Is The New York Times Punking Us?

This is the story of Woody Brown. Or maybe the story of Woody and Mary Brown. Or...well, I tell you what. You be the judge.
Here are some links:
Ron Charles Substack article:https://roncharles.substack.com/p/the-lives-we-dont-see#media-ce886f97-27c2-46d7-973f-f987e959f24b
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/books/review/woody-brown-upward-bound.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XFA._hKz.UDqL7Q-v8eFA&smid=nytcore-ios-share#commentsContainer
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/mar/28/i-was-in-the-pit-of-despair-non-speaking-autistic-novelist-woody-brown-on-his-journey-from-write-off-to-writer
The Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15692417/woody-brown-nonverbal-autistic-novel.html
CBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oBrqnmJMuQ
Oh, and after shooting the video I also came across this video, which did much the same thing I did, but with the CBS clip from 3 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV00YbuAcac
And the spaghetti tree photo: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/spaghetti-tree-hoax-photos/