We need to hear about your goofs, your jokes, your ruses. They can be April 1 related or not. Follow-up question: does it seem like pranks have fallen off over the years??
My wife called me while I was in line to vote at our local polling place and told me that she didn’t have time to explain but that I needed to write myself in for Judge of Elections.
Turns out she learned that our usual judge failed to put his name on the ballot and nobody knew who he was, so the race ended with many people getting a single vote and me getting…two.
I had to run our district’s elections for FOUR YEARS.
@Cerridwyn yeah it was actually pretty cool, to be fair. I did not, however, seek a second term. A total of I think three write-ins left me tied with my predecessor for the next term and I learned that where I live you break ties by drawing pingpong balls at the courthouse. (I did not appear for the pingpong ceremony and presumably did not win again.)
@Cerridwyn in Pennsylvania anyway, they mostly manage the poll workers and deal with any disputes or hiccups (registration issues, campaigning too close to the facility, questions, etc.) and then deliver the paper ballots and voting machine memory cards to the courthouse to be certified.
The most intense bit was right after polls closed because it becomes a race to the courthouse of every judge in the county, since the line that forms there can be hours long if you don’t get there pretty quickly.
Mostly I learned that if anyone actually wanted to rig an election, the maze of 40 year old technology and 80 year old retirees you’d have to navigate would be difficult to say the least, especially since none of it is connected to the internet and it’s wildly decentralized (again, at least in PA).
@jouest thanks I was just curious. It might exist here I don’t know, but I had never heard the term. I actually worked for the county elections department where I used to live right out of college as a temp. It was very interesting. It was all the those really large paper ballots some people may remember and we had to manually feed them into the counting machines and the results were actually stored on magnetic tape.
@Cerridwyn@jouest Here in Texas, an Election Judge (and an Alternate Judge) is present at each voting location for each election. I’ve served as both a Judge and an Alternate for a number of the elections in the past five years, and I plan to do so again later this year.
Several years ago I posted on social media that I’d met a woman in Italy on my most recent trip there and announced I was moving to Italy to be with her. This wasn’t entirely unbelievable to my friends since I’d been going to Italy every year for several years, traveled extensively in Italy, learned the language, at one point was seriously considering moving there, and even joked about finding an Italian woman to marry so I could get citizenship. Well, many(!) of my friends congratulated me. After a few days, I suggested they look at the date of my initial posting.
I’m not a fan of April fools day. I liked Britain’s tradition more anyway where if you play a trick after noon you’re the fool.
Pranks on April fools are about as fun as Romance on Valentines… it’s all far better when it’s spontaneous and unexpected rather than following rote and doing it when everyone else is.
That said, all the apps I write have an April fool mode- just something silly like the logo changing, or the app title subtly changing the letters around to say something else. More to see if anyone’s paying attention than anything else. When employees board the shuttle and scan their badges they’re going to be treated to a clown car horn honk (the shuttle driver is going to love me by the end of the day).
@jouest@OnionSoup
I’m ALL ABOUT romance on April 1st seeing it’s the anniversary of meeting and falling head over heels in love with my guy. This year we’re celebrating 35 years together. The love that we share is WAY MORE than I ever imagined. It’s even MORE BETTER than chocolate!
I never give my real details to websites if I can help it… except you meh, I gave you all correct information…
But just incase they ever ask for my birthday as an extra security question I always set it to April 1st. The birthday wishes have already started rolling in from various online entities.
@jouest this is interesting: For 1 in 8 immigrants their legally recorded birthday is January 1. Not because they’re lying, but in a lot of countries they just didn’t bother tracking the day, so in absence of knowing the actual day they just put “Jan 1st”.
@OnionSoup I did the same thing but with a different date. All was well until Facebook locked my account because they thought someone was trying to hack into it. That was over a year ago. Because I couldn’t produce an ID with the fake date I used, they wouldn’t unlock my account and, of course, my complaints never made it to a person.
@ItalianScallion so far the fake birthdates have hurt me but I’m not really on social media… Besides several forums and reddit. I have a blue sky account I don’t use. Nowhere I couldn’t start again and say “hey guys it’s me, I got locked out” and start again.
@OnionSoup That’s what I ended up doing. I lost a lot though, especially my long list of friends and lots of photos I shared with them. I suppose the friends I can’t remember probably aren’t ones I care that much about following at this point, and I have all the photos somewhere else so they’re not lost. Still, I had that account for a looong time!
