April 1st is here. A day for practical jokes and hoaxes. It seems to have started in 1852 when France converted to the Julian Calendar and is now celebrated everywhere. Given the promoted lies, misdirection, and propaganda broadcast each day, I think April Fools Day has lost some of it’s uniqueness. There are so many special occasions today that I’ll only give you a few of the best ones: National Atheist’s Day, Fossil Fools Day, National Jump in Muddy Puddles Day, National Sourdough Bread Day and St. Stupid Day which is an annual parade in San Francisco on April 1st founded by Ed Holmes of the First Church of the Last Laugh to celebrate that the unifying bond in society is stupidity. That’s my pick of this list. Now to the history of April 1st. In 1778 New Orleans businessman Oliver Pollock created the “$” symbol. On this day in 1853 Cincinnati became the 1st city to employ full time professional firefighters. In 1866 on April 1st, the US Congress overrode the presidential veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which gave equal rights to African Americans. Finally, on this day in 1970 US President Richard Nixon signed a bill limiting cigarette advertisements. If you recall, up until that point, the Cigarette companies were pretty much the main sponsor of everything. Since today is April Fools Day, I’ve searched for quotes using the term “fools” and here are a few that quotes that are interesting: Voltaire said, “it is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.” Ben Franklin said, “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.” Hemingway said, “An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.” JFK said, “Sometimes the majority just means all the fools are on the same side.” I’ll wrap this up with this quote attributed to Unknown, “Wise men speak because they have something to say, Fools because they have to speak something.” Abide.
