Heart-In Baby Diamonds
Anybody for an artificial diamond made of baby hair?

Squirrel Sabotages Opera Singer
A squirrel broke the nose of Finnish opera singer Esa Ruuttunen when it ran into the spokes of his bicycle.

Flat Parents
Life-sized cardboard cutouts of deployed service members are being given to their spouses, children and relatives by the Maine National Guard.

Designer Underwear
If you wish to sport the more... hirsute look, this pair of underwear may be for you. (Link not suitable for work.)

Just a quick note to say that I've been away for the past few days (still am), visiting my parents in the Northern Neck region of Virginia. I arrived at their house just hours before Tropical Storm Ernesto hit, temporarily knocking out our power. Which meant that I was also without an internet connection. Here's a photo of me with their dog, Falcon, a 180-pound Great Dane. He's the biggest dog I've ever known. He's literally almost as big as that hoax photo of a giant dog that was circulating a year or two ago. I'm six-foot tall, but I look tiny sitting next to him.

Two things to announce. First, I've got a deal to write another book. But it's not another book about hoaxes, so it will be a bit of a new direction for me. It'll be a book about unusual scientific experiments. The kind of experiments that make people say, "Did they really do that?" Experiments such as Stanley Milgram's electric-shock experiments, Ewen Cameron's brainwashing experiments, Louis Jolyon West's "elephant on acid" experiment, as well as some more light-hearted ones.

I've known about the deal for a while, but I only received a final contract this week, so I didn't want to jinx it by publicly announcing it prematurely. However, because I'll need to focus on writing the book, I won't be able to blog as regularly. Which leads to the second announcement.

I've asked Flora, whom many of you know and love already as "Boo", to help me out and blog here with me, and thankfully she's said yes. So the blog should actually improve, instead of fading away, as I work on the book. And yeah, I'll probably still be posting every day, but I won't feel as guilty this way if I miss a day or two.

Because Flora already has such a huge presence on this site (as the organizer and host of the first ever Museum of Hoaxes international get-together back in May, as a tireless moderator keeping the comments free of spam, as one of the most active posters in the forum, and because she's a great writer and much funnier than I am, and a great artist as well) she seemed like the obvious person to ask. She should be able to start posting as soon as I'm able to teach her all the quirks of the blogging software.

Update: I forgot to add that Flora lives in Scotland, so you need to imagine everything she writes being said in a Scottish accent.

I'm back from hunting the Loch Ness Monster and Wild Haggises (Haggii?) with fellow Museum of Hoaxers in Scotland. It was a great trip. Despite the Scottish climate staying true to reputation by raining every single day I was there, I saw and did lots of stuff: went on a ghost tour, sampled some whisky, experimented with a Victorian electric shock machine, etc. But the best part was meeting everyone else who was there. My theory that regular readers of this site are all exceptionally fun, intelligent, and attractive people was definitely confirmed. I kept being amazed that what started out years ago as a way for me to procrastinate (i.e. creating my website) ended up inspiring a group of people to travel from all corners of the world to meet in person in Edinburgh.

Below are some photos from the trip.

Row One (from left to right): Museum of Hoaxers posing with a copy of Hippo Eats Dwarf in the studio of BBC Radio Scotland, Dolly the Sheep (stuffed) in a museum in Edinburgh, MOHers posing in front of ancient ruins on Arthur's Seat (that's me on the far right), MOHers posing at Loch Ness.

Row Two (from left to right): MOHers on the Loch Ness Nessie Hunter cruise, a picture of a mysterious object we spotted in the water that might have been Nessie (you need to see the larger image to see what I'm talking about), MOHers posing with a statue of Nessie, and me collecting a sample of genuine Loch Ness water.

I've signed up with a new ad network called Federated Media recently started by John Battelle (one of the founders of Wired Magazine, according to the Wikipedia entry about him). In an effort to better match readers of this site to potential advertisers, Federated Media wants you all to take a brief survey. It's only a few questions: age, address, social security number, credit card info, bank account info, etc. (No, just kidding... they're not looking to steal your identity.) Apparently these surveys are important to advertisers, so if you have a few minutes it would be a great way to help the site out. And hopefully it will result in some better ads. Thanks.

(This should be a one-time thing... the survey will stay active for a few days and then close, and after that I don't think they'll need to collect survey data again. Oh, and if the survey says 'March 2006', just ignore that. I was supposed to link to the survey back in March, but I procrastinated.)

Tomorrow (Monday) I'll be flying to Edinburgh to participate in an exciting experiment: the first face-to-face meeting of Museum-of-Hoaxers. We'll be coming from all corners of the earth: Australia, America, and Europe. Will we be able to tolerate each other in real life (as opposed to virtual life)? Will we all end up in jail? Stay tuned. I hope to post some reports from Edinburgh.