@ItalianScallion@OnionSoup
Unix epoch, that’s a new one for me! After my Google search I can’t say I totally understand it but at least I know what is is now.
@Lynnerizer Computer software typically represents time as a number starting with zero, counting seconds or maybe fractions of seconds since what the software developer defines as the “beginning” of time. That beginning is called the epoch and in the Unix (the origin of Linux) operating system, it’s January 1, 1970 at midnight. For the software that runs Social Security, the epoch is some point in 1875. (I don’t remember the exact date and time.) That was highlighted when Elon Musk said people born in 1875 were getting social security payments. I hope this helps you to understand the idea.
Back in the very early '90s, when I was getting my (very delayed) BS from U of Houston, I posted a letter requesting that Physical Plant employees please refrain from running over students while using their on-campus transport vehicles prior to the last day to drop classes and get a full refund.
This was the end if the era when people were still hoping that someone could study mysticism and kinda instantly transform themselves and the world.
The article spoke to the dream, and in the end, it spoke to the rueful but inevitable letdown so many experience when they tried for something like mystical enlightenment.
And it was a masterpiece and kind of all anybody could talk about for a couple of days
Kudos to Plimpton, SI, and the Mets.
And to Sidd Finch.
@f00l
What a good read, thanks! This is one of those times that (even though he most likely already knew this story) I’d love to share this with my dad if he were still here. What an interesting story, and eccentric guy Sidd was. He most certainly manifested his own success when he changed his name based on ‘Siddhartha,’ which means ‘Aim Attained’ or ‘The Perfect pitch.’ Pretty neat!
The second masterpiece was actually performed by NPR
What is completely criminal about this one is it there is apparently according to the people at NPR no recorded version of it that can be found
I heard both of these live, but this one was such a big deal. It apparently broke the Washington DC phone system and nobody can call anyone for a few hours.
The thing that made it perfect was it it was legally possible
To increase the realism NPR, not only grand Nixon statement in full
They got Lawrence Tribe from Harvard to give some quotes on the legality of him, running for third term given that he had not completed his second and was therefore possibly eligible
And they got one of the communications people from the Bush/Quayle campaign,to issue and read an official statement, stating that they didn’t believe he was legitimate candidate, they thought he was passed the era where he was relevant to the issues
Possibly Rich Little’s finest moment.
It’s hard to believe that there are no copies somewhere of the broadcast
I was the victim of this one.
My wife called me while I was in line to vote at our local polling place and told me that she didn’t have time to explain but that I needed to write myself in for Judge of Elections.
Turns out she learned that our usual judge failed to put his name on the ballot and nobody knew who he was, so the race ended with many people getting a single vote and me getting…two.
I had to run our district’s elections for FOUR YEARS.
@jouest I bet it was a good experience if you think seriously about it, even if it was a pain in the neck
PS I love that you use the word shenanigans
And yes, pranks have fallen off. Many of them were downright cruel and stopped for good reason. Others are now considered in bad taste.
@jouest That is one awesome prank!
MEALS! DEALS! EELS! AWESOME!
@Cerridwyn yeah it was actually pretty cool, to be fair. I did not, however, seek a second term. A total of I think three write-ins left me tied with my predecessor for the next term and I learned that where I live you break ties by drawing pingpong balls at the courthouse. (I did not appear for the pingpong ceremony and presumably did not win again.)
@jouest so what does this judge of Elections actually do? I don’t know that I have ever heard or seen one before
WORKER BEES! HERCULES! TURKEY GREASE! AWESOME!
@Cerridwyn in Pennsylvania anyway, they mostly manage the poll workers and deal with any disputes or hiccups (registration issues, campaigning too close to the facility, questions, etc.) and then deliver the paper ballots and voting machine memory cards to the courthouse to be certified.
The most intense bit was right after polls closed because it becomes a race to the courthouse of every judge in the county, since the line that forms there can be hours long if you don’t get there pretty quickly.
Mostly I learned that if anyone actually wanted to rig an election, the maze of 40 year old technology and 80 year old retirees you’d have to navigate would be difficult to say the least, especially since none of it is connected to the internet and it’s wildly decentralized (again, at least in PA).
@jouest thanks I was just curious. It might exist here I don’t know, but I had never heard the term. I actually worked for the county elections department where I used to live right out of college as a temp. It was very interesting. It was all the those really large paper ballots some people may remember and we had to manually feed them into the counting machines and the results were actually stored on magnetic tape.
