So the Hoax Continues...

Last week I decided to make the trip to the state fair in Oklahoma City on Friday.  In spite of the gloominess, we not only ventured into my typical shopping spaces, but my boyfriend and I decided to see what else the fair had to offer.  Walking through the gaming portion of the fair (I should have known), I heard over a loud speaker the voice of a man announcing the arrival of the world's most famous modern oddities.  My  boyfriend rolled his eyes, but I figured it might be worth seeing since the weather had kept the rest of the fair from being any kind of interesting.  Of course once I paid my two dollars and made my way inside, I noticed instantly that the majority of the "oddities" were easily identified as paper machet or wood and poorly painted.  I mean, come on!  If you are going to claim this stuff is real, the least they could do was give the damn things a descent paint job.  I was quickly losing interest until I caught the above image from the corner of my eye.  Lo and behold, it was the FEEJEE ISLAND MERMAID!  My boyfriend laughed at me, and almost seemed disgusted when he noticed I was taking pictures of the thing.  "You're retarded, that is so fake", he said.  So then I had to explain to him the history behind the Fiji Island Mermaid and how it is said that when the hoax originally had taken hold, they used the Japanese technique of sewing a fish tail to a monkey body and tried to pass it off as a beautiful mermaid.  He still had little interest but I, of course, took delight in the fact that I actually knew the story behind the oddity, and find it quite hilarious that the thing still circulates in our own hoax culture today.  I suppose we still have an interest in items too good to be true but insist on paying $2 to see whether it's actually real or not.  Really, we know this stuff is not authentic, but it still bugs the imagination and piques interest.  Just thought I should share this! :)