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The Museum of Hoaxes is dedicated to promoting knowledge about hoaxes. (Click here for opening hours, etc.) On our blog we post about dubious- sounding claims, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The site is also home to the Hoaxipedia (the museum's online encyclopedia of hoaxes), the Hoax Forum, and the Top 100 April Fools' Day Hoaxes.

The museum was created in 1997 by Alex Boese. He's assisted by a staff of deputy curators and docents. Alex is the author of three books, most recently Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments (which has nothing to do with hoaxes). Check out the list of the Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time for a preview.

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John Deere launched a massive clothing campaign at Hot Topic. They make overpriced shirts, hats, wristbands, and hooded sweatshirts. I'm still trying to figure it out, is John Deere subtly Punk Rock? I myself own a John Deere wristband.

I thought John Deere made lawnmowers??

They also make tractors. And John Deere gear is the rage among young men and women (like 15-20) right now in this area. My friend's 18-year-old daughter was excited to get a John Deere cap, one of the farmer's caps, like a baseball cap but bigger on top and on the bill. I think it's funny, because my dad wore those caps back when John Deere gave them to potential customers of their farming equipment.

It must have something to do with the whole trucker-hat craze. Now it's cool to 'dress up' like the blue-collar worker, or the workin'-on-the-farm farmhand, or even the trailer park couch potato. Wife-beater shirts (tank undershirts), trucker hats, work boots, rodeo belt buckles, gingham print button-ups, & polyester seem to be huge. Frankly, had this been the craze when I met my husband I can guarantee I wouldn't have looked twice. Whatever happened to jeans that fit (too loose & too tight seem to be the in thing) & don't look like they've been dragged behind a truck for 10 miles? Or skirts that can't double as a headband, and shirts that say "Izod" instead of "Porn Star"? ahh...the days when jeans and T-shirt said, "This is the weekend", instead of, "There's only a few hours to get me drunk & naked before the weekend".

Schools have been known to ban fairly ordinary clothing because a street gang had adopted, or was suspected of having adopted, that particular clothing as its "colors." So my first thought was that maybe some racist gang had taken to wearing John Deere caps and so forth. But now the school system says they never had any such prohibition, so I guess it was all a wild rumor.
I don't think there's anything racist about the tractors themselves: I've seen people of every race driving them.

Hey Meagan I resent that. I'm a teenager and my jeans fit just fine.

I never mentioned teenagers in my post.

BUT...this article from SunHerald.com, dated Dec 20, 2003 has this to say:
"Teens spend the biggest single chunk of their money on clothes, shoes and accessories, Wood said. In 2002, teens ages 12 through 19 spent $70 billion on clothing, shoes and accessories. Teens are attracted to whatever is new, both because of fashion and the fact that their bodies are changing, said Wood."

The article also goes on to say that teens (12 thru 19) spent $170 billion last year (2002), of which $125 billion was their own money...

Things teens were spending money on: clothing, music, electronics, snack foods and soft drinks, & furniture.

ummm i think that people who are not farmers or rednecks should not wear them. if they do and theyre not farmers or rednecks than i consider them wannabes. john deere is meant for the country where the real people live. im sorry to say city folks but a lawnmower isnt a tractor its a lawnmower. a tractor is big. they pull heavy equipment across the fields. but yeah i dont think its racist it just makes me mad that people who are like "punk" or "girly girls" wear that kinda stuff. people that have never taken a step onto a "real tractor" not a lawnmower. let me tell ya this city folks need to stay away from this stuff because theyre makin jd. look bad. its a country thing not a city thing.

i tottaly agree with u carmen i live on a farm and i hate it when the preps at my school where that stuff and they dont even kno what j.d. is. they thik its a cloths brand.lol but u have a really good point

just kuz u dont live on a farm doesnt mean u cant where the cloths. jeese they would never sell it

thank you aly its about time someone agrees with me round here. oh yeah and as for what u say brittany i never said u COULDN'T wear the clothes, i said i didnt like it when they wear it. yes they would sell it to people that are farmers. not some city folks that give the name a discrace.

i fully agree with carmen and aly! i dont live on a farm but i am pretty redneck and i got a john deere t-shirt when i went to stay with my grampa and now everyone in school is fighting over who is better, international or john deere! and half of them have never even seen a tractor let alone know which one is better! and it bugs the hell out of me when i see a pretty little 7th or 8th grader walkin down the halls all decked out in john deere and talkin crap about international tractors! its like hell! how the f would you know! anyways i digress! and i dont think that just cuz your a redneck means your a racist! thats bull crap! well i have rambled enough!

Suppose you grew up in the city (yes, city) of Moline, IL, where John Deere is based? I'd hope Moline kids could wear JD apparel without causing grief to you self-professed rednecks.

ok, im from kentucky. i love where i live, and i love the farms. i love workin on the john deere tractors, but i sure as hell hate seein all the guys and girls at my school who wouldnt know a farm if it hit them in the face wearin it, tryin to talk with an accent, and wearin rebel flags even though they have no idea what it stands for. i dont even think its a matter of wearin john deere, i think its just people, as always, followin a trend. its kinda sad, and they just need to stop! oh well, hopefully it'll get better soon. bein country is an upbringing, not a phase of fashion!

Hi... I own A John Deer. there second to best tractor in the world. internationals are the best but any ways to get back on subject i think that it was totaly wrong to suspend those students. i thik that there lying about not suspending them but i dont thik it is rasit. i wear john deer clothing all the time.

some on pleas wright me back

http://www.tshirthell.com sells, or rather used to sell, a shirt that is a parody of the John Deere logo. It is basically a gay joke that takes the slogan for John Deere and replaces it with "queere" (sic).

Maybe someone wore one of these shirts to school and that is where this rumor originated. Anti-gay sentiments aren't racism, per se, but they are bigoted nonetheless.

okay okay okay, first off... yall sittin there complainin bout the fact of "preps" wherein jd. and them followin the crowd, and i agree, but whats with the whole labeling thing? preps goths freaks rednecks?were just people...i own a couple jd things, hats shirts and s***, does that mean the im following the crowd? i didnt grow up on a farm, i dont live in the country, but i have been on a jd. and i have farmed, many times, my uncle lives on one, i go 4wheeling everyday like its a ritual, drink bud, watch nascar football, go muddin, and so on... so am i "classified" as a "redneck"? or am i a "wannabe"? do u get what i mean? im a person, i where jd cause it last good when i mud and rasel, ya know?

and bye the way jd makes mowers!

The whole John Deere thing is so gay. But then again so is Mossy Oak. I swear, what kind of world do we live in when all of a sudden people crave and lose sleep over at night by getting a John Deere hat, shirt, and tag for their car. I mean damn. I don't give a shit if i had 5 john deere tractors, i wouldn't wear the shit. Since everyone is wearing that fag wear, i would never buy a john deere. Tractors are in no way cool, nothing cool about a 70hp tractor. Oh yeah, let's get even gayer by having shirts with Cotton or car tags with it.