THE MONTREAL BIODÔME’S scarlet macaw named Bouton “will be deported to the Toronto Zoo next Friday after she only spoke English during a government inspection,” The Beaverton reported in July 2013. The outlet quoted a government official as saying that the bird “asked for crackers, not craquelins,” violating Quebec’s laws requiring French in the workplace.
None of that actually happened, of course; is to Canadians what is to Americans. Though the story of Bouton was “a spoof,” reported, believers were still “shocked” by it. Such