@Cerridwyn @jouest Here in Texas, an Election Judge (and an Alternate Judge) is present at each voting location for each election. I’ve served as both a Judge and an Alternate for a number of the elections in the past five years, and I plan to do so again later this year.
Several years ago I posted on social media that I’d met a woman in Italy on my most recent trip there and announced I was moving to Italy to be with her. This wasn’t entirely unbelievable to my friends since I’d been going to Italy every year for several years, traveled extensively in Italy, learned the language, at one point was seriously considering moving there, and even joked about finding an Italian woman to marry so I could get citizenship. Well, many(!) of my friends congratulated me. After a few days, I suggested they look at the date of my initial posting.
@ItalianScallion that username, tho
Sidenote: what the hell, autogenerated image?
@jouest I see nothing wrong with the image.
(Strolls away, hands behind back, whistling.)
As much as I love tricks, jokes, and fun…
I’m not a fan of April fools day. I liked Britain’s tradition more anyway where if you play a trick after noon you’re the fool.
Pranks on April fools are about as fun as Romance on Valentines… it’s all far better when it’s spontaneous and unexpected rather than following rote and doing it when everyone else is.
That said, all the apps I write have an April fool mode- just something silly like the logo changing, or the app title subtly changing the letters around to say something else. More to see if anyone’s paying attention than anything else. When employees board the shuttle and scan their badges they’re going to be treated to a clown car horn honk (the shuttle driver is going to love me by the end of the day).
@OnionSoup I recommend romance on April Fools and foolishness on Valentine’s.
@jouest I like that. I’m going to buy my wife a dozen roses and some chocolate on the way home from work tomorrow!
I just hope she remembers them next Feb 14th.
@jouest @OnionSoup
It’s even MORE BETTER than chocolate! 
I’m ALL ABOUT romance on April 1st seeing it’s the anniversary of meeting and falling head over heels in love with my guy. This year we’re celebrating 35 years together. The love that we share is WAY MORE than I ever imagined.
@jouest @Lynnerizer
"It’s even MORE BETTER than chocolate! "
I had to check the date on my phone there for a second.
April first is my fake birthday!
I never give my real details to websites if I can help it… except you meh, I gave you all correct information…
But just incase they ever ask for my birthday as an extra security question I always set it to April 1st. The birthday wishes have already started rolling in from various online entities.
/showme a fake birthday cake as a prank
@OnionSoup fun fact: I do some work with customer databases and you are not the only one doing this. January 1 is the other one, as you might guess.
@jouest this is interesting: For 1 in 8 immigrants their legally recorded birthday is January 1. Not because they’re lying, but in a lot of countries they just didn’t bother tracking the day, so in absence of knowing the actual day they just put “Jan 1st”.
https://www.npr.org/2019/12/29/792146707/why-so-many-immigrants-have-birthdays-on-jan-1
@OnionSoup I did the same thing but with a different date. All was well until Facebook locked my account because they thought someone was trying to hack into it. That was over a year ago. Because I couldn’t produce an ID with the fake date I used, they wouldn’t unlock my account and, of course, my complaints never made it to a person.
@ItalianScallion so far the fake birthdates have hurt me but I’m not really on social media… Besides several forums and reddit. I have a blue sky account I don’t use. Nowhere I couldn’t start again and say “hey guys it’s me, I got locked out” and start again.
@OnionSoup That’s what I ended up doing. I lost a lot though, especially my long list of friends and lots of photos I shared with them. I suppose the friends I can’t remember probably aren’t ones I care that much about following at this point, and I have all the photos somewhere else so they’re not lost. Still, I had that account for a looong time!
@OnionSoup My favorite fake date is the Unix epoch. Easy for this computer geek to remember.
@ItalianScallion @OnionSoup
Unix epoch, that’s a new one for me! After my Google search I can’t say I totally understand it but at least I know what is is now.
@Lynnerizer Computer software typically represents time as a number starting with zero, counting seconds or maybe fractions of seconds since what the software developer defines as the “beginning” of time. That beginning is called the epoch and in the Unix (the origin of Linux) operating system, it’s January 1, 1970 at midnight. For the software that runs Social Security, the epoch is some point in 1875. (I don’t remember the exact date and time.) That was highlighted when Elon Musk said people born in 1875 were getting social security payments. I hope this helps you to understand the idea.
@ItalianScallion
Thanks, it does help, a little bit.
