In 1986 disc jockeys in Providence, Rhode Island announced the city was shutting down for the day. The "Providence Labor Action Relations Board Committee" was blamed for the decision with the radio station advising listeners to go home. Those seeking further information about the closure were directed to the telephone number of the station's cross-town rival. That unsuspecting victim received hundreds of calls from folks wanting to know what was going on, and the police in that city were, according to one dispatcher, likewise "swamped" by folks calling in.
In 1987, residents of a town in Illinois were advised to all flush their toilets at a predetermined time to force a 10-foot alligator from the town's sewer.
Also in 1987 residents of another town in Illinois were worried about a new "sin" tax their city was instituting. According to the plan, townspeople would have to call a special number once every two months to be taken through a questionnaire by a city employee who would first hook up the phone to a device that determined whether callers were answering truthfully. Answers that indicated residents had been engaging in various forms of sin would prompt the levying of a bi-monthly tax against them, the amount depending on what they'd been up to and how often.
In 1999 a bank in Connecticut angered its customers through a prank it ran in the local paper as an announcement of a new fee. According to the ad, those of its patrons wishing to speak with one of its tellers would be charged $5 a visit. Though many got the joke (it was meant as a jab at the financial institutions that actually follow this practice), some didn't, resulting in customers threatening to close all their accounts. The bank ran the ad the next day, that time clearly marked as a joke.
In 1989 two police officers in Utah were suspended without pay for a couple of days for their April Fools' Day prank of placing invisible dye (used by police to catch criminals and normally put on money) in restrooms in the city-county building and the mayor's office. The colorless powder dye turns a dark purple when it comes into contact with skin — it's harmless but takes a while to wear off, as the mayor found out when it turned him into a "marked man."
-- Barbara "the jokers are wild" Mikkelson
Fast-forward to April 1, 2004: Here's another headline from today's Washington Post: "Most Say They Are Less Safe Since 9/11." The paper is reporting on a poll conducted by the Council for Excellence in Government.
The Post's headline is false. The council's poll, conducted by the Hart-Teeter firm, asked, "Do you think that as a country we are more safe, about as safe, or less safe than we were before Sept. 11, 2001?" Results: 47% said "more safe," 34% said "about as safe," and only 18%--32% short of "most"--said "less safe."
Come to think of it, maybe the Post, in the tradition of college newspapers everywhere, decided to publish an April Fool's edition.
-- James Taranto, Best of the Web Today