I'm just curious, what was your initial reaction to it? Did you think it was serious, suspect it might be a hoax, or cry "bullshit" right away?

In my younger years I tended to fall for hoaxes and urban legends. Nor did I see the humor in claims as to the inclusion of the word "gullible" in the dictionary.

Then I discovered Jan Harald Brunvand and his study of urban legends, and I devoured his books. I must say that they served as a very effective means to calibrate my bullshit meter. This was well before the Interweb; today one could just surf through snopes.com for similar effect...