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Graphic by MamaBear

April 1. This is the day upon which we are reminded of
what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.
~Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson, 1894

April fool, n. The March fool with another month added to his folly.
~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee,
And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.
~Robert Frost, "Cluster of Faith," 1962

He who is born a fool is never cured.
~Proverb

Let us be thankful for the fools.
But for them the rest of us could not succeed.
~Mark Twain

If every fool wore a crown, we should all be kings.
~Welsh Proverb

I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it.
~Jack Handey

We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.
~Japanese Proverb

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time,
but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
~Abraham Lincoln

The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.
~Will Rogers

A man always blames the woman who fools him.
In the same way he blames the door he walks into in the dark.
~Henry Louis Mencken

Graphic by MamaBear

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof
is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools
~Douglas Adams

It is the ability to take a joke, not make one,
that proves you have a sense of humor.
~Max Eastman

Don't give cherries to pigs or advice to fools.
~Irish Proverb

A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke
and that the joke is oneself.
~Clifton Paul Fadiman

It is better to weep with wise men than to laugh with fools.
~Spanish Proverb

I have great faith in fools - self-confidence, my friends call it.
~Edgar Allan Poe

The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being,
but to remind him that he is already degraded.
~George Orwell

Suppose the world were only one of God's jokes,
would you work any the less to make it a good joke instead of a bad one?
~George Bernard Shaw

Real friends are those who, when you feel you've made a fool of yourself,
don't feel you've done a permanent job.
~Author Unknown

The Top-5 April Fool's Hoaxes of All Time (no fooling):

#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied that they should “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”

#2: Sidd Finch
In its April 1985 edition, Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch, and he could reportedly throw a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. This was 65 mph faster than the previous record. Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the “art of the pitch” in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the “great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa.” Mets fans celebrated their teams’ amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. But in reality this legendary player only existed in the imagination of the author of the article, George Plimpton.

#3: Instant Color TV
In 1962 there was only one tv channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color reception. All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their tv screen. Stensson proceeded to demonstrate the process. Thousands of people were taken in. Regular color broadcasts only commenced in Sweden on April 1, 1970.

#4: The Taco Liberty Bell
In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced that it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

#5: San Serriffe
In 1977 the British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semi-colon-shaped islands. A series of articles affectionately described the geography and culture of this obscure nation. Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital was Bodoni, and its leader was General Pica. The Guardian's phones rang all day as readers sought more information about the idyllic holiday spot. Few noticed that everything about the island was named after printer's terminology. The success of this hoax is widely credited with launching the enthusiasm for April Foolery that gripped the British tabloids in subsequent decades.

Source: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/

April 1, 2008

In The Driver's Seat

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READ: Matthew 5:13-16

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. —Matthew 5:16

I love the story of the stressed-out woman who was tailgating a man as they drove on a busy boulevard. When he slowed to a stop at a yellow light, the woman hit the horn, cussing and screaming in frustration and gesturing angrily. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a police officer who ordered her to exit the car with her hands up. He took her to the police station and placed her in a holding cell.

An hour later, the officer returned and said, "I'm sorry, Ma'am. This has been a big mistake. When I pulled up behind you, I noticed your 'What Would Jesus Do?' license plate holder and your 'Follow Me to Sunday School' bumper sticker. I assumed the car was stolen!"

Satan doesn't care so much if you're a Christian as long as you don't act like one. If he can get you to live by his signals, he can damage and disarm you every time and dishonor the name of Christ in the process.

Instead, Jesus calls believers to be "salt" and to "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matt. 5:16).

With Jesus in the driver's seat of our lives, we can show off the love and glory of God.

Called to be salt and light in this world,
Called to preserve and to shine,
Called to reflect the glory of God—
Oh, what a calling is mine! —Fitzhugh

Don't let Satan manage the details of your life.

Bible in One Year: Joshua 4–6; Proverbs 1:1-7