Word: mole
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...weapons system has been more heavily guarded than the MOLE (Molecular Orbiting Low-Level Explorer). First hint of its existence came last spring when a Washington-datelined story in Electronic News reported that the Pentagon "is becoming heavily committed" to a radically new weapons system, added: "The MOLE should put an end to war. No location on earth will be secure from the MOLE." Later stories reported that 1) a special new agency (Subterranean Exploration Agency-SEA > had been set up to handle the new weapon and 2) the prime contract had been awarded to Accuracy Inc. of Waltham, Mass...
Last week Andrew Monahan, marketing consultant for Accuracy Inc.. stood up before a Boston meeting of the American Marketing Association and told the whole story: the MOLE was an elaborate hoax. Accuracy Inc. is a small firm that manufactures precision potentiometers-small electrical measuring devices (known in the trade as pots) that are used in electronic systems. Such firms have an advertising problem. Since their products are used chiefly in highly classified projects, they can do little public boasting. Since their customers are only a handful of procurement officers in the Pentagon or a few specialized firms, money spent...
...believe it they did. Among letters from hep engineers who realized that MOLE was a gag were many serious letters seeking information, asking for subcontracts, or jobs on Project MOLE. Eager enthusiasts called by phone. "They wouldn't let us explain what was going on," says Monahan helplessly. "They'd make sure they'd got the right company, -and then go into their sales pitch." One company insisted on being hired to build the launching pad (or sinking site). "One thing it proves," says Monahan, "is that engineers can be awfully gullible. One reason we did this...
...white caterpillar was 60 ft. long and it wriggled. Startled visitors to San Francisco's A.M.A. convention came face to face with the critter in the Civic Auditorium's new subterranean "Mole Hall." Every few seconds the caterpillar's double-hulled sides made of parachute silk heaved in simulation of caterpillar motion (achieved with the aid of a huge air-blowing system). The monster, which stole the show among 285 commercially sponsored exhibits, was Surrealist Salvador Dali's unrealistic idea of tranquillity executed for Wallace Laboratories to promote Miltown. Estimated total cost of the exhibit...
...have withheld) observed that the "enormous rabbit" resembles a chocolate Easter-bunny, from which she inferred that the author had made a sly cut at American middle-aged women (and men) for whom overweight is such a problem. The inversion in size would denote their making mountains out of mole hills. Needless to say, this is naive...