Who’d pay to see a hoax?

Re: “Too few visiting Lucy in Seattle,” Jan. 25:

It is not surprising that few people are wanting to see Lucy when artists have made a rendition of what they think Lucy looked like when 60 percent of the skeleton is missing. In 1983, Richard Leakey, who is probably one of the best-known fossil anthropologists, indicated Lucy’s skull was so incomplete that most of it was an imagination made of plaster of Paris and no conclusion could be made as to what species she belonged to.

I was in Missouri several years ago when Donald Johanson, the person discovering Lucy, was speaking at a university. A newspaper article indicated students challenged Johanson as to where the separated knee bone was located in relation to the rest of the skeleton. He avoided the question, but when pressed for the answer he indicated a mile away. From the newspaper article the students laughed him off stage.

So, why would people want to pay $20.75 to see a hoax? Obviously someone was “monkeying” with the evidence and still promoting it as the real thing. Nice way to make some quick cash when times are tough.

Alan Alexander

Spokane Valley