Ok, this is not a gag, I think I may have actually discovered evidence of a possible paranormal event, and I am treating it as a legit report by documenting it here. If you have any suggestions as to a possible conventional explanation, please let me know.

You may recall a few years ago I posted on this board evidence of what I thought was a "false memory", an event that I could clearly remember that I later proved I could not have possibly witnessed. I have had one other false memory I know of which I will not go into here, and I assume these are a relatively common phenomenon, or perhaps a dream event which is recalled as if it had occurred while awake. I suspect we all carry false memories like this without being aware of them since the evidence that they never occurred is rarely assembled unambiguously.

Recalling that HabZone post, here is the false memory I described, as I recently posted it to another forum I contribute to:

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I have a distinct memory of watching TV in my house in Pittsburgh, and the pretty little newscaster looked straight at the camera and with a perfectly deadpan face, solemnly pronounced, "Groucho Marx took a turn for the worst today. In fact, he died."

Needless to say, I howled with laughter. I called to my wife to come watch but the moment had passed. A few weeks later, we were at the Pitt bookstore and I saw the same news reporter buying textbooks. I knew that she had not been on the news for a few weeks, and I suspected her gaffe had cost her her job, and she was now studying for some new career.

For several years I told this story to all my friends, and we all got a laugh out of it, until one day I happened to read that Groucho died in August, 1977. I didn't marry my wife and move into that Pittsburgh house until 1981. In 1977 I hadn't met my wife, and I had never even visited Pennsylvania, I lived in Tennessee! There is no way that episode could have possibly happened the way I remembered it. It was a false memory. Somehow, I made it all up. Both the line she delivered and my seeing her at the bookstore later were total fabrications.

Too bad, Groucho would have loved it.

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After posting the text above, I decided to google the line about Groucho and I found the following exchange at a forum for fans of Pittsburgh radio station WPXI. I have copied the exchange verbatim from the following website.

http://www.pbrtv.com/feb11402.html

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When Groucho Marx died, Byer reported it as "Groucho Marx's condition has taken a turn for the worse. In fact, he died." Most people were appalled at what they thought was a lack of taste on her part. The only people who weren't offended were Groucho Marx fans who realized that Groucho would have thought that was pretty funny. George (February 9, 2002)

Eric, Beverly Byer is a legend at WPXI for a number of reasons. She had some legendary on-air blunders and was also living with the news director at that time, which meant she got away with them. Two of the more famous ones: "Groucho Marx has taken a turn for the worse. In fact, he's died." Then there was the time she read a story about a war veteran who had been in the "Battle of the Bugle." After the show she chastised the producer because she said the script had "Bugle" typed as "Bulge." She told him it was a good thing she caught it. Infamous indeed. Vic (February 8, 2002)

In your "Where Are They Now" section, you describe Beverly Byer as "infamous." How come? (February 8, 2002)

Eric's Response: I don't know, I only put that there as it was written by the person who sent it to me.

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Now, false memories are not necessarily paranormal events. But there is no possible way I could have witnessed that anchor's Groucho obit since I was not living in Pittsburgh in the summer of 1977. And the quoted text proves it occurred exactly as I remembered it. The corroborating memories, the trip to the Pitt bookstore, etc, are all strictly out of my own head. My wife, by the way, has never remembered the incident.

There it is....