Brave New Prune

There's a lot of talk in some corners of UFOland about "reverse-engineered alien technology," referring to the everyday gadgets and conveniences that we all take for granted that might--I say might--have come about as the result of earth scientists and engineers copying alien devices from crashed flying saucers. In other words, it's just possible that UFOs were equipped with Keurig coffeemakers and Sirius XM radios and Roomba vacuums and IMAX Theaters way back before that UFO crash in 1947, and that the only reason we enjoy those goodies today is that they survived the impact and the Air Force was able to figure out how they all worked, and how to mass produce them for our enjoyment...

In fact, Curt Collins manages an entertaining and informative Facebook group dedicated to just that, and I recommend it to any of you who ever wondered how it could have occurred to someone that you could microwave popcorn and it would taste just as good as Jiffy Pop. Surely that knowledge must have arisen far outside our solar system, mustn't it have?

It's a compelling theory, I admit, and it entered my field of awareness yesterday in a big, big way. I'll try to keep the chain of events simple:

• I was listening to my most beloved Christmas CD ever: "Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Christmas Novelty CD of All Time"
• I was playing certain cuts from the CD to help my wife get into the Christmas spirit
• I played her favorite cut, "Nuttin' For Christmas," by Stan Freberg, and of course she busted a gut laughing
• I was inspired to look up more classic comedy cuts by the late, great Freberg, in order to convince my wife that he was one of the most brilliant comic geniuses of all time
• In the midst of my search, I came across shocking, undeniable photographic evidence that sometime in the 1960s Stan Freberg was involved in a clear-cut case of introducing reverse-engineered alien technology to unsuspecting American consumers

You can view the evidence here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5NxG_rr5aU

Inside of your living room... or inside of a UFO? Or both??

Exactly which three-letter agency was Freberg working for? Was Bradbury aware that he was being used as a patsy by the Government? Where's my pneumatic people tube? And why, in the waning days of 2014, are prunes still wrinkled?