I just got back from vacation to find that Michael Panhorst had posted
the Smithsonian and the barbie doll head letter to museum-l on August
31.  He posted it under the heading of museum humor, which is entirely
appropriate.  Since museum-l is a newsgroup as well as a mailing list
and is fairly widely read I felt I should put it on "record" that this
letter is a hoax (albeit a nicely done parody) and is not a real Smithsonian
response to a real inquiry.  This letter first surfaced a few years ago
in hard copy and we all got a good chuckle about it.  Periodically someone
would get hold of it and ask us if it was true.  However, recently someone
has put it on the internet and it has been fairly widely circulated.
Inquiries about its legitimacy have increased, as you can imagine.  We
have gotten calls from newspapers and even Barbie magazine inquiring about
it.  Things circulated on the internet take on a life of their own (witness
the $250 cookie hoax).  I have even had some of our interns ask about it,
assuming it was true.  So, if you see it on the internet and pass it on,
please do so as fiction, not fact.  We would appreciate it!

One good thing about it :-) ...
It seems to be replacing the other hoary old myth about the Smithsonian,
i.e. that we have a certain part of John Dillinger's anatomy in a jar.
I can't tell you how many times over the years we have gotten phone calls
about *that* one!

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* Felicia Pickering  Processing Laboratory  Department of Anthropology  *
* National Museum of Natural History  =-=-=    Smithsonian Institution  *
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