It began with a classified ad in the Fresno Bee: "Found: Large, obese goldfish. Approx 11yrs old, blind as a bat." The ad, placed by Lori Igasan, ran for a week, starting March 16, and soon attracted a lot of attention, especially after David Letterman talked about it on his show.
Igasan explained to reporters that she had just walked out of her house one day, when she happened to notice a large goldfish lying on her front lawn. Immediately she ran inside to place it in an aquarium with her pet turtle. She decided to place the ad in the paper in order to find the rightful owner of the fish.
A few weeks later another Fresno woman, Bernadette Planting, identified the goldfish as her own, Charley, who had recently gone missing from her above-ground pool. A local aquatics saleswoman speculated that the fish was picked up from the pool by a large bird and dropped 1.3 miles away on Igasan's lawn.
Lori Igasan and the goldfish |
The Fresno Bee reported the
happy reunion of Planting and Charley on May 9. A day later, after numerous readers called in identifying Igasan and Planting as long-time friends, The Bee
admitted it had fallen for a hoax.
The two women confessed to the hoax, saying, "It was not our intention to hurt anybody." Apparently it all started when Igasan, the real owner of the fish, placed the unusual ad in the paper as a way to get rid of her unwanted goldfish. When the ad then attracted so much attention, Igasan talked her friend Planting into coming forward as the owner.
The executive editor of the Fresno Bee said, "We're disappointed that these ladies weren't honest, and disappointed that we didn't catch the hoax." The Bee is
running a poll of its readers about the hoax. Currently, 44% think that the women should have told the truth, and only 8% think it was harmless fun. Seems like a harmless joke to me. (Thanks, Joe)
Comments
It was a joke.
By the way Christopher, you would be surprised what a goldfish can take. I had one once as a boy, who had the habit of jumping out of his bowl. One day I found him out of his bowl lying on the bookshelf, seemingly dead and already dry-skinned. Being a small boy I did not know else but to drop him back in the bowl. Amazingly, he revived and survived. For a few days his dried out slime layer hung in shreds from his body, but he completely recovered. Alas, half a year later he did it again, and this time he did not survive.
If that wasn't true, I wouldn't have a hobby.
First, there is no easy way to tell the age, or even the approximate age, of an adult goldfish. (There are certain ways to judge the age of certain fishes with a microscope and dissecting tools, but they don't work on live goldfish.)
Second, although goldfish are relatively tough fish, it's highly unlikely that one would survive a 1.3-mile trip through the air in the talons of a bird.
Finally, that woman should be arrested for animal abuse. The mini-aquarium she's holding in that picture is way too small for a full-sized goldfish, and even more too small for a turtle. And don't get me started on that hot-pink gravel.
Here's the trick; Bernadette is my mother. She called me up as soon as the Letterman thing happened, we had a good laugh, and that was that. As it snowballed I was left simply aghast at the notion that the editors & writers at the Bee were humping this thing's leg so hard. Reading the blog of the journalist who wrote the original piece, he expresses his profession's "pride in [their] mission to tell the truth." Strikes me that the primary mission here was a small-town paper riding Letterman's coattails. Pride took a dive for attention.
That said, Lori can throw down a line of crap like you've never heard in your life.
And for god's sake, "disappointed that these ladies didn't tell the truth..."? I'm disappointed that college educated journalists & editors can't even pull together enough sense after they've gotten caught up in a silly jape to either just drop it at "we screwed up," or to save a little face and play themselves into it.
Silly, silly, silly.
...sorry, all...daughter just called for a ride, so I'll make a continuing post tomorrow.
Lori Igasan