The 1st of Smarch

What? You never heard of Smarch? :)

Today is of course (unless you have one of those rare misprinted calendars) April Fool's Day. And that means elaborate pranks and fake announcements and news stories. Such as the one you see when you log into GMail today. It also means some really bad ideas for gags, some really tepid ones (the "Smallville is relaunching with a new title" one at Superman Homepage was funnier last year), and a few inspired ones.

So as a public service, I hereby offer a handy-dandy Wikipedia page. Scroll to the bottom for a link to a list of April Fool's Day 2008 gags already unleashed on the world.

Now, if you will excuse me, I must be going. And I better take an umbrella. Lousy Smarch weather.

ETA: I would be remiss if I didn't invoke my all time favorite gag, George Plimpton's profile of the legendary New York Met propsect, Sidd Finch. Sidd, we hardly knew ye.

One Website, Two News Stories

Offered without comment...

Spotted this afternoon on the NY Times web site:

- Few Lives Saved by Home Heart-Starting Devices

- Home Defibrillators Save Lives in Study

The former is the headline for a story written by a Times medical reporter. The latter is for a story written by an AP reporter. Both report on the same exact study. Both state that few lives are saved by defibrillators and that other methods are possibly more cost effective. Interesting how each reporter drew a different conclusion from that fact.

And interesting that the Times links to the AP feed even when its own reporter covered the story and took an opposite view.