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Legalize the Constitution
Picture of TMats
posted
April 1st. April Fool’s Day. Every year on this day, I’m reminded of this prank for the ages. April 1, 1980, The BBC announced that Big Ben, the world-famous clock at Westminster Abbey would be updated to a digital readout. I thought it was hilarious. Apparently, most Brits failed to see the humor (humour?).



_______________________________________________________
despite them
 
Posts: 13163 | Location: Wyoming | Registered: January 10, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Drill Here, Drill Now
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That's good. I just borrowed that one.



Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.
 
Posts: 23098 | Location: Northern Suburbs of Houston | Registered: November 14, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Drug Dealer
Picture of Jim Shugart
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When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth. - George Bernard Shaw
 
Posts: 15470 | Location: Virginia | Registered: July 03, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of 2BobTanner
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1957 BBC report on the annual spaghetti harvest

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti-tree_hoax



---------------------
LGBFJB

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it." — Mark Twain

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” — H. L. Mencken
 
Posts: 2692 | Location: Falls of the Ohio River, Kain-tuk-e | Registered: January 13, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Unmanned Writer
Picture of LS1 GTO
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When a radio station (KGB 101.5) in San Diego announce all morning long the space shuttle would be landing at Montgomery Field Airport (MYF).

Yes, a few thousand people fell for it and the CHiP had to call the station and ask they inform the people it was a joke as the sheer number of people stopped on the side of the 163 was hazardous.







Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.



Only in an insane world are the sane considered insane.


The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime


 
Posts: 14020 | Location: It was Lat: 33.xxxx Lon: 44.xxxx now it's CA :( | Registered: March 22, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
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quote:
Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
When a radio station (KGB 101.5) in San Diego announce all morning long the space shuttle would be landing at Montgomery Field Airport (MYF).

Yes, a few thousand people fell for it and the CHiP had to call the station and ask they inform the people it was a joke as the sheer number of people stopped on the side of the 163 was hazardous.


It was more than a few thousand. It screwed up traffic in and around Montgomery Field for hours!

Totally hilarious!

Montgomery had a longest runway of ~3500’ then and a public general aviation airport. Why would a shuttle would land there, even if it could physically, when there is a government owned, secure airport with a ~12,000’ runway ~3 miles away at NAS Miramar, now MCAS Miramar?

One of the greatest April Fool pranks I ever heard of. 25 years ago! Wow!




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
A Grateful American
Picture of sigmonkey
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Big Grin




"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב!
 
Posts: 43803 | Location: ...... I am thrice divorced, and I live in a van DOWN BY THE RIVER!!! (in Arkansas) | Registered: December 20, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of craigcpa
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On a personal note, after Dale Earnhardt died, a radio station morning show I patronized stated the USPS was honoring him with a very limited, one day only stamp.

I, along with three other people, stood in line until opening, until I departed watching the two before me argue with the staff that they were withholding the collectibles for themselves behind the counter.


==========================================
Just my 2¢
____________________________

Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right ♫♫♫
 
Posts: 7731 | Location: Raleighwood | Registered: June 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Drug Dealer
Picture of Jim Shugart
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{Joke break}

Q: What do Dale Earnhardt and Pink Floyd have in common?
A: The wall.



When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth. - George Bernard Shaw
 
Posts: 15470 | Location: Virginia | Registered: July 03, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Did you come from behind
that rock, or from under it?

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Locally in Tidewater, VA this April fools prank from the early 1990s got quite a bit of notice. Lots of people freaked out over what was obviously a prank. Henry "The Bull" Del Toro was a shock-jock that was a hoot to listen to. He passed away in 2002 but his legacy lives on:


PilotOnline.com

The Mount Trashmore explosion

"The best April Fools' hoax in Hampton Roads history?
The Mount Trashmore explosion. | Back in the Day
Jakon Hays, Maureen Watts


It was 24 years ago when what many consider to be the best April Fools’ hoax, hit Hampton Roads.

The Virginian-Pilot story on the “incident” is attached below:

WNOR hoax isn't funny to everyone and no, Mount Trashmore isn't really going to blow up

It started as an April Fools' prank by a couple of irreverent disc jockeys.

