Pony

"... stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni."

Um... what? I'm going to have to look that up. There must be a story behind it.

* Ok got it: In the 18th century, "Macaroni" was British slang for a type of overdressed high society person. The Yankee Doodle song was meant to insult colonists by suggesting that Yankees were so clueless and backwards that they could stick a feather in a cap, and believe that simple addition would elevate the cap (and themselves) to a level of high fashion comparable to the "Macaronis." Rather than take offense, colonists embraced the song and sang it with pride.

My guess is the colonists did that to annoy the British during battle. It's kind of funny if you think about it. Imagine the insult was something more relatable to today. Imagine a warring country called the other side a bunch of clowns. Then imagine that other side dressed themselves up as clowns as they pummeled their opposition!

So... completely un-pasta related. Who knew?