In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced it ha=
d bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundre=
ds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia w=
here the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only cal=
med when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical=
joke.
White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about th=
e sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had al=
so been sold. It would now be known, he said, as the Ford Lincoln Mercury M=
emorial.
In 1974 residents of Sitka, Alaska, were alarmed when the =
long-dormant volcano neighboring them, Mount Edgecumbe, suddenly began to b=
elch out billows of black smoke. People spilled out of their homes onto the=
streets to gaze up at the volcano, terrified that it was active again and =
might soon erupt and engulf their town. Turned out that man, not nature, wa=
s responsible for the smoke. A local practical joker named Porky Bickar had=
flown hundreds of old tires into the volcano’s crater and then lit them on=
fire, all in a (successful) attempt to fool the city dwellers into believi=
ng that the volcano was stirring to life. According to local legend, when M=
ount St. Helens erupted six years later, a Sitka resident wrote to Bickar t=
o tell him, "This time you’ve gone too far!"
In 1998 Burg=
er King published a full-page advertisement in USA Today announcing the int=
roduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" sp=
ecially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the=
advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the origin=
al Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments=
were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. T=
he following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that alth=
ough the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone in=
to restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to th=
e press release, "many others requested their own ‘right-handed’ versi=
on."
=
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“From all harm safe in His sheltering arms
I’m living by faith and feel no alarm.”
free.www.avast.com