This past week's coverage of Hurricane Florence has had all the trappings of a terrible storm.

The satellite images, the sandbags, and empty grocery stores, the newscasters dressed in floodgear.

One recurring side character we seem to have avoided this time around, though, is the doctored image of a shark swimming on a flooded highway.

It's a preposterous hoax that succeeds occasionally on the merits of some kernel of truth.

For instance, whole swads of interstate highway in North Carolina are, as of this moment, covered with water.

That kernel of truth is what hoaxers and

jokesters build their handiwork on, as did the veteran hoaxer Alan Abel, who passed away

late last week at the age of 94.

Abel made a name for himself, inventing characters and causes and turning the joke on the media.

In 1980, he staged his own death and got himself an obituary in the New York Times.

Decades ago, he created a fast-talking character named Omar, who taught classes on panhandling.

The news media aided up.

Omar's intensive training course takes a week and costs $100.

For that, students are taught gimmicks to suit their personalities

and locations that Omar handpicks for maximum cash flow.

Aspiring beggars take five two-hour classes from this hustler.

He says he's launched thousands of careers.

So how do we know who is truly homeless and who is a con man? His primary intent, Mr. Abel often said,

was to quote, give people a kick in the intellect. To carry out his hoaxes, he sometimes enlisted

the help of his daughter, Jenny, who grew up with this madness and preserved it for all to see in the documentary, Abel Raises Cain.

I spoke to them both about ten years ago, and I first asked Alan about an early hoax of his, Sina, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals.

Sina's mission was as refined as it was revolutionary.

...