I should note that this adventure wasn't my idea. The credit goes to a group of regulars who hang out in the forum (often seen congregating in the off-topic chit chat thread) and who decided that they wanted to meet each other in real life. I was invited along since my site facilitated the whole thing. And how could I say no?

Activities will include going on a ghost tour of Edinburgh, viewing Gordon Rutter's collection of curiosities, whiskey drinking, and hopefully taking a day trip up to Loch Ness to see Nessie. It should be fun.

Now I'm just hoping I don't arrive in Edinburgh to discover that I'm the only one there, the whole thing being an elaborate hoax designed to lure me halfway around the world on a wild goose chase.

Last month I promised that I would send a free book to whomever posted the most creative review of Hippo Eats Dwarf on Amazon.com (the time limit being the end of March). I didn't forget! There were some great ones, which made it really hard to pick a winner. So I narrowed it down to my favorite five and then randomly picked one. And the winner is Arthur Hippo for his "Totally Useless Cookbook!!!" review:

While I admit that the recipes in this volume can be daring, absolutely no guidance is provided as to the initial preparation of the dwarf, or any hints as to where to procure one in the first place. Also, would it kill the author (or authors - really, how obvious a suedo... psuden... soodoen... fake name is "Alex Boese"?) to provide some suggestions for side dishes? "Herbed Roast Dwarf With Spiced Applesauce" is all well and good, but what sort of vegetable should I serve with the dish? What bread? Not even a wine suggestion! Not recommended.

I particularly like the 'totally useless cookbook' one-liner. I'm thinking of adding it to my ad for Hippo Eats Dwarf in the left-hand column of this page. Unfortunately, however, whoever wrote this review managed to conceal their identity very successfully, so I have no idea where to send the prize.

If I can't figure out the real identity of Arthur Hippo, I'll send the free book to David Rattigan for his "Hip Poe At SD Warf" review. (I was amazed to realize that the title spelled out this phrase.)

Oh, and now that the contest is over, feel free to post real reviews of the book on Amazon (or continue posting fake ones... whatever tickles your fancy).

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but it sure seems like all the items in UKTV's list of 20 Great April Fools, which Jon Holmes presented on air on April 1st over in Britain, were lifted almost verbatim from my list of the Top 100 April Fools ever. Not to complain (actually to complain bitterly), but it took me a long time to create that list... a lot of tedious searching through decades of old newspaper archives to find all the April Fool's Day classics that had been, for the most part, forgotten. If UKTV did their own research and collected together what they thought were the Top 20 April Fools, that would be fine. But their research seems to have simply consisted of visiting here and cutting and pasting what they found, and then presenting this to their viewers as their own work. Can that actually be legal?

The Museum of Hoaxes got mentioned twice in the Christian Science Monitor in the past two days. The first time is in a story by Randy Dotinga titled "When computers do news, hoaxes slip in." It's about the spate of recent online press release hoaxes, such as Tom Vendetta's hoax of a few days ago. I get quoted at the end of the article:

"In the old days, to perpetrate a hoax and get it in front of the eyes of the millions of people, you had to be in the media some way or have access to a reporter. Nowadays, literally anybody can do it," says Alex Boese, author of "Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes and other BS." Google News and its rival sites offer pranksters a forum that seems legitimate, adding credibility to fake stories, Mr. Boese says.

I couldn't have said it better myself (though I think they added a 'the' in 'the eyes of the millions of people'). And then there's an article by Jim Regan titled "Beware the first of April" (which doesn't seem to be online yet because it's coming out in tomorrow's edition, though it's already posted in Lexis Nexis). It talks about my list of the top 100 April Fools Hoaxes and mentions that I also list April Fools hoaxes chronologically going all the way back to the 18th century. But then it says this:

while the Museum's coverage is impressive, the History page records events only up until 2002, so for those looking for a refresher on more recent deceits, Wikipedia's entry on April Fool's Day supplements its main collection with links to April 1st pages from the last four years.

This was true when Regan wrote the article. Up until last night my list of April Fools did stop at 2002. But it's no longer true because I spent much of the past week completely overhauling my history of April Fools section, so that it's now up to date.

I've been pretty busy lately, what with Hippo Eats Dwarf appearing in bookstores this week, and I've also been updating portions of the site to get ready for April Fool's Day. That's why posting has been kind of light. Anyway, I'm going to be doing a bunch of radio shows this week, so I've posted my schedule below. If you get one of these stations listen in and see if whomever I'm talking to manages to stump me (DJs seem to love to flip to random pages of my book and grill me on whatever they find there, as I struggle to remember what I wrote a year ago). If you live in San Diego, I'll be doing a book signing at the downtown Borders this Saturday. I'm also doing a bunch of taped radio shows, but I haven't included those in this list since I don't know when they'll be broadcast.

