Hoax Museum Blog: Urban Legends

Libertarian Girl Unmasked — The Libertarian Girl blog was authored by the girl you see in the thumbnail to the right. Or so it seemed. A lot of people were suspicious. And it turned out that their suspicions were correct. Catallarchy.net discovered that the picture of the girl had been lifted from a russian mail-order bride site. The real author of Libertarian Girl was quick to confess to being a fake, though he's still not revealing his true identity. But he has posted his thoughts about what it was like being a faux-girl blogger:

One thing I learned from this blog is how easy attractive woman have it. When I had a blog as my real self, no one linked to me, no one left any comments, it was as if the blog existed in a vacuum. But things were different for Libertarian Girl. Every day I'd check Technorati and discover new unsolicited links. It was like I had warped into an alternate universe where all the rules had changed. At the rate things were happening, this would have been an A-list blog in a few more months.

Fake Marriage Proposal — During an Orlando Magic basketball game on Sunday a man asked his girlfriend to marry him in front of the entire crowd. But instead of saying yes, the woman ran away crying. Which I guess meant no. But two days later it was revealed that the entire thing had been a hoax, "an Orlando Magic marketing ploy to spice up the NBA experience." When I first saw this story I thought it was old news, because I could swear I remember almost the exact same stunt being pulled about a year ago at a different basketball game. The woman involved even looked similar. But although I've been searching I can't find a reference to the earlier incident anywhere. I'm wondering if it was the same couple each time. Maybe they specialize in this stunt.

About.Com Hoax Photo Test — David Emery has posted a 'real or fake' image quiz on his about.com urban legends site. The quiz includes many old favorites, but I still managed to get one wrong (the one about human remains inside a crocodile). I'm glad to see that he identified the picture of the spider in the Iraqi desert as real. This other hoax photo test that I linked to earlier claimed it was fake.

Deadly Underwater Gnome Garden Returns — In past entries I've written about gnomes that have mysteriously disappeared from gardens and peepshows. Now I think I know where the gnomes have gone. They've travelled to the secret gnome garden that lurks beneath the waters of Wastwater in the Lake District. Authorities report that a gnome garden (which even had a tiny picket fence) was removed from the bottom of the lake a few years ago after some divers died while spending too long searching for it. Now the gnome garden has reappeared, but even deeper beneath the lake, beyond the reach of police divers. Obviously the police are worried that once again divers will be unable to resist the siren call of the gnome garden and perish in the search for it. I think this must be the underwater version of Midgetville. (via The Anomalist)
Update: I managed to find a picture of the underwater gnome garden in this recent article from Cumbria Online.

Trapped By Chupacabras — Steve needs your help. He's trapped in a cabin in northern Minnesota as Chupacabras circle around outside. His only way to communicate with the outside world is via a free blogging service (for some reason email doesn't work on his computer). This is reminiscent of the Trapped by Zombies weblog, except that this is much more of an amateur effort. But you've got to give the guy credit for trying.

Unusual Mineral Name — At first I thought this might be a bit of geological humor. But no. It appears to be quite serious and quite real. It's a mineral named Cummingtonite. So named because it's found in Cummington, Massachusetts. For those interested, its cleavage is good in two directions at 56 and 124 degree angles. Its hardness is 5-6. (via Snark Hunting)

Free Champagne — A new variation of the email tracing hoax has been spotted. Instead of promising that Bill Gates or AOL will send you money if you forward their email, this message promises that you'll get champagne. Here's the email:

Greetings Champagne Lovers!!
Send this message to 10 people, with a copy to [email protected]
Veuve Clicquot France will contact you in order to deliver you a case of
champagne in three weeks. They are doing this in order to enlarge their
database. It does work and you receive six bottles in 15 days. Salut a tous
les amoureux du champagne

Unfortunately Veuve Clicquot has already posted a warning message on their website about the hoax, so there's absolutely no chance that it's real. (via Fermentations)

Allegra Cole — I just got an email from Bob Pagani (aka Cranky Media Guy) pointing out that one of the female characters in Will Smith's new movie Hitch is named Allegra Cole. This sounds as if it's a homage to Allegra Coleman, who was a hoax movie star created by Esquire back in 1996. Not having seen Hitch yet, I have no idea why its creator would have wanted to include this allusion to a hoax from the 1990s. Is the Allegra Cole character fake or artificial in some way? Looking at my page about Allegra Coleman, I also noticed an eerie similarity between her and the girl from the Dusty ads. Just a coincidence, or does this have some kind of deeper meaning?

