Bush Vetoes Changes to FHA Guidelines, April 1 2008
Despite the potential relief for thousands of home owners, President Bush announced yesterday that they will not make changes to the current FHA guidelines. He sited many reasons including an "over correction" of the Housing Market that will create another build and bust of house values. Market analysts believe this late change will destroy consumer optimism and send rates on a roller coaster ride for the next few months.
FED Chairman Ben Bernanke was quoted as saying "April Fools!"
Ha Ha! I am sure that paragraph made a few of your stomachs drop. On a large scale that would make a pretty good prank. Here is a list of my four favorite pranks of all time:
The Left-Handed Whopper
In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."
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.
The Incredible Sidd Finch
In its April 1985 edition, Sports Illustratedpublished 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 Illustratedwas 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.
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."
Here is the Museum of Hoaxes Top 100: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P0/
My Personal Best April Fools Prank
In college, late on March 31st/ early April 1st my roommates and I decided to play a joke on our neighbors. They were 3 girls that also attended the university. We walked around the neighborhood collecting every lawn ornament we could find. We filled the girl's tiny front yard with fake geese, squirrels, flamingos, frogs, turtles, gnomes. We promptly hung signs throughout the neighborhood that read "Free Petting Zoo" and listed the girls address. The girls awoke to find nearly a hundred plastic creatures had taken over their small 15ft X 15ft yard. Neighbors stopped as they drove by to see this magnificent site and take a few pictures. Once we had returned the animals later that afternoon we all shared a good laugh as we explained to many where their lawn ornaments had been.
Please share with me your best April Fools prank.
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