Back in the very early '90s, when I was getting my (very delayed) BS from U of Houston, I posted a letter requesting that Physical Plant employees please refrain from running over students while using their on-campus transport vehicles prior to the last day to drop classes and get a full refund.
My plan is to fool everyone today and act accomplished, intelligent, and stable
Good luck, huh?
/giphy “fool on The Hill“
Or this…
P.S. I’m not sure you going to f00l anyone, @f00l.
@ItalianScallion
/giphy shush
if we keep quiet, nobody will figure it out
@f00l do it for a year, that’ll really get ‘em
LOL, had to cancel a meeting for legit reasons, but added the tag “NOT an April 1 joke!” So who knows.
First of two fav April F00l’s pranks
(Both were just the thing for their era, and had wide impact and great appreciation)
(Still editing)
@f00l
Ok. This is a Sports Illustrated story. But I first heard about it when NPR broke the story a day or two before home subscribers got their issues.
Ir was wonderful
https://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/15/curious-case-sidd-finch
(An SI website reprint)
(The story was written by George Plimpton)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidd_Finch
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/george-plimpton-web-exclusive-plimpton-plays-april-fools-in-sport-illustrated/2947/
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/legend-sidd-finch-lives-40-030000232.html
@f00l
@f00l
@f00l
@f00l
@f00l
@f00l
@f00l
This was the end if the era when people were still hoping that someone could study mysticism and kinda instantly transform themselves and the world.
The article spoke to the dream, and in the end, it spoke to the rueful but inevitable letdown so many experience when they tried for something like mystical enlightenment.
And it was a masterpiece and kind of all anybody could talk about for a couple of days
Kudos to Plimpton, SI, and the Mets.
And to Sidd Finch.
April 1 1985
@f00l
What a good read, thanks! This is one of those times that (even though he most likely already knew this story) I’d love to share this with my dad if he were still here. What an interesting story, and eccentric guy Sidd was. He most certainly manifested his own success when he changed his name based on ‘Siddhartha,’ which means ‘Aim Attained’ or ‘The Perfect pitch.’ Pretty neat!
@Lynnerizer
George Plimpton had an awesome career also.
KRULL! A SKULL! BRETT HULL! AWESOME!
LEGOS! EGGOS! STRATEGO! AWESOME!
The second masterpiece was actually performed by NPR
What is completely criminal about this one is it there is apparently according to the people at NPR no recorded version of it that can be found
I heard both of these live, but this one was such a big deal. It apparently broke the Washington DC phone system and nobody can call anyone for a few hours.
The thing that made it perfect was it it was legally possible
https://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/nixon_for_president
https://www.grunge.com/818066/how-richard-nixon-became-an-unwelcome-april-fools-day-joke/
To increase the realism NPR, not only grand Nixon statement in full
They got Lawrence Tribe from Harvard to give some quotes on the legality of him, running for third term given that he had not completed his second and was therefore possibly eligible
And they got one of the communications people from the Bush/Quayle campaign,to issue and read an official statement, stating that they didn’t believe he was legitimate candidate, they thought he was passed the era where he was relevant to the issues
Possibly Rich Little’s finest moment.
It’s hard to believe that there are no copies somewhere of the broadcast
But NPR claims they can’t find one
/image President Richard Nixon
April 1 1992
@f00l
Forgot!
One of the best parts for the campaign slogan
”I didn’t do anything wrong and I won’t do it again.”
I can still in my head hear that sentence spoken in Nixon/Little’s voice.
@f00l I think that slogan was recently used by another‘candidate’
/showme a cat litterbox birthday cake
@luseruser Damn. I just ate breakfast. Oh, I gotta run before I-- [indistinguishable sounds of chaos and gastrointestinal distress]
I did the ultimate foolish thing. Got married! My family thought it was an April fools joke but no I actually got married.
@sohmageek easy to remember the anniversary!
@jouest so umm maybe something good for a gift on today’s deals…. Please?
@sohmageek you act like the IRK offer isn’t prominently displayed
@jouest I thought that was the gift for me… I can’t get 2….
I made Jeopardy, apparently: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=800922847427022&id=10164342204460290 (Hijinks category in the middle of the video)
I also was told it was talked about on NPR but I can’t find any documentation of that.
It has also been on several lists of top ten college pranks throughout the years.
@djslack well that’s remarkable. you must love the “fun fact about me” part of corporate icebreakers.
@jouest lol I was just at a corporate event where we had to do that last week and it did not occur to me to use that at all!