Pen-Elayne on the Web

Who is the More Foolish, the Fool or the Fool Who Follows Him?

White Rabbits! According to Info Please (watch those pop-ups!): Ancient cultures, including those as varied as the Romans and the Hindus, celebrated New Year's Day on April 1. It closely follows the vernal equinox (March 20th or March 21st). In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar (the Gregorian Calendar) to replace the old Julian Calendar. The new calendar called for New Year's Day to be celebrated Jan. 1. In France, however, many people either refused to accept the new date, or did not learn about it, and continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1. Other people began to make fun of these traditionalists, sending them on "fool's errands" or trying to trick them into believing something false. The French came to call April 1 Poisson d'Avril, or "April Fish." French children sometimes tape a picture of a fish on the back of their schoolmates, crying "Poisson d'Avril" when the prank is discovered. In 1752, Great Britain finally changed over to the Gregorian Calendar, and April Fool's Day began to be celebrated in England and in the American colonies.

So in honor of April Fool's Day (thanks, France Freedom!), here's the Museum of Hoaxes and April Fools R Us.

I wish I were in Ithaca today, where John Cleese gave a lecture on the life and work of W.C. Fields. Cleese "said he decided to lecture on Fields because he has been neglected and forgotten." Not by all of us. As The Firesign Theatre says, W.C. Fields Forever! I'd drool for a transcript of this.

I've been busy with work stuff and catching up on message boards much of the day so I haven't been able to find any good new hoaxes. (Bloggers making fun of Dick and Lynne Cheney don't count; that's not a hoax or even a prank, it's just unsubtle and mean. Yes, their lawyers are dickwads, but even dickwads have a point sometimes, and I think whitehouse.org should have tweaked the purloined, trademarked White House logos a bit more, but then my opinions on copyrights and trademarks are sometimes seen as party-poopish.) Via Ampersand (link at sidebar), this great page from one of my favorite sites, the Astronomy Picture of the Day. Please pass along your favorite spotted hoaxes (I think the picture is, in fact, of a spotted hoax) of April Fool's Day 2003 in the comments section.