Alex Boese is different. A doctoral student at the University of San Diego, he studies the relationship between science and popular culture in antebellum America. He also works at a firm specialising in public and investor relations for biotech companies.
That's not what makes him different, though. What does, is his penchant for gullibility, in its many forms.
You can picture him sitting in a quiet corner somewhere, grinning as he reads about the latest hoax to have tricked a couple of million people. At first, he examined these because they helped him in his research. Then, as they grew in number, he woke up one sunny morning sometime in 1997, and decided to put them all up at a Web site.
That is how the Museum of Hoaxes came into existence.
Tricks, practical jokes, swindles, pranks, frauds, cons - Alex documents them all, neatly, right from the pre-1700 years to our very own 2001. The site explains what a hoax is, has an April fool's day gallery, a hoax of the day and even a message board for regulars who share Alex's passion for con jobs.
Did you know that the word 'hoax' first came into use way back in the eighteenth century, courtesy the 'hocus' in every magician's 'hocus pocus'? Or that the Oxford English Dictionary of 1808 defines 'hoaxing' as: "contriving wonderful stories for the publick"? I didn't.
The categories covered at the site are astounding, from anthropology and astrology to finance, travel, geology, ghosts, zoology, sports and religion - and that's not the half of it.
You could, for example, read about the famous Patagonian giants of 1766, or the equally notorious petrified man who made his appearance in 1862. The Great Moon Hoax of 1835 managed to convince people that herds of bison, blue unicorns and amphibious creatures were spotted strolling across the moon.
Marco Polo's description of the world -- from way back in 1298 -- is also re-examined, as are prophecies of the clairvoyant Mother Shipton and the more tongue-in-cheek predictions of Isaac Bickerstaff.
Then there are pages devoted to the ghostly drummer of Tedworth, Hitler's diaries, the Moscow Philharmonic hoax of 2000, the great chess automaton, and the final farewell of writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez's, which tricked a large number of people not so long ago.
Finally, apart from these, Alex very kindly lists a number of 'hoax Web sites', too: not sites about hoaxes, but sites that are hoaxes themselves.
Here you can find psycho ex-girlfriend (about a guy who, apparently, saved all the crazy messages his ex-girlfriend left on his answering machine), national blonde day (supposedly promoted by a group called the Blonde Legal Defence Club), and cranky media guy (a series of hoaxes, where the latest involves a man who has fallen in love with the picture of a girl he created on his PC).
Lastly, just before you log off, try the Gullibility Test to check whether you're 'easy to fool' or not. Think you're the smart guy about town? You'd be surprised.
Go ahead, make Alex smile some more.