But what happened Wednesday was no joke to police, the Federal Communications Commission and listeners who believed a report that Mount Trashmore was about to explode.

The hoax began around 6:30 a.m., when WNOR-FM 99 disc jockeys Henry "The Bull" Del Toro and Tommy Griffiths warned that the old landfill was about to hurl debris all over Virginia Beach.

The disc jockeys said that a University of Virginia seismologist had detected a methane-gas buildup under the old dump, which has been converted to a public park.

For more than an hour, they issued news flashes about the imminent disaster and the danger of "low-flying dirt clods." The station's newscaster and traffic reporters played along.

Then came the evacuation warning: Everyone within a seven-mile radius of Mount Trashmore was being asked to leave.

And that's when the trouble began. Just as in 1938, when Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast convinced the nation that New Jersey was under attack by space aliens, some folks believed that the danger was real.

"I was terrified," said Tani Cornelius, who packed up her 5-month-old daughter and sought refuge at a friend's house in Norfolk. "While I was driving down Princess Anne Road parallel to Mount Trashmore, I kept thinking, 'What if it blows right now? My baby.' "

Callers, whose moods ranged from disbelief to panic, lit up police emergency lines.

"There was the possibility that someone with a bona fide emergency could not get through or was delayed in getting through," said Lou Thurston, spokesman for the Virginia Beach Police Department.

The station stopped the broadcast about 7:45 a.m., after police showed up at its Chesapeake studios.

Virginia Beach police also lodged a complaint with the FCC. The local FCC director, J.J. Freeman, said the complaints to his agency and police numbered in the hundreds.

Freeman said that if the commission finds that WNOR endangered the public's health and safety, it could fine the station up to $25,000 or revoke its license.

Such strict punishment would be unusual. The commission has not revoked a license for a false broadcast in recent history – not even when a St. Louis station falsely reported a nuclear attack on the United States at the start of the Persian Gulf war.

Joseph D. Schwartz, WNOR vice president and general manager, went on the air Wednesday and apologized.

"Tom and Henry have very fertile imaginations," Schwartz said. "Perhaps they took it to a higher extent than they should have."

Schwartz said he is considering disciplinary action against the disc jockeys.

___

In December, The FCC passed down their decision – the story is below:
WNOR admonished by federal agency over April Fools' Day hoax

The Federal Communications Commission has slapped the owners and operators of WNOR-FM on the wrist for an April Fools' Day hoax that warned of "an imminent explosion" at Mount Trashmore.

The FCC said Friday that it sent a letter to admonish Tidewater Communications, a subsidiary of Saga Communications of Grosse Point, Mich., which owns the rock station.

"What they did at the station that morning was without malice, but it was stupid," said J. Jerry Freeman, engineer in charge of the local FCC office. "They have learned their lesson, big-time."

The letter of admonition will be part of the station's permanent record but carries no heavier consequences.

Six weeks after the prank, the FCC used the station as an example when it toughened its rules about broadcasting false information. The rule that took effect May 11 allows for fines up to $25,000. Because WNOR's hoax took place April 1, no fine was levied.

Under the previous rules, the FCC was obliged to either take away the station's license or send the owners a letter of admonition.

Griffiths, Del Toro, news director Gigi Young and program director Buzz Knight were suspended without pay for two weeks. Schwartz's bosses in Michigan suspended him for a week without pay.

The station also broadcast apologies for the hoax."




"Every time you think you weaken the nation" Moe Howard
 
Posts: 2048 | Location: Out standing in my field. | Registered: February 07, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
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quote:
Originally posted by 2BobTanner:
1957 BBC report on the annual spaghetti harvest

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti-tree_hoax



My favorite one.
 
Posts: 1755 | Location: El Paso, Texas | Registered: January 05, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Baroque Bloke
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In the 70s “Scientific American” was an excellent and highly respected magazine. Martin Gardner had a monthly column, “Mathematical Games” on diverse subjects. In one April edition he wrote a credible-sounding article about the origin of the flush toilet, and how it changed the world. The inventor was said to be Thomas W. Crapper.

It was a joke article. The editors never permitted joke articles, but this one was so well written, with references, that the editors were fooled. They were furious when they found out. To this day, there are folks that believe that the flush toilet was invented by Thomas W. Crapper.