Tuesday, March 28
Cincinnati, OH: 8:40 - 8:55 am, WKRC-AM
Cleveland, OH: 9:10 - 9:30 am, WMJI-FM (Tentative)

Wednesday, March 29
San Diego, CA: 9:30 to 9:40 am, KPRI-FM

Thursday, March 30
San Diego, CA: 7:40 am, KUSI-TV News
Winston-Salem, NC: 3:33 - 3:43 pm, WSJS
Fargo, ND: 3:00 - 3:30 pm, North Dakota Public Radio, "Hear It Now"
Lexington, KY: 4:30 - 5:00 pm, WLAP-AM
Nashville, KY: 5:20 - 5:35 pm, WKCT-AM

Friday, March 31
Wisconsin: 7:00 - 8:00 am, Wisconsin Public Radio "Conversations with Joy Cardin"
Tucson, AZ: 8:20 - 8:35 am, KNST-AM
Denver, CO: 9:00 - 10:00 am, KOA-AM "Mike Rosen Show"
Chicago, IL: 1:35 - 1:50 pm, WILL-AM (NPR)
Knoxville, TN: 2:30 - 3:00 pm, WNOX-AM "The Phil Show"
Bloomington, IL: 4:00 - 4:20 pm, Radio Bloomington

Saturday, April 1
Palm Springs, CA: 10:30 - 11:00 am, KNWZ-AM "On the Mark"
San Diego, CA: 2:00 - 3:30 pm, Book signing at Borders, 668 6th Ave. (Downtown)
Chicago, IL: 10:00 pm - 10:30 pm, WGN-AM "Nick Digilio Show"

Monday, April 3
Cleveland, OH: 11:00 - 11:30 am, WWOW-AM "Louie Free Radio Show"

Amazon.com has started shipping copies of Hippo Eats Dwarf. So anyone who pre-ordered it should be receiving it soon. This also means that people can now post customer reviews of it on Amazon. Obviously there are no reviews of it yet, and the book looks kind of lonely without any. This has given me an idea for a contest.

I point out in Hippo Eats Dwarf that a significant number of the customer reviews on Amazon are fake (glowing reviews posted by friends of the author, or by the authors themselves). I also point out that it's quite common for reviewers to never read the books they're reviewing. As the Scottish reverend Sidney Smith once said, "I never read a book before reviewing it; it prejudices a man so."

Given this (my general skepticism about Amazon reviews), I'd like to have some fun with the reviews of Hippo Eats Dwarf. Here's my idea. I'll send a signed copy of the book to whomever posts the most creative customer review of it on Amazon by the end of this month. (This may produce some interesting stuff, or it may not. We'll see how it goes.) You'll need to acknowledge your review here in the comments section if you want to win the prize (unless your Amazon screen name is the same as your Museum of Hoaxes screen name... or I believe it's also possible to send reviewers email through Amazon). You'll also need to have an Amazon account (which, I believe, requires a credit card I was wrong about the need for a credit card. You can create an Amazon account with an email address alone... and Amazon doesn't verify the address).

Just to clarify: I'm not looking for phony glowing reviews. Instead, I'm looking for imaginative reviews in the spirit of great Amazon reviewers such as Henry Raddick. Post a review that accurately describes what the book is about. Or imagine what a book called Hippo Eats Dwarf might be about (ignore the subtitle), and write a review of that. Write your review as a limerick, or a haiku. Whatever you want. Just make it interesting. Points definitely go for humor. Hopefully I won't get in trouble with Amazon for this.

I've just received a few copies of my book, Hippo Eats Dwarf, from my publisher. This is the final version that will be on sale in stores in a few weeks. It's great to see the book finally done and in print!

Anyway, since I have a few extra copies, an idea occurred to me. Why not give them away? But not as prizes. Instead, give them away to volunteers on the condition that, once read, they're passed along to someone else. Each person who gets the book will write a note in it saying where it's been and also try to send a picture of the book back to me. This way I can create a visual diary of the adventures the books have as they (hopefully) travel around the world. I imagine it as a book version of the traveling gnome prank. The experiment will be to see how far the books can travel, and for how long.

I've decided to give away ten books. If you're interested in participating .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your address. (Don't leave your address in the comments!) I'll send a book to the first ten people who respond (though I'm giving priority to the moderators, if they want to participate). [Update: I've now got the ten volunteers!] I'll also keep a wait list of people willing to receive the book, so in case someone can't think of anyone to pass it along to, they can contact me and I'll give them a name to send it to.

I figure the worst that can happen is that someone will keep a book. Which is why I'm 'setting free' more than one book. But if people do play along, it'll be interesting to see what happens.

To start the ball rolling, here's a picture of Hippo in my backyard in San Diego, posing with a few friends. (Yeah, I need to mow the lawn.)