Photos of Snouters — A Japanese artist, whose name (I think) is Takiwa, has an amazing collection of photographs of Snouters up on his website. Snouters, of course, is the popular term for Rhinogrades. If you have no idea what these creatures are, you can read more about them on the page I have devoted to them here. (via Liquito)

Texas Tortilla and ‘An Amazing Photograph’ — Here are two more curious auctions on eBay (people keep sending me this stuff... probably because I keep posting about it). The first is a tortilla shaped like the state of Texas (item# 5557639562). The auctioner swears that "I have not cut it, clipped it, chewed it or changed it in any way. What you see is what came out of the bag." And I've got to hand it to him. It really does look like Texas. The current bid is only $1.99.

What you're supposed to see in the other auction, however, isn't anywhere near as obvious, but the current bid on this is $3,100. It's supposed to be a photograph of 'The Face of the Lord' as seen in a cloud (item# 5557053951). The photo was taken 31 years ago. I think I can see some kind of face-like features in the cloud, but as one person has already commented on the auction, 'What if it's the devil?' I wonder if it would fetch even more money if it were a demonic photo.

Bacon Whores — Bacon Whores (which is quite safe for work, despite the name) caters to that lucrative niche market of people who enjoy bacon but don't want to cook it themselves. If you're such a person a Bacon Whores employee will come to your house and prepare some bacon for you, for a very reasonable price. You can choose from flavors such as Hickory Smoked, Honey Cured, and Cinnamon Bacon. Their motto is that they provide high quality meat on demand (MOD). The Bacon Whores site is so elaborate that it's almost believable, but after a bit of googling I discovered that it's actually a creation of netboredom.com, which is run by Matthew Vanderzee. It looks like Matthew has been creating hoax websites for the past ten years, at about the rate of one a year. He created Bacon Whores back in 2003. His latest creation is Frootsoup!, which claims to be one of the world's largest produce-based soup restaurant chains.

Major Earthquake Predicted — A South African psychic by the name of 'SilverJade' is predicting that a series of earthquakes "and other natural disasters" will hit the west coast of America on February 23, and she's issued a press release to warn everyone. If you read through her website you'll discover that she learned this was all going to happen in a dream. In the dream she was stuck inside a building that was shaking. Then she woke up and saw that it was 1:23 am. She felt that there was some kind of significance to this time. She also had a strong feeling that the place she was seeing in her dream was San Diego. This is especially interesting to me since I live in San Diego. She came up with some kind of convoluted explanation to account for the significance of the number 1:23, but I'm at a loss to follow her reasoning. It has something to do with this: "Starting in San Diego take an Easterly heading and set your bearing to 312 degrees... Plotting a straight line at this bearing takes us right through the epicentre of the recent undersea quake off the coast of Indonesia." Anyway, if a major earthquake really does hit San Diego on February 23 I swear I'll give up being such a skeptic and become a disciple of SilverJade. (via Gullibility Isn't in the Dictionary)

Paul Harvey Riddle — Gary C. sent me this riddle which has been doing the rounds on email for quite a while, though I had never seen it before. As Gary pointed out, the interesting thing about this is not whether it really is a Paul Harvey riddle (I have no clue), or even the riddle itself. It's the claim that 80% of kindergarten kids got the answer while 83% of Stanford graduates were unable to. Instead of trying to track down whether or not a group of Stanford graduates ever has been tested with this riddle, I thought I'd do the next best thing. Take an unscientific poll of Museum of Hoaxes readers to see how many of you are able to figure out the answer right away vs. aren't able to. That'll give a rough approximation of the percentage of (presumably over-kindergarten age) people able to solve the riddle, assuming people answer the poll honestly.

