Home of the

Click on the navigation bar above to explore the site.

Or read the latest Enquirer stories and other featured articles

by clicking on the titles on the Enquirer cover below.

Humbug  

1 a : something designed to deceive and mislead

   b : a willfully false, deceptive, or insincere person

2 : an attitude or spirit of pretense and deception

3 : nonsense, drivel

Merriam Webster Online Dictionary

Scamming Sherlock

Before Columbo,
before Inspector Clousseau,
before Monk—
there was Sherlock Holmes.

Nobody could pull the wool over Sherlock’s eyes! He spotted every discrepancy, every minor slip-up made by men who were bent on deceiving others. And it w

ould seem logical to assume that the creator of this fictional master sleuth would himself be impervious to being humbugged by even the most clever criminals and con artists.

Perhaps that was true of Arthur Conan Doyle. Perhaps he would have been able to solve real crimes in the way his alter-ego Sherlock solved them. Perhaps the master-minds of the world would have been nothing compared to his powers of logic and common sense and careful observation.

But how about challenging his powers with … the silly photographic shenanigans of a couple of girls ages 9 and 16?

As it turns out, Arthur was no match for these young women. And the aftermath left the great Conan Doyle’s reputation for wisdom sorely tarnished.

Read the whole sordid tale here.

From Internet Hoaxes and Urban Legends to Religious Gurus gathering followers, Humbugs are everywhere in our world!

This Humbug Fieldguide will help you spot them.

Featured Humbug Species:

Photographic Humbugs

The process of  “doctoring” photos, now  known almost generically these days as “photoshopping,” long predates the Photoshop image editing program.

Since very early in the history of photography, deceivers have manipulated photos, set up photo shoots to give false impressions, and/or offered phony “back-stories” for real images–  to support a wide variety of both simple and elaborate humbugs that they have foisted on the public.

One famous example of this involved Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes. To read about this humbug, click on Scamming Sherlock to the right.  And you can use the Species/Photos tab in the navigation bar above to investigate more photographic humbugs of the past and present.

Coming Soon:

 You will be able to visit the Humbug Blog for a daily dose of

Humbug Repellent!