Having misplaced my copy, I found that my libaray didn’t have one.
So my question: “in the hot summer, garden hoses began mysteriously burrowing into the earth”.
What was this in reference to?
It wasn’t about garden hoses?
I’ve got my copy of the 2nd edition, but it’s over 350 pages with appendix and notes, so there’s no way I can give a quick answer by searching through the book, and a google search brings up this thread.
Here’s a link to a page image: Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science - Martin Gardner - Google Books
In context it appears to mean that newspaper writers, in attempting to find another craze like “flying saucers” to sell papers, briefly tried to hype reports that garden hoses were mysteriously sinking into the ground. My hypothesis is that a leaky garden hose will create localized erosion around it, resulting in the hose appearing to be “burrowing” into the ground.
And here’s a comtemporary article on subject The Montreal Gazette - Google News Archive Search
Page 330 by the way is where the quote appears.
Where’d everybody go?
Well it actually was about garden hoses, and nobody believes the stories, so it’s kind of anti-climactic. The subject is a little bizarre, but it’s basically the same idea as the TV reporters who go stand outside in a hurricane or fry an egg on the sidewalk on a hot day. If there’s no news, make some up.
That makes sense. Thanks.