spence / March 29, 2007 10:27 AM

All Things Considered reported on a story about the dangers of being near maple trees in Vermont. They were reporting that hikers and lumberjacks were sustaining serious injuries from maple tree explosions. They reported that if the trees were not tapped to release pressure from the maple sap, they would essentially explode. When I heard the story, I knew it was an April Fools joke, but apparently many did not. Many wrote into ATC to complain of the dupe. One guy wrote in saying he would never trust NPR again. It was hilarious. I hope they run the story again.

skafiend / March 29, 2007 11:14 AM

At a place I used to work, I gave a co-worker a phone message from a Mr. Bayer and told her it was urgent.

The phone number was to the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Childish, stupid, juvenile and sort of funny.

they told her Mr. Bayer was in his cage at the moment...

spence / March 29, 2007 11:51 AM

When did gapersblock decide to start censoring posts?

skafiend / March 29, 2007 11:53 AM

When did gapersblock decide to start censoring posts?

It's an April Fools joke...

seriously, what did they censor?

spencer / March 29, 2007 11:59 AM

It's an April Fools joke...

Someone should let them know April 1 is two days away.

I posted an April Fools joke that was on NPR and it went through a "must be approved by adminstrator before posting" etc. And then it never posted.

Andrew / March 29, 2007 12:05 PM

Spence, we didn't censor anything: your post tripped our spam filters for some reason (I have no idea why), so it ended up in the junk pile. I just published it.

p / March 29, 2007 12:16 PM

at my dad's work they were renovating all the bathrooms in the facility and had boxes of new toilets all through the hallways. he made a comment to get them installed quickly or find a better place to store them. so they found a place in his office, by taking them all out of the boxes and replacing his chair with a toilet then filling up all remaining space surrounding his desk with a sea of gleaming white porcelain facing him. funny fotos of him and his coworkers sitting on the things drinking coffee and carrying on during a photo-op meeting.

Sabrosa / March 29, 2007 12:54 PM

We stole my bosses car keys while he was on his lunch break and moved his car in the parking garage to another floor, so he thought someone stole it...it was hilarious!

Same company...all cubicles...I took the balls out of all the computer mouses of the coworkers in my cube row....people were sooo confused!

Shaz / March 29, 2007 1:10 PM

A couple coworkers and I foiled someone's office. We foiled everything from the walls, to every book on the shelves, to the phone, to the chair, even the coins in he had in a mug.

He had a great sense of humor about it. Took a picture in his office and sent it to everyone. :)

It's two years later, and people have an idea who did it, but don't know for sure.

:::sigh::: Good times, good times.

skafiend / March 29, 2007 1:24 PM

A couple coworkers and I foiled someone's office. We foiled everything

Oh, FOILED... as in aluminum foiled.

I thought you did something else all over his office....

Ramsin / March 29, 2007 2:07 PM

A few of my coworkers once filled (and I mean filled) the bosses car with shredded paper. He tried to have a sense of humor about it, but you could tell he was kinda pissed. You can never really get all of that paper out.

Hal / March 29, 2007 2:24 PM

It was late for April Fool's, but the best prank I ever pulled... At my old job, the company did a lot of training for a system that required registration WAY in advance, but was totally inflexible on changes. So, we often had to send someone using a previously registered person's name, so we didn't lose the money if something came up for the registree. One time, I went as "John Smith."

On the last day of training, I got inspired, called my office and got the Director of Finance to tell John (the real one) that she had just gotten a call from the Systems people. She said they told her that "John Smith" had sexually harassed the instructor. While they weren't going to file charges, John Smith was banned from ever taking training from them again.

Oh, yeah, and I'm gay and everyone knew it, so the harassed instructor was presumed to be a guy. John was straight with the classic issues of not wanting to be thought gay.

The Director executed her part perfectly - even got John's boss to play along. We all left John twisting in the wind for an hour until I got into the office. I shamefully apologized to him for hitting on the instructor and listened to him rant and fume until I finally showed my cards. It was the best freak-out ever. I ended up buying him lunch.

Thurston / March 29, 2007 3:31 PM

Back when you could still meet arriving passengers at the gate at O'Hare, I greeted a visiting home boy of mine as he got off the plane wearing a terrible dress, with my beard, and a bunch of baloons that said "it's a boy". He did not know quite what to think, and nor did the other passengers. I found it immensely amusing however.

Sara / March 29, 2007 3:52 PM

A coworker put a particularly nasty, live spider in a ziploc bag on my chair. I totally freaked out.

When I came back from lunch, the bag was on my seat again. It was open and empty.

So much worse.

j / March 29, 2007 3:58 PM

I too have suffered at the hands fo All Things Considered.

Several years ago while in college ATC ran a story about Pepsi utilizing new satalite technology to project their corperate logo on the face of the full moon for one night. The announced that on the East Coast folk would be able to see the logo at around 11pm.

