Today, for the first time I think, I was inspired to look up the history of April Fools Day. Turns out it goes way way back and is celebrated in various ways in many countries, sometimes with surprisingly strict protocols.
In some countries it is only considered acceptable to pull pranks until noon. In others newspapers run exactly one prank newspaper article — never more — always on the front page, and never as the lead story.
Some pranks were truly awesome. In 1957 the BBC convinced millions of British citizens, through an artful three minute fake documentary, that spaghetti grew on trees. Many viewers called into the station to find out where they could get those trees, so they could grow their own spaghetti.
It was so much fun to learn about all of these varied ways of celebrating April 1, and take my mind off our current troubles. I really should have just kept doing that all day.
Instead I made the damn fool mistake of turning on the TV. Turns out they were showing some sort of weird April Fools Day make believe news report.
As far as I can tell, it was about a major health crisis, in which millions of lives were at risk. The kicker was that the President of the United States was Biff Tannen, in full bloviating idiot mode.
Good thing it was only an April Fools Day prank.