Happy Gang Initiation Week! And watch out for flying saucers

The word gullible is not in the dictionary.

Really. Go look it up. I'll wait.

g-u-l-l-i-b-l-e

Now that you know what the word gullible means - "easily deceived or duped" - we will return to our regular column.

The reason dictionary editors never place a photo or drawing to accompany the word "gullible" is that a new illustration would be required just about every day.

Last week's definition would have required a photo of a roll of tin foil fashioned to look like a flying saucer (although I thought it more closely resembled a chef's hat.)

As we now know, the whole world was conned by a mountain man and his hippie wife into believing that their 6-year-old son was stowed away on the spaceship.

No one likes to be taken for a fool, especially TV news reporters who are forced into describing such events with impromptu dexterity.

But that was last week's definition of "gullible." This is a new week and requires a new definition.

Because it is close to Halloween, there may even be more ghoulish warnings than usual.

But for now, just beware!!!

This is "GANG INITIATION WEEK!!!"

I know because the e-mail arrived with precise details and contained all of the certainties that police require to determine something is a bona fide threat - time frame, act, specific victims, etc.

Here it is, word-for-word. If you have received yours in the e-mail then pardon the repetition, but I guess it can't be repeated too many times:

GANG INITIATION WEEK BEGINS 10/21

Subject: Fw: BE CAREFUL!!! GANG INITIATION WEEK BEGINS 10/21 AND Women are the target!

My dearest friends, I am reaching out to you because I love you and I need your help.

It was brought to me, and confirmed by several police officers that gang initiation week begins the week of October 21st. The target this year is to kill 140 women.

I beg of you to do the following:

* Be prayerful first!

* Spread the word, I know I could not reach everyone and I need you to share this with everyone you know in Chicago.

Right now I do not have confirmation that it is outside of Chicago but it is in Chicago for sure!

BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!!!! BEING CAREFUL MEANS!!!!!!!!!!!

* Paying attention while walking, driving, whatever.

* Get off the friggin cell phones while you are walking or at a stop light or pumping gas or whatever! (Let me walk up on you from behind and you are not paying attention, I might slap you in the back of your neck as a gentle reminder. So not kidding! This is serious!!!")

So there you go.

Be forewarned.

Not to pick apart a perfectly official memo - and maybe it is the cynic/skeptic in me - but I am curious why so many people would blindly forward the above e-mail when it has been circulated for years in various forms and has become known as "Red October." It has never come true.

Gangs aren't generally known to form conglomerates for the purpose of initiations or anything else.

And Oct. 21 isn't the beginning of the week. October 21 is Wednesday.

If you have received the gang initiation warning via e-mail, then I presume you have a computer. If you have a computer, then why don't you look on snopes.com or the various urban legends Web sites and check it out for yourself?

Some people won't bother and others just aren't going to take any chances. Some parents will keep their kids home. Other students will skip school just in case it is true this year and 140 women really will be killed.

Me?

Maybe I'll just climb into the attic above my garage and hide in a cardboard box until Oct 22.

• Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by e-mail at chuckgoudie@gmail.com and followed at twitter.com/ChuckGoudie