Minto — Shirley Smith, aunt and Facebook friend to 3 exasperated nieces and a nephew, expressed outrage at one of The Manatee’s latest satirical headlines on Tuesday.
Appearing in her extended family’s Facebook headline feed with a link, Smith stated: “Such a shame, destroying one of New Brunswick’s natural treasures for oil!” in response to last week’s Manatee article titled “Shale gas deposits found in Bay of Fundy; Hopewell Rocks to be demolished.”
Several members of Smith’s quilting club chimed in on the online discussion, stating, “I thought Gallant shut down fracking?!?” and “The Bay of Fundy is going to have the highest oilsands in the world now!” Smith book-ended the conversation with: “Well, I guess I’m going to have to take my nieces and nephew for one last visit this summer.”
This incident is just the latest in a long list of real online outrage at satirical news. On “New Brunswick to move to Eastern Standard Time,” Smith commented: “Makes sense.” On “New Brunswick to allow underage drinking in public parks,” Smith wrote: “I knew once these kids got their reefer legalized we’d be on a slippery slope. Bob, Sarah, Mandy and Crystal — you stay out of those damned parks!”
“This isn’t as bad as the time she thought the donair actually went extinct,” said Smith’s teen nephew, Bob. “I mean, we thought she was in on the joke when she said the creature in the article looked more like a buffalo than a donair. Come on — a donair consists of a delicious spiced meatloaf-like substance, not an actual spicy cow!
“When she asked us to help her collect for the WWF, we knew she’d missed the boat again,” he continued with apparent concern. “We’re still not sure whether the $17.50 in quarters we collected went to protecting endangered species or to pro wrestlers.”