Aagh!  So do not remind me what the date is tommorrow... it is Easter
holidays you know and Kelly is already a mighty troublesome....... perhaps I
can forget it like I did with the changing of the clocks ;-)

Warm Hugs Em

Alayne

Emily,
I am 34 and I remember the spaghetti harvest. Wasn't there photos of the
spaghetti growing in the trees in the papers?

And Alayne - if anyone tells my 4 year old that tomorrow is April Fools I
don't know what I'll do. Already this Easter hols I've had to threaten to go
back to work and get her a child minder if she doesn't start behaving. I'm
just hoping she doesn't call my bluff!

Best wishes to you both
Sinead

I pulled off a few good ones in my time.

I am active in the Colorado leadership of the Sierra Club. For those of
you outside the US, it is one of our larger environmental organizations,
and has a reputation for suing developers and others to protect the
environment.

One year, several things were happening simultaneously:

Peregrine falcons, a locally endangered species, had been released in
Denver and placed in a nest on a Denver skyscraper.  The papers just
before Apr 1 was full of stories wondering whether they would find their
way back to Denver in the spring migration.  It was one of the lead
stories in the Denver area at the time.

Denver was building a brand new convention center.  A friend of mine
happened to be a very senior manager in the joint venture that was
constructing the project.  I knew him from politics, and he knew my
Sierra Club connection.

I worked in a downtown Denver office building. As luck would have it, my
office window looked out over the convention center construction site.  
They had just completed demolition of existing buildings and hauled away
rubble.  On April 1, all that was left in the middle of the project area
was a solitary tree.

I couldn't resist. I called my friend, Rich.  I commented on the status
of the project and mentioned the tree.

Rich:"Yes, it's coming down tomorrow."
Me: "Oh dear. I'm afraid I have some bad news.  I volunteered to make
this call for the Sierra Club because you're a friend of mine, and I
thought that you'd rather hear this from a friend. It seems the
peregrines have returned to Denver, and they are nesting in that tree.  
I'm afraid that under the Migratory Bird Act, you can't take that tree
down until nesting season is over."
Rich:"When is that?"
Me: :"Mid July, give or take".
Rich: 10 minutes of very loud swearing, discussion of project deadlines,
bonuses for completion, what this would do to their schedule, etc.
Me: "I'm sorry you feel that way Rich, but I'm afraid the law is the
law.  Those peregrines have to be protected.  Now, since this is an
official call, and questions may come up later, let's note the time. I
have 1:45 PM.  What's today's date?"
Rich: "April 1" (very long pause, then very quiet voice) "You son of a
bitch".

We ran into each other that night at our local pub where I bought him a
drink.  It seems that after he hung up the phone on me, the owner of his
company came into his office. She had heard him yelling at me, and
wanted to know what the problem was. "I got her good" is the way he
described their conversation.

To this day, while I have come close a few times, I have yet to top that
spur of the moment prank.