I have to admit that I couldn't get the answer. I finally gave up and googled for the answer.

If you've seen the riddle before and already know the answer, then base your response to the poll on the first time you ever saw the riddle. Did you figure out the answer immediately? If you were in kindergarten when you first were given the riddle, then don't respond to the poll.

I put the answer in a link below for those people, like myself, unable to figure it out.

Paul Harvey RIDDLE:
When asked this riddle, 80% of kindergarten kids got the answer, compared to 17% of Stanford University seniors.

What is greater than God, More evil than the devil, The poor have it, The rich need it, And if you eat it, you'll die?

Send this to 10 people and then press shift and you will get the answer.
P.S. You won't believe this, but this really does give you the answer!!!!

The Answer

Jeff Gannon, Ace Reporter — So this guy Jeff Gannon shows up at the White House and wants press credentials so that he can attend the President's press conference. But his real name isn't Jeff Gannon, and he isn't really a reporter, although he's been playing one on the internet for a few months. His experience as a journalist seems to consist of posting slightly reworded Republican press releases on the website of Talon News, which is a conservative news outlet that hardly anyone has heard of (and which is also a barely disguised front organization for Republican activists). Oh, and this Gannon character also claims to be a born-again, bible-thumping, red-necked conservative, but he also seems to be connected to the gay porn industry. So what does the White House do when this guy approaches them? Well, they immediately give him press credentials, of course, and allow him to attend the president's Jan. 26 press conference, during which the president actually calls on him and Gannon proceeds to ask a strange, kiss-ass question about how it's possible for republicans to work with democrats since democrats are so 'divorced from reality'. I can only see one possibility--that Gannon was a republican shill. A fake reporter planted in the audience in order to ask softball questions. Very strange. But Gannon himself sounds like such an unusual and contradictory character that you have to wonder if he was simply the pawn in some kind of Manchurian Candidate type of situation... a struggling gay porn actor brainwashed and transformed into an ultra-conservative republican white house reporter.

War Widow By Proxy — Sarah Kenney said that her husband died in Iraq when he dove in front of a bullet that would have hit a child. Her story attracted the sympathy of a group called Homefront Heroes, which then told the media about it. But it turns out that Kenney's husband didn't die in Iraq. He's still alive and well here in America. He isn't even a soldier. Kenney had made the entire thing up. This sounds like a case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, in which people attract attention by inventing illnesses in others (usually claiming that their children are sick, but claiming that a husband has died would seem to fit the description of the syndrome as well). Kenney later made a statement to the press: "I think I need some serious counseling... This is the most serious lie I've ever told, but I've been caught in many lies." Sounds like she's heading in the right direction, but still seems a little creepy.

Carrot Fungus: It’ll Either Kill You or Cure Cancer — Andy sent me an email pointing out this curious article about an anti-cancer compound found in carrots. It's probably some kind of typo or poor choice of words, but if you read the first and last sentences together it sure sounds like this carrot cure is going to kill you before it has a chance to kill the cancer:

Eating 400kg of carrot every day can help ward off cancer, scientists say. The recent study carried out by scientists at the University of Newcastle said a compound called Falcarinol found in carrot reduced the risk of cancer developing in rats by a third....
Falcarinol protects carrots from fungal diseases, such as liquorice rot that causes black spots on the roots during storage, but scientist say, a person would have to eat 400kg of carrots at once to ingest a lethal dose.

Morgellons Disease: Is It Real? — Sufferers of Morgellons disease complain of invisible parasites biting their skin. And they get skin lesions from which sprout strange fibers. And mysterious black spore-like specks appear on their skin. Cases of this strange disease seem to be spreading, especially in the Bay area. One theory is that it has something to do with Lyme disease. Or it may be a case of mass delusion. The medical community seems to think it's mass delusion. Most people who show up complaining of these symptoms get diagnosed with 'delusional parasitosis', which is a psychological problem in which people imagine that they're infested by parasites. Not having any medical qualifications at all, I won't weigh in on whether this is a real disease or mass delusion, but some of the behavior of the patients does sound suspiciously bizarre. Take the case of Theresa Blodgett:

She gathers up the black specks, the mysterious fibers and the small, fuzzy 'cocoons' she finds on her skin and around her home. She tapes the macabre samples to typing paper, but she said no doctor will analyze the collection. Physicians who glance at the specimens dismiss the lot as stray hairs, clothing fibers, scabs and other common household debris, she said.

