Spy Helicopters

Wars will be fought by “combat cars”.

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karenagardner k. a. gardner 

World in 2000 as Predicted in 1910 | SadAndUseless.com:bit.ly/v4jwO3 via @StumbleUpon - 2011 Best #Useless blog

7 Dec Favorite Reply Delete

A Gentleman's Folly

Editor's note -- Broadway Tower was designed by English architect James Wyatt as a folly for Lady Coventry in 1794. She wondered if she could see a pretend castle 22 miles away from her home. Yes. By 1799, Lady Coventry could see it clearly. 

A folly is a building so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments. 

A Gentleman's Folly, Broadway Tower by Andrew Lockie

Editor's note -- Today, Broadway Tower is an English tourist attraction located on Broadway Hill, one mile southeast of the village of Broadway, Worcestershire, at the second highest point of the Cotswolds after Cleeve Hill.

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GBritishLife Great British Life 

Latest #blog Top 10 Stunning Buildings Photographs: Each week, Mary Brooks, Editor and Publisher of Great Britis... bit.ly/rS42iG

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~8~

On Bergen Street

Editor's note -- Michael Kupperman has another new book. Although he says he's exhausted, he'll still make an effort to attend his own book release party in Brooklyn. Note date and time. 

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MKupperman Michael Kupperman 

December 9th is Thrizzle time! twitpic.com/7k9x29

26 Nov Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

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