Come 11pm along with about 20 of my fellow neighbors I trotted out to take a gander at the heavens. It was only as we all scratched our collective heads that we came to the realization that indeed we had been had.

My best pranks include wrapping a friend's vehicle in 2000ft of saran wrap where it sat in the parking lot for nearly a month. Orchestrating the "theft" of my other friend's car borrowed from his mother (and nearly orchestrating his heartattack!) , and tricking a foreign friend into believing that his student visa had expired and that he was being called up for deportation.

I'll surely pay for all this in another life.

Maggie / March 29, 2007 4:28 PM

Many years ago, I worked in the Rotary Building in Evanston. One year on April Fool's, the ground floor tenants did a great joke on an employee.

There were several cubicles that faced out to the street on the ground level through plate glass, and someone put a big sign on a guy's desk so that people walking by could see it, but the employee could not.

The sign said "SMILE AND WAVE AT THIS GUY LIKE YOU KNOW HIM."

Everyone that walked past his office on the way into the building waved at him.

By lunchtime, the sign was gone.

mike-ts / March 29, 2007 8:18 PM

In the mid 90's, WXRT had an ad campaign for the new, subscription only WXRT station to air in April. It was to be an enhanced, commercial free station supported by monthly paid subscriptions.

Ha ha, what a concept. Subscription radio; radio that we're used to being free to listen to will one day be fee based, with the good programming taken off the free waves in favor of the enhanced channel. What a ludicrous concept. Who'd be fooled by something so stupid?

PMan / March 29, 2007 8:22 PM

A coworker and I put a message in our boss's message box for her to call 'Mr. Young'. The number belonged to a Chinese resturaunt -- the results were hilarious.

spook / March 30, 2007 11:34 AM

“I gave a co-worker a phone message from a Mr. Bayer and told her it was urgent.

The phone number was to the Lincoln Park Zoo.

they told her Mr. Bayer was in his cage at the moment..."

So why am I still laughing at this?

Is it partially because its Friday and yesterday I managed to put down that one drink( left it on the bar counter) too many that would have pushed me into dreaded( at work )hang over zone? But instead I am rearing to go again this evening! Or is it that I know the Hoyas are going to prevail on Saturday? Or is it that I'm just find the that "childish, stupid, juvenile" humor funny? What ever the case, I'm still laughing....Mr. Bayer, cannot be disturbed because he is in his cage at the moment! Fu**king hilarious, son! Word!

skafiend / March 30, 2007 11:47 AM

,i>What ever the case, I'm still laughing....Mr. Bayer, cannot be disturbed because he is in his cage at the moment! Fu**king hilarious, son! Word!

Yeah, I figured Mr. Fox or Mr. Wolf was too obvious, but the slightly different spelling on Bayer worked perfectly.

It took her a good 20 minutes after the phone call to figure out what was going on. My stupid snickering while she was dialing, nor the date on the calendar page didn't raise one red flag with her.

jim / March 30, 2007 12:41 PM

When I lived in Atlanta, the college radio station(WRAS) switched it's format from the standard indie rock college stuff to a fantastic day of "Booty-Shake-88: All Booty, All the Time"

It was fanatstic. Every year I lived there they did an April Fool's format change, but Booty Shake 88 was by far the best.

David / March 30, 2007 1:06 PM

When I was eight, I made my dad a sponge cake for April Fools. Out of real sponges. Burn!!

I also replaced his glass of milk at dinner with a glass filled with cotton balls and water.

Did I mention I was a comic genius at eight?

skafiend / March 30, 2007 3:18 PM

Did I mention I was a comic genius at eight?

yeah, you were a regular Henny Young Man...

ba-DUM-bum

mare / March 31, 2007 2:21 PM

I used to live in the Bay Area. KFOG is SF's equivalent to WXRT (and just about as repetitive).

About 8-10 years ago, one day, there were no announcers, just a station ID in a flamboyant voice that said, "K-GAY! All gay, all day!" For 24 hours it was disco/dance music, and it was fun! It didn't hit me til later in the day that this was April 1, and the whole day of music (+ call letters) was a joke.

What was amazing was that tons of people were pissed off, calling KFOG and complaing that an all-gay station was on the air. Despite its reputation, SF is so conservative.

madachode / April 1, 2007 10:15 AM

Began to pass out flyers on N Halsted advising everyone that there will be a sodomy law

michael / April 1, 2007 4:54 PM

Switched the N key with the M key on my co-workers keyboard. I work in a place where mutliple people use the same computer, so it completely stumped multiple co-workers.

Some customers of mine did the FOIL thing to one of their buddies, but with nudey magazines. The best part was that the "victim" was delivered to his house by an unsuspecting new crush, and her young daughter.

Eamon / April 1, 2007 10:29 PM

NEWS FLASH: Police in Davis, California have confirmed that there are three feet in a yard.