Except for the “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast, and the Democrat Party, the most successful hoax in history.



Serious about crackers
 
Posts: 8850 | Location: San Diego | Registered: July 26, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Quit staring at my wife's Butt
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Posts: 5574 | Registered: February 09, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Unmanned Writer
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quote:
Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
In the 70s “Scientific American” was an excellent and highly respected magazine. Martin Gardner had a monthly column, “Mathematical Games” on diverse subjects. In one April edition he wrote a credible-sounding article about the origin of the flush toilet, and how it changed the world. The inventor was said to be Thomas W. Crapper.

It was a joke article. The editors never permitted joke articles, but this one was so well written, with references, that the editors were fooled. They were furious when they found out. To this day, there are folks that believe that the flush toilet was invented by Thomas W. Crapper.

Except for the “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast, and the Democrat Party, the most successful hoax in history.


Awe crap, I know someone well fooled by that.







Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.



Only in an insane world are the sane considered insane.


The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime


 
Posts: 14020 | Location: It was Lat: 33.xxxx Lon: 44.xxxx now it's CA :( | Registered: March 22, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Something wild
is loose
Picture of Doc H.
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
In the 70s “Scientific American” was an excellent and highly respected magazine. Martin Gardner had a monthly column, “Mathematical Games” on diverse subjects. In one April edition he wrote a credible-sounding article about the origin of the flush toilet, and how it changed the world. The inventor was said to be Thomas W. Crapper.

It was a joke article. The editors never permitted joke articles, but this one was so well written, with references, that the editors were fooled. They were furious when they found out. To this day, there are folks that believe that the flush toilet was invented by Thomas W. Crapper.

Except for the “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast, and the Democrat Party, the most successful hoax in history.


The flushing toilet was invented by John Harington in the late 1500s (although the Romans actually had running water toilets to carry away waste), but this gentleman:



was in fact associated with said device by American GIs in WWI because he was the preeminent plumbing manufacturer in England, holding royal warrants, with his company's name on all the fixtures. "Going to the crapper" was a phrase invented by the Doughboys...



"And gentlemen in England now abed, shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's Day"
 
Posts: 2746 | Location: The Shire | Registered: October 22, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I see today that Timney has introduced the SS4118 trigger for water guns. It's got a "5 stage action, and easy, 17-step drop-in installation."

Link!





God bless America.
 
Posts: 13419 | Location: The mountainous part of Hokie Nation! | Registered: July 15, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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It’s been a long time since someone got me on an April,fools joke but today I was due.

FAA Extends ADSB mandate to 2040

I was so excited because I wasn’t looking forward to updating two airplanes. Then I continued reading. I so wanted to kick Paul Bertorelli’s ass this AM

https://www.avweb.com/avwebfla...o-2040-230532-1.html




Regards,

P.
 
Posts: 1287 | Location: Alabama | Registered: May 20, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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The Curious Case of Side Finch!
 
Posts: 260 | Registered: March 08, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Info Guru
Picture of BamaJeepster
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quote:
Originally posted by JimmyRayBob:
The Curious Case of Side Finch!


That was the first one that I thought of.

It was so much easier to get people in the pre-internet days. This went for several days before SI came clean:

https://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10...ious-case-sidd-finch



“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
- John Adams
 
Posts: 29408 | Location: In the red hinterlands of Deep Blue VA | Registered: June 29, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Eschew Obfuscation
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Back in the day, I worked as a title searcher and had pretty much unlimited access to the local county offices in order to review different records. One day, I liberated some stationary and envelopes from the tax assessor's office.

My brother-in-law had recently purchased a house in the county. So, I drafted a tax delinquency letter informing him that the previous owner had failed to pay their property taxes for several years and, as the new owner of record, the taxes were now his responsibility.

The letter closed by giving him 7 days to come up with the money or the County would seize the property and sell it at auction.

I "just happened" to stop by on April 1st and slipped it in his mailbox. Then hung around for him to get the mail.

Boy, did he erupt. Big Grin


_____________________________________________________________________
“Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again." - Will Durant
 
Posts: 6365 | Location: Chicago, IL | Registered: December 17, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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