Happy April Fool's day. Once upon a time the day was spent dishing out practical jokes prepared well in advance perhaps for weeks leading up to the day. I can recall that the tradition was you could only play a joke before midday, but I think that was just a ruse by the wary so as not to get caught too often.
There have been some classics. Aunty Beeb (BBC) as far back as 1957 and in black and white had the famous spaghetti trees, and for gullible anglers the loudspeaker next to the fish hook attached to the line to tempt fish by playing classical music. The BBC outfoxed a number of viewers back in the 1960s claiming to have invented smell-o-vision through the screen and many viewers rang up to confirm they could indeed smell the fragrances sent through! The ban on doing 'brass rubbings' on metal man-hole covers because it was wearing them down took a few in but most of all I have enjoyed the clever April Fool ideas on Wikipedia who devoted their whole front page to it today including:
NASA reporting a shower of diamonds; the introduction of an online tanning service; and on this day: – 1918 - The British Armed Forces started to grant personnel the power to fly; and best of all: 2006 - As mandated by a 2005 Act of Parliament, several British policing agencies joined together to become very serious.
Where does April Fool's day come from? Sadly the answer is obscure. There are some ideas that the traditional day for planting out was May the first and anyone who took a chance and planted out early in April was classed as the April Fool. An English newspaper article published on April 13th, 1789 said that the day had its origins when Noah sent the raven off too early, before the waters had receded. He did this on the first day of the Hebrew month that corresponds with April.
Thanks to Wikipedia for some of these gems.
A clown went to the vet because he thought his pet dog was getting overweight.
The vet told the clown, "Your dog needs exercise, play a game of fetch with him."
The clown replied, "Don't be daft, he can't throw balls."
Chat soon
Ta-ra
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