Too Much Free Time

Too Much Free Time

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
fact checking, grog, reporting



Argentinean News Report Worries About Kids Drinking GrogXD

from the fact-checking-is-for-sissies dept

Last week, in the comments on our post about a story in The Onion fooling newspapers in Bangladesh, a commenter named Esteban pointed out that down in Argentina, news reporters recently did a typical moral panic-style piece about teens drinking an alcoholic concoction called Grog XD with the ingredients: "kerosene, propylene glycol, artificial sweeteners, sulphuric acid, rum, acetone, red dye no. 2, scumm, axle grease, battery acid, and/or pepperoni." The source of the story? An ingredients list found on Facebook. Apparently, the reporters were unfamiliar with The Secret of Monkey Island -- the popular game from which the recipe was taken, but thankfully some folks have put together a nice video comparing the two:

21 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 4:35pm

    Ummmmmm...

    by GeneralEmergency

    Divots.

    Battery acid -IS- Sulfuric acid.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 4:47pm
    by Anonymous Coward

    I still think the dihydrogen monoxide scare is the best one yet...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax

    (and I'm not just saying that because the kid who started it all went the same Jr. High that I did)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 5:00pm

    Fact Checking

    If only there were some kind of way to search the world for information before you made a fool of yourself...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 5:05pm

    re: Ummmmmm...

    by PRMan

    "Battery acid -IS- Sulfuric acid."

    Ummmmmm... You've never played Monkey Island, have you?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 5:09pm
    by icon william (profile)

    monkey island is a great game! XD

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 5:14pm
    by Chairman neither region

    Sounds like Mamba Malt Liquor.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 5:36pm
    by icon Avatar28 (profile)

    lmao. That is too funny. I was just playing this on my Xbox this weekend.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 5:51pm

    May or may not contain...

    by Paul Brinker

    The line (from the game) is "Grog may or may not contain any of the following..." Then the Pirate lords (who don't do anything) start spouting off that list.

    Ahh memory's of my childhood.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 6:54pm

    Re: May or may not contain...

    by icon Dark Helmet (profile)

    That's the second biggest memory I've ever seen...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 7:08pm

    That low down...

    by icon Blatant Coward (profile)

    Who ever would promote this must be the Scumm of the earth.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 7:55pm

    Re:

    by Anonymous Coward

    http://www.dhmo.org/truth/Dihydrogen-Monoxide.html

    This is DANGEROUS stuff. It has caused property damages (hurricanes) and death from inhalation (drowning) and so much more.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  12. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 7:57pm

    Re: Re:

    by Anonymous Coward

    Oh, and don't forget, withdrawal from dihydrogen monoxide leads to certain death (dehydration).

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  13. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 11:28pm

    Only partially OT

    by Pitabred

    SCUMM is the engine used to make all those games, originally designed for Maniac Mansion:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scumm

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  14. Sep 9th, 2009 @ 11:47pm
    by Anonymous Coward

    Does anyone think the dihydrogen monoxide shit is funny, at all?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  15. Sep 10th, 2009 @ 6:42am

    Re: Fact Checking

    by icon Marcus Carab (profile)

    Hehe, CHT wins best comment!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  16. Sep 10th, 2009 @ 6:43am

    Re:

    by icon Marcus Carab (profile)

    It's mildly funny, but it's also a poignant demonstration of the way people perceive language and the unfamiliar.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  17. Sep 10th, 2009 @ 7:43am

    Argentian?

    by Francis Burdett

    Is that word a variant of Argentinian?

    (now it must be said that my Safari spell check for some reason does not recognize argentinian but instead offers Argentinean)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  18. Sep 10th, 2009 @ 9:04am

    Re: That low down...

    by Valkor

    Yeah, I never noticed that when I was playing the game. Self referential jokes FTW!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  19. Sep 10th, 2009 @ 9:46am

    Re: Argentian?

    According to WikiP the (english) demonym for someone from Argentina is "Argentine, Argentinian, [or] Argentinean"

    Nothing about Argentian, though. ;)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  20. Sep 10th, 2009 @ 2:21pm
    by Rekrul

    I recognized the source as soon as I started reading the ingredients.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  21. Sep 19th, 2009 @ 1:05pm
    by Anonymous Coward

    The video is broken. Please fix it.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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