The part about the ripple only happening when they touch the pole is exactly what I noticed too. I spent a whole weekend going through Apollo 15 footage for a school project, and it was wild to see how stiff that flag stayed until they twisted the rod. What really sold me was watching the same flag go totally still when the astronauts walked away from it. The whole waving thing only makes sense if people haven't actually looked at the real video, because the rod is obviously doing the work. I think most people just repeat what they've heard instead of checking the source material themselves.

Makes me think of that time I put salt in my coffee by accident and just ran with it.

Nah, coral peonies actually hold their color a lot better than that.