The Fabled History of the Bullscat-o-meter

Originally constructed as the top-secret “Bravo Sierra Project” and deployed in 1942 to counter “scheissekrieg,” the Axis power’s propaganda war, the BS Meter saw action in both the European and Pacific theaters earning five battle stars. Following the war, the meter saw limited action, most notably in Roswell, NM in 1947, The McCarthy hearings in 1954, and most famously, during the Cuban Missle Crisis of 1962. At the conclusion of the tense standoff between the USA and the Soviet Union, in exchange for Khrushchev’s dismantling of Soviet missiles, President Kennedy promised to dismantle the BS Meter.

What happened to the meter then is unclear. According to some accounts, the meter was gifted from J. Edgar Hoover to Elvis Presley who kept it at Graceland until his death in 1994. Another widespread rumor was that playing the Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever backward would reveal the words “I buried BS Meter” at the very end. In a 2003 interview, singer-songwriter Paul Simon divulged that the original lyrics to the song Mr. Robinson included the line “Where have you gone BS-O-Meter? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” This is notable because it is the first known time when the third syllable was used in the name of the meter (presumably to have it fit the lyrics). The song provides further clues with “hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes. Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes.”

For decades the location of the meter was a mystery until 2017 when the meter was purchased by IN Nature at a second-hand shop in Tipton, IN. Suffering from years of neglect, the meter was at first unrecognizable. Following months of meticulously stripping away layers of harvest gold, avocado green, coppertone, and finally pink paint (Elvis?) the meter was ready to have its out-of-tolerance resistors and capacitors replaced.

Completely restored, this powerful meter with the ability to cut through layers of misinformation, generational tales, and downright sensationalistic garbage is now ready to be used once again. The Bullscat-o-meter's ingenious design will be useful in not only truthing bogus information but registering the awe-inspiring truths that the natural environment truly does contain.