[Stultis]

It's not a hoax. It was a actual article, published in hardcopy, albeit in a paper that is now defunct. Slate also had a copy that was recently posted on FR:

Closet Wacko vs. Mega-fibber [Gray Davis]

See also:

LA Times Spiked Davis Temper Story in '98 John and Ken 10/02 w/Jill Stewart and other...

[RS]

Thanks - actually going back through one of their links I found this FR thread from 98-

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3630e4b449cc.htm

Which adds a lot to the credibility of the story ( although I still don't see why the "mid 1990's" reference )

... and really glad I didn't see any of my OWN comments on that thread !