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I have always found April Fools' Day to one of the oddest of the days we observe. Days observed for no other reason than the calendar has turned one more date have always felt a bit empty to me, and I'm not joking.
Which is the whole point of today, April 1, 2023 - April Fools' Day. To me the first of April is significant because it is the date on which I started working full time at The Times 953 years ago. Maybe the second part is a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. I have never been much of a jokester on April first. When my daughters were growing up we always made sure they called their grandfather and tell him -- falsely -- that his cows had gotten out of the barn yard and were running wild. I know he reads my column every week, so I will do it for them now - "Hey Bob, your cows are out!" See what I mean? I am really not very good at this. The tradition of playing pranks on the first of April dates back hundreds of years in several European countries. In all cases the observance resolves around playing harmless pranks on others.
In Scotland: This is one of my favorite pranks -- it involves sending a person with an important letter to someone else. When the person opens it instructs them to have the "fool" deliver the letter to someone else. This cycle repeats until the carrier figures out they have been pranked.
In Italy, France and Belgium: Attaching a paper fish to someone's back without their knowledge is for some reason a thing.
Poland: Elaborate pranks are played not only by people, but also institutions as well, frequently with the media playing along. It's a tradition in many countries for media to play along with jokes. Thankfully not here. To me, words printed, broadcasted or posted should always be truthful. This means every day. Doing otherwise will hurt your creditability. We are in an era when many non-news sources are putting out information that is masked as news. They do so because a percentage of the people will accept it as fact. You could argue that the date should give people clue to the joke, but items are not always read or viewed when you expect them to be. Websites and streaming really allow people to read and view things when and where they want. When I was in college, the Ohio University Post always did an April Fools' edition. The stories were so outlandish that not even 20-year-olds would believe them. The writers likely thought they were being funny and maybe they were, but I have never thought of newspapers as some place that comedy belonged. There has been many actually stories that have at first been questioned simply because of the date that they occurred. Several deaths were at first questioned, including that of Marvin Gaye in 1984 and Selena in 1995. When Isaiah Thomas was drafted into the NBA on April 1, 2001, some questioned if it was a hoax because at 5' 9" he did not exactly tower over other players in the league.
It is the tradition in many countries to wrap up your hoaxes before noon, after that you may be the one that looks like a fool -- and that is no joke.
Art Smith is online manager of The Times, you can reach him at asmith@mariettatimes.com