The magic of the possibility was very appealing, so I hope the laughter in the "shard" that you listened to wasn't a cruel laugh of a trickster.

Way back in my early Internet and email days I fell for that "use sunscreen" essay supposedly by Kurt Vonnegut. A friend told me it was a hoax, but I did read later that Vonnegut read it himself and thought it was pretty good. :)