Pranks, let's see.
Did you know that cherry bombs will go off under water? In college we'd catch a guy sitting on the john on the second floor, light a cherry bomb and drop it in the fourth floor john and flush. It will go off about the time it gets to the 2nd floor producing a geyser about a foot high out of each john on that floor.
My dad worked with that kind of guy who has to have the best car. No matter which car he drove it was the best. He bought a new chevy and started bragging about the gas mileage. The other workers decided to fix him up. They started addding a bit of gas to his tank each day. The more they added, the more he bragged. Then they started alternatively adding or siphoning gas. One week the guy would get 15 MPG and the next 45 MPG. He finally caught on.
Interesting story. May I ask where your dad worked when this happened? Cuz my boyfriend told me the same story about a bunch of guys he worked with.
I liked "The World According to Garp" too.