April Fish

I'm pretty much against April Fools Day. The pranks usually aren't funny, and we see them coming, so most of them aren't funny even if they would have been funny if we hadn't seen them coming. Plus, since April 1st tends to fall on days when I've got to be doing something which doesn't lend itself to pranks, I don't prank people, and if people prank me, I wind up mad because it wasn't appropriate.

Mr. James from News Radio (a terrific show, by the way, and one which I heartily recommend) believed that April Fools pranks should be played on other days, so people wouldn't see them coming. I must confess I'm an adherent of that logic. But I don't believe in pranks which don't serve some end. Simply vandalizing things, for instance, isn't a prank, it's just dumb. And that seems to be what most pranks come down to these days.

As I am religiously obligated to note, there is a proud history of the jake being used to freak out the norms, and I heartily endorse this product and/or service. But there's a difference between freaking out the legions of Thud and being pointlessly destructive or annoying. To every thing there is a season, I suppose, and I guess the season for such thing is April Fools Day and Halloween.

I didn't notice any April Fooling going on this April 1st, but as I said I wasn't in the right place at the right time. Come some boring day in September, however, I might spring something on someone, when they least suspect it.

Happy Anti-Jake Day!