Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34572174 - Jan 2023 (95 comments)
Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30962453 - April 2022 (1 comment)
Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25383763 - Dec 2020 (2 comments)
It came as quite a shock when I discovered as an adult spaghetti was made from flour.
It's made from a flower, a rare but now successfully domesticated flower. The Tu-Tue flower does require extensive processing, sort of like how corn has to be soaked in something, like ashes, to release its nutrients.
Tu-tue requires a similar process, but just as with natives in the new world and corn, ancient Romans simply knew that washing the flowers in a hot-spring near Getti made the final product palitable, without knowing why.
Spa being of course, latin for 'hot wash', thus spa-getti.
Hope this helps.
and b) the comedy radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, running since the 1970's but includes a game called Mornington Crescent [1] (since season 6) wherein the panel take it in turns to 'get to Mornington Crescent' using the London Underground map as a playing board. Many rules and variations are cited and vaguely explained, but it's all just made up -- nonetheless there has been an abundance of people who've listened to this madness, and then written to the BBC to demand a rulebook.
The point? Not sure. Does this reflect positively upon the some style of comedy favoured by the Brits, or negatively about their credulity? As a nominal Brit, I can't comment with any impartiality.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykthWUdkhu0
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game)
The only controversial point is it will be applied retroactively over the last decade, changing the results of no less than 3 world championship matches
People function by simplistic rules of thumb rather than understanding underlying principles. We all probably do it to some extent, simply because the world is too complex to understand in full. Some people do it to a greater extent.
A good example for the HN crowd is watching people with limited understanding of the technology use a computer or a phone. A lot rely heavily memorised sequences of actions. Put them in front of a slightly different GUI and they effectively have to relearn from scratch. Something as simple as a panel on the side instead of a start men plus taskbar will complete throw people. Now apply the same thinking elsewhere.
You’re just bitter that you never spot the ostrich first.
Prosaically, one step removed: Mornington Crescent absolutely has rules, and the joy of the show is everyone on the show is playing by them.
50s Britain wasn't that ignorant of the outside world (especially compared to other 50s countries). There were hundreds of thousands of servicemen who had been in Italy in the war and for the occupation, and the Empire was mostly still around. People knew what spaghetti was.
I wonder whether some people were more familiar with things from former parts of the Empire than they were with European things? There are lots of references to things like Indian food in fiction going back to the 19th century, at least.
I agree the effectiveness of the hoax might well be exaggerated. On the other hand there are always some credulous people.
It's also important to note that there was little alternative programming at the time: just BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV and Channel 4. I can't remember if Channel Five had launched yet, but you get the idea. A significant slice of the UK population was watching.
Also, it's worth mentioning that back then I think significantly more people entertained the idea, if even slightly, that supernatural things loke ghosts could exist. There was many more spoon benders, clairvoyants, spiritualists in mainstream media than today.
Anyhow, the programme starts normal enough but then supernatural things start happening and all hell breaks loose just as the programme ends and the credits start rolling. We're all in shock. It's all we talk about at school the next day.
I doubt you'd get any impression of what it was like then by watching it now, because all the social context is gone, but as a kid at the time it was really scary.
The fact that they were investigating night time paranormal activity even gave them an excuse for airing such seemingly kid-friendly stuff so late in the evening. A lot of parents let their kids stay up for it, including mine.
Shat me right up it did.
https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-338-ghostwatch-10-31-2025
Special Bulletin [1] is another good one.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Without_Warning_(1994_film)
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special_Bulletin&...
Growing up in an Italian family, of course we knew it wasn't true.
Spaghetti doesn't grow on trees, it comes in bags from the grocery store!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKC6JpqudME&list=PLaJhh0k4dk...
He shot a hilariously cheesy public service announcement that got locked into the scheduling computer and was shown so often, even after he was fired, that it is still burned into my brain: "Hi kids, I'm Captain 20, flying without an airplane, right?"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Dyszel
http://www.captain20.com/screening.htm (with the original video)
Screening Room
On Sept 2, 1981, Peg Sullivan, who was one of the original liaison people from Taft Broadcasting when they purchased WDCA in 1980, came to me and said that as part of the license commitment, we were going to do a Public Service Announcement about the difference between fantasy and reality on television.
I liked the idea and asked her what she had in mind and when she wanted to shoot it. She said that there was an open spot in the production schedule that afternoon and as far as content went, "It's up to you!"
After thanking her for the advance notice, my mind went back to stories I had heard in my youth about kids being injured by trying to fly like TV's Superman. So, a few hours later, we went into the studio, I had the crew set and light a blue chromakey sweep and take a camera outside into the parking lot. There was no script, but I had in mind what I wanted to say. It took about 20 minutes to set, light and rehearse the spot. We did the first take and it was OK, except that some glare on my shoes "keyed" out and it looked bad. So, I took my shoes off and we did the second and last take. Peggy loved it. Management loved it and it was put into the scheduling computer to begin airing the following week.
The spot ran and ran and ran. The computer was instructed to run the spot on a regular schedule during kid's programming and then whenever there was an additional opening in the schedule. Because it was an important part of the license commitment, it was given a special priority code that could not be easily over-ridden.
The spot continued to run, even after I was fired Memorial Day weekend 1987, because no one knew how to override the code! Eventually they figured it out. But by then it was had run for five and a half years and was certainly the most viewed PSA in the history of the station.
To watch it with a broadband connection, click on the image below.
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