On the Internet, nothing dies

I’m not sure when I first saw this picture. Maybe a couple of years ago. It is one of those Internet legends, kind of like the old black-and-white postcards of men strapping a 15-foot fish to the bed of their pickup or the goofy antlered rabbit, the jackalope. Here’s the copy that accompanies this one: “Only in Alaska....... This guy raised an abandoned moose calf with his horses, and believe it or not, he has trained it for lumber removal and other hauling tasks. Given the 2,000 pounds of robust muscle, and the splayed, grippy hooves, he claims it is the best work animal he has. He says the secret to keeping the moose around is a sweet salt lick, although during the rut he disappears for a couple of weeks, but always comes home... impressive!”

One little problem: Look at the pile of logs on the left, then the pile on the right. If you simply reverse the logs, they’re the same pile! There are other little clues to its fakeness that are hard to spot in the smallish picture here. (Thanks to daughter Hilary for spotting this years ago.) It makes me want to start my own foolish Internet spoof. Like maybe a flock of hummingbirds and helium-filled-frogs’ croak sacks tethered to a chain lifting logs out of the forest without tearing up the ground. Could be a little harder to do than put tack on a stuffed moose. I’ll have to think about that for a while. Actually, forget it; it would probably look fake.