It was funny hoax, but a disconcerting one, too, for the people perpetrating it. It turned out to be too easy, and showed a world around them where people would talk confidently of something they’d never seen first hand. One college student wrote a term paper on the imaginary author (“F.R. Ewing: Eclectic Historian”), expecting to be chewed out for the scam. Instead, his work received a B-plus, with positive feedback from his professor on his “superb research.” As the student told Shepherd: “My whole education is probably phony.”
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And have fun…
