Care to learn more than the AMA’s recommended daily allowance of theories concerning the origin of April Fool’s Day [1]? The Museum of Hoaxes [2] has you covered, along with the top 100 hoaxes of all time as measured by “notoriety, creativity, and number of people duped.” At the top of the list is the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest:
1957: The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."
My personal favorite came back in 1998 when it was reported that the Alabama state legislature voted to change the value of Pi [3] from 3.14159… to the ‘Biblical value’ of 3.0. ‘Cause this, you know, could actually happen [4]!
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Links:
[1] http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/April_Fools_Day_-_Origin/
[2] http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/
[3] http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/af_database/permalink/alabama_changes_the_value_of_pi/
[4] http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/ap_051111_alabama_schools.html
[5] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fthehindsightfactor.com%2Fmuseum-hoaxes-has-top-100-april-fool%25E2%2580%2599s-day-hoaxes-all-time&linkname=Museum%20of%20Hoaxes%20has%20the%20Top%20100%20April%20Fool%E2%80%99s%20Day%20Hoaxes%20of%20All-Time
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