A California family was ticketed after holding a Viking funeral at a local lake.
A California family was ticketed after holding a Viking funeral at a local lake.
In June 2017, anÂ articleÂ fromÂ entertainment web site Nevada County Scooper (also called NC Scooper) about a family holding a viking funeral on a local California lake was mistaken by some readers as a genuine news item:Â < A local family from the Cascade Shores housing development is in hot water for attempting to cremate a deceased relative on Scotts Flat Lake earlier today. The Barstad family recently suffered the loss of the familyâ€™s patriarch, Norman Barstad, who had lived with the family at their Spanish Lane home. The senior Barstad, who was 92 years old when he passed last week, requested that he receive a full Viking burial on the water. The family agreed to his last wish. Unfortunately, neither the Nevada County Health Department nor the Sheriff (who answered numerous 9-1-1 phone calls) seemed to think this was a good idea. > This story originates from a site that has aÂ history of publishing nothing but hoaxes andÂ misinformation. The web site explainsÂ in its â€œmanifestoâ€ that its stories are intended to be read as satire: < The Scooper is a satirical website is in scope and intent. Sometimes itâ€™s funny; often it is not. in scope and intent. It provides social criticism in a satirical, sometimes news-genre setting. We are not a â€œfake newsâ€ site, but rather an entertainment one. Sometimes itâ€™s just plain-old crappy writing with a few bad jokes. Our intention is not to fool or trick anyone, but obviously it happens.Â We firmly believe that you can soften a personâ€™s willingness to listen by injecting irony, and yes sometimes humor, into the conversation. > The image purportedly showing the â€œViking funeralâ€ is, naturally, faked. The original photograph, available via Wikipedia, simply shows the shoreline at the California lake:
"viking" AND "funeral" AND "california"