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Re: April fools

From: thomas mccormick <tom_amity~at~hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 00:56:40 +0000
To: jvf~at~Gilead.org.il

Since I'm the "fish" that was taken in by another (and equally impish) bit
of this year's April Foolery on the JV forum (I refer to the "League for
Truth and Veracity"), I call attention to one of the details Norm's observed
- the only hard and fast rule about April Fool canards is that they may bear
no other date than April 1. Otherwise the perpetrator iwould be cheating.

Just for future reference.

Tom

>From: "Norm Wolcott" <nwolcott2ster~at~gmail.com>
>Reply-To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
>To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
>Subject: Re: April fools
>Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 10:48:33 -0400
>
>One item Garmt-- I later went back to your "newspaper Article" but I could
>find the .mp3 on your website. Did you actually make one? and is the
>Newspaper article part of the game? If so I congratulate you. Unfortunately
>it took a long time to download so many may have missed the fun. (On my W98
>I had to give up before it all came down!). Please repost the mp3 or email
>it to me!!
>
>On 4/4/06, Norm Wolcott <nwolcott2ster~at~gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Cheers! Garmt for taking me in completely. I must admit that I have
> > moderated my attempts at humor since I posted "Missing Pages of 80 Days"
>in
> > April 1998, since that attempt was greeted with the reaction one might
> > expect from attempting to modify the Koran.
> >
> > http://jv.gilead.org.il/forum/1998/04/0026.html
> >
> > Garmt of course immediately spotted the date, 01-April-1998. Of course
> > here the actual text of the missing pages was made available then so one
> > could judge their authenticity directly. But has Garmt even offered us
>the
> > sound bites he promised with the Dutch interrogator? That would have
>been
> > the coup de gras, taking us in with a bogus sound recording. Garmt, my
>only
> > complaint is that you did not complete your "Joke" by letting us follow
>you
> > down the garden path completely, listening to your mumbled Dutch;but
>maybe
> > you could not fake the JV accent correctly. That would have been the
>fitting
> > conclusion to this elegantly crafted spoof.
> >
> >
> > On 4/4/06, Garmt de Vries <G.deVries~at~phys.uu.nl> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > One last comment on the April Fool's joke I played on you, and then
>I'll
> > > let the subject rest.
> > >
> > > I have received many reactions, both through the forum and personally.
> > > Opinions on the propriety of the joke were divided: a majority felt it
> > > was
> > > a good hoax, even if they were taken in big time. I have also received
>a
> > >
> > > fair amount of criticism, basically saying that my trustworthiness was
> > > affected by the joke, and I shouldn't have announced the existence of
> > > the
> > > interview before 1 April (or even that I shouldn't have done it at
>all).
> > >
> > >
> > > This may be a cultural thing. In the Netherlands, it's quite common to
> > > announce some extraordinary event some time before 1 April, always in
> > > terms of "next Saturday" or "tomorrow". When the time is there, it
>turns
> > >
> > > out that "next Saturday" is in fact 1 April, and that the announcement
> > > was
> > > false. For example, some years ago, Dutch people were asked to point
> > > their
> > > cellphones to the east "early Thursday morning", in order to form a
> > > giant
> > > antenna that could detect the faint signal still coming from the
>Huygens
> > > probe on Titan. The announcement was all over the newspapers one or
>two
> > > days before 1 April, and it spread even more thanks to the internet.
> > >
> > > The tradition may be different in America. The fact that none of the
> > > French or Dutch victims of my joke have complained certainly seems to
> > > suggest so.
> > >
> > > Also, there's the fact that due to the time difference, the Americans
> > > may
> > > have read the "punchline" before 1 April as well. That's a pity, but
>it
> > > couldn't be helped. It was either that, or having the punchline come
>too
> > > late for the Dutch victims, and I didn't really have a choice anyway,
>as
> > > I
> > > had no mail access later on Saturday.
> > >
> > > As to my compromised trustworthiness: if people decide to doubt
> > > everything
> > > I say from now on, well, so be it. I guess most will recognize a joke
> > > for
> > > what it is, and either laugh about it or shrug their shoulders, and
>just
> > >
> > > get back to business as usual.
> > >
> > > I'm glad that so many people have had a good laugh, that's what it was
> > > all
> > > about, and if the joke has achieved that goal, I'm happy.
> > >
> > > I'll switch back to serious mode now.
> > >
> > > Yours sincerely,
> > > Garmt.
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Norman Wolcott, nwolcott2 at post.harvard.edu
> >
>
>
>
>--
>Norman Wolcott, nwolcott2 at post.harvard.edu

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Received on Wed 05 Apr 2006 - 03:56:54 IDT

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