So either she really is suffering from something and is desperately but unsuccessfully trying to get doctors to pay attention to her, or she's obsessively collecting house dust and stray flecks of dirt and convincing herself that these things are parasites attacking her. (Thanks to 'K' for the links)

First Contact Tours — The latest issue of Outside Magazine has an article about the new thing in adventure vacations: a First Contact tour. On these tours, run by guide Kelly Woolford, you get to trek into the rainforest of Papua New Guinea and make contact with a 'Stone Age' tribe that has never met people from the outside world before. Apparently such tribes do still exist (though obviously they won't for long if these tours get more popular). Michael Behar, author of the article, decides to go on one of these tours and see what it's all about. So in September 2004 he joins the tour and they set off on a boat down a river in Papua New Guinea. After cruising along for a few days they finally get off the boat and start trekking into the jungle. Four hours from the river they make contact. Unfortunately it doesn't go well. The tribesmen they meet (who are wearing black headdresses made from cassowary feathers), end up attacking them, and the tour flees back to civilization. But once he's back home Behar starts to doubt whether he really experienced a 'first contact'. He suspects that the entire encounter was staged for his benefit. Maybe Woolford had arranged beforehand for the tribesmen to be there. Anthropologists whom Behar tells about the contact support this suspicion, noting that the tribesmen appeared to be suspiciously free of skin diseases for people living in the jungle. Plus, why were they wearing those ceremonial headdresses? But Woolford insists it was all real, arguing that the tribesmen were free of skin diseases because they lived near a source of fresh water in which they could bathe, and that they were wearing the headdresses simply because they enjoy dressing up. So Behar is left not knowing what to believe. It does sound an awful lot like a Stone Age Tasaday scenario to me. But even if it's not, the idea of a First Contact Tour is somehow very depressing.

Islamic Hostage Barbie Hoax, Part Two — As a follow-up to the Islamic Hostage Barbie Hoax, an anonymous poster to a Jihadist message board (he calls himself 'al-Iraqi4') has come forward to claim responsibility for the hoax. He says that:

In the name of God, the Most Merciful and Most Compassionate,
Soldier John Adam is [only] a toy.
I am a 20-year old Iraqi young man. I am unarmed, independent and do not belong to any party or group. I apologize to all the parties and everyone, for I meant nothing by that [no harm].
The picture was a scheme that I made up with a toy that I bought with $5.
Today I am announcing that this news was made up, and that the picture was of a toy that I worked on with the help of some children.
I cannot provide any information about me because, as I mentioned earlier, I am unarmed, and any information about me might jeopardize my life and the lives of my family [members].
My apologies to everyone.

As evidence that his confession is real, he provides a picture of 'Soldier John Adam' taken from another angle. But not everyone is convinced that this confession is real. Confederate Yankee has examined the two pictures and is convinced that they were taken in different places. He notes that the floors don't look the same, and thinks that the banner shape and text look different as well. I can see what he's talking about with the floor, though it could be explained away by differences in the lighting of the pictures. But the banner looks pretty much the same to me.

And Andrew Margarson forwards this image that "may explain why barbie was there..."

Save Toby — If we all don't cough up $50,000 by June 30 then Toby, who happens to be 'the cutest little bunny on the planet', is going to die. His owner will kill him and eat him. Does this all sound familiar? Why, yes! It's a shameless rip-off of Save Bernd. Just as European movies are remade by Hollywood for American audiences, it now seems that European hoaxes are being remade for American audiences as well. However, the American version of the rabbit-killing hoax feels compelled to put a little notice at the bottom of the page telling us that it's all a joke. If you can't get savetoby.com to load, try the google cache version of it. The guy's site seems to be having bandwidth issues. (Thanks to Lawrence for the link)