I heard this report first that a student from UMass Dartmouth had received a visit from the Department of Homeland Security after reserving a copy of Mao Tse-Tung’s “Little Red Book” of quotes through inter-library loan.
My initial impulse was to buy a copy of the book to see what would happen. Thankfully, I didn’t, because later I read on Boing Boing that the story was suspicious and that maybe all the elements of it didn’t add up.
If I’d ordered a copy of the book and nobody showed up, then I’d have a copy of the dumb old book lying around taking up room for no reason. Which made me wonder why DHS couldn’t investigate something more fun. Maybe I should start a rumor that there are secret hidden messages in the DVDs for the First Season of Fraggle Rock, or that page 28 of The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists has a hidden code that unlocks the secrets of the Pyramids. Or maybe that the Xbox game Destroy All Humans is REALLY about destroying all humans. Then I could buy one of them, enjoy myself, and still prepare to have men in black over for tea. I’m sure DAH is a two-player game. Those guys must practice on first-person shooters, right?
UPDATE: It appears that the story about visits from DHS may not really be a hoax. Huh. Maybe I shouldn’t be making jokes about it, then.
UPDATE: It was a hoax.