I love April Fools' Day. I'm not one to play jokes myself (mainly because I can't keep a straight face!) but there's something about a well-played prank that just appeals to me. Some of my favorite April Fools' stories:
* Possibly the best-known April Fools' joke of all was a 1957 BBC report about the spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. (You can view the original clip at the BBC website.) At the time, pasta was far from being an everyday food in Britain, and this unfamiliarity with spaghetti, coupled with the report being shown on a serious news program, led to the BBC receiving hundreds of calls from confused viewers. (The BBC loves April Fools' Day.)
* In 1996, Taco Bell announced that it was buying the Liberty Bell and renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.
* Google has a tradition of announcing a new product or service each April 1. However, some of these annoucements -- like Gmail -- have been real. (Also real? The news on April 1, 2007 that a ball python was loose in Google's New York offices.)
* National Public Radio always has a joke news story on April 1. My personal favorite was from 2005, when Robert Siegel of All Things Considered interviewed Vermont maple syrup makers about the dangers of untapped maple trees.
