Ok, now I realize that the Weekly World News is not exactly something to be complaining about...but as I perused the current issue's account of the supposed discovery of clay jars containing blueprints of Noah's Ark, I thought, "Don't the authors have even a single shred of historical knowledge??" The answer, I guess, is no. The article quotes the "architect," Shmuel ben Mayim, as making a marginal notation as follows:
I was used to designing Roman galleons but I never had to worry about having enough head room for giraffes, sealed floors so the ants couldn't escape or be crushed by elephants...
I guess it's no stretch to believe that "Shmuel" was a time-traveller as well as an Ark-architect...
The Weekly World News has always been one of my favorite papers, especially recently as it has become more consciously absurd. The stories are not intended to be believable or even remotely plausible. They once claimed that Usama bin Laden had cloned Hitler to help him take over the world and printed a 'photograph' of the two on camel back.
France, they argued, was in a mad dash to start producing beer so that it could end its dependence on Germany and the US and assert its own manliness. This was supposedly back by Jacques Chirac, tired of being a sissy.
It's so absurd that it's almost brilliant. You have to admit that the anachronism is what makes the Noah's ark story humorous. It's almost become a commentary on the tabloid industry.
Posted by: Dennis | July 05, 2006 at 08:16 AM