A few years back NPR’s All Things Considered did a very deadpan, very serious story about the plight of maple trees in Vermont that were not being tapped for maple sugar. You see, if the sap is contained and not tapped, the trees explode. They interviewed several maple sugar farmers who talked about the problem, and a couple scientists who talked about the dangers to people walking in the woods.
I swallowed it hook, line, and sinker, and it wasn’t until I mentioned it to somebody else a few days later that I realized that it was a prank.