Update: iPhone surgery story a hoax
August 12, 2007 by dennis
It turns out that the North Denver News story we ran a few days ago about a man having surgery on his thumbs in order to control his iPhone better was actually a hoax. One sign of that was the mention of thumb muscles, which actually don’t exist (this writer consistently failed biology back in high school, so…).
A part of Editor’s Note on North Denver News states:
Strangely, while many readers have grasped that “Surgically alters thumbs” represents satirical social commentary, many on the internet, alas, have not.
Careful reading of the piece makes it clear to any critical consumer of information that the piece is pure humor and not news or reported as fact.
Among the points of the piece: that U.S. society accepts plastic surgery and decorative deformation of the human body for vanity, but not other reasons (consider the Bonds steroid stories); that technology has become a new cult phenomena, in which items are praised or ridiculed based upon tribal allegiances instead of functionality and performance (and we are members of the Cult of the Mac- iPhone division); and we like to pretend that some of our writers have a sense of humor.
FYI, there is no Thomas Martel (aka Tommy the Hammer) or Dr. Ben Fox Spars. The Fox of course, is reference to Fox News (aka Faux News). James Benfly is fictive as well, the nom de plume of one of our writers. And thanks to Franz Kafka, who must be smiling upon this whole episode.
So we’ve been had, sorry. Although the satirical value of the piece still remains, if that’s of consolation to anyone…
Related posts:
- Man surgically modifies thumbs for better iPhone experience
- iPhone games: Golden Axe multiplayer update, Samurai II: Dojo (free!), Bakery Story (free!) now available
- Reminder: news writers still needed
Update: iPhone surgery story a hoax
Article by dennis
Dennis Sloutsky is one of the oldest members of iPhoneWorld.ca, having co-started the site in January 2007. He stills owns an iPhone 2G and uses it sometimes just for fun. His hobbies include traveling, writing and playing his guitar.
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