Fun Fact Friday!

Happy early April to everyone, we're getting closer day by day to warm weather full of hikes, swimming and bike rides and I'm sure you're all as excited as I am. Anyone in the US, and in many other countries, over the age of five will know that the beginning of April is a fun day for those merry pranksters inhabiting the world. This particular April Fool's day I was neither duked, nor did I play any sort of prank. It's a big stepping stone in my maturity level, NOT. I figured I would search the interwebs to find a good prank that is worthy of special mentioning. There were plenty of good ones from the BBC doing a special report on Swiss Spaghetti trees, to finding the corpse of the Loch Ness monster, and the left-handed Whopper Burger King was releasing for their customers. But being a blog about beer, I decided that this story was best:

In 1998 the good folks at Guinness issued a statement that they were going to be the official sponsor of the Old Royal Observatory's Millenium celebration. The Observatory is located in Greenwich, London, and had agreed to change England's name of time from the Greenwich Mean Time to the Guinness Mean Time. The Observatory would recognize this change, start counting seconds in "pint drips," and it would all go back to normal at the end of 1999. Apparently The Financial Times didn't find that appropriate, and criticized the beer makers, until they realized it was a joke and retracted their statement in the next issue. Oh those wacky beer makers, you just never know with those guys.

Enjoy your weekend,

PROST