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Unless you were living under a rock or otherwise detached from the media universe yesterday, you undoubtedly heard the story about thousands of people in Japan being duped into buying sheep after being told they were poodles.
Well, guess what. It's bullshit. This Japanese blogger carefully dissects the entire story (via) to explain that whoever originally reported the story (apparently the Australian version of MSNBC) misunderstood some remarks made on a talk show made by an actress.
As the blogger explains, she didn't say she HAD a sheep, she said she'd heard a STORY about someone else who had one...in other words, the good old fashioned Urban Legend. The blogger then traces the story itself back to an earlier source -- another Japanese blogger with a post from February of 2006, who also basically tells the same story as a FOAF-style story.
She then points out that the place where the scam is supposed to have occurred is Japan's leading sheep-raising area, making it highly unlikely that people would not recognize sheep there. Also, she notes the total lack of coverage of the story in the Japanese media, indicating that they would be all over this story themselves with their own unique brand of "weird news" coverage had it actually occurred.
You gotta love the Internet -- less than 24 hours from "breaking news" to "urban legend"!
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