Poisson D'Avril

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Poisson d’Avril

“Let us be thankful for the fools--but for them, the

rest of us could not succeed.”

--Mark Twain.

In 1686, dozens of people were tricked into going

to the Tower of London, to see them “washing the

lions.”  Of course a good snipe hunt can happen

during any month, but when it happens on the

evening of April 1, it is especially effective. On

April 1, 1935, 20,000 people attended Bonnie 

Parker’s funeral only to find a Mae West mannequin 

in the casket. In Scotland, on April first, called

Huntigowk Day, a person is given a sealed 

message to pass on to another. The message

reads “Dinna laugh, dinna smile--just hunt the

gowk another mile .”

George Burns, on April 1, after his 100th

birthday, posted in Variety, “Actually, I died three

years ago. Haven’t you noticed I’m always sitting

on Edgar Bergen’s lap?”  Mickey Rooney married

all of his eight wives on April first, and he divorced

them on Thanksgiving. In 1957, on April 1, the

Swedish National Television broadcasted a five

minute special reporting that if one holds up a

woman’s stocking over the screen of a B/W TV,

it would broadcast in color. on April 1, 2008, the

BBC did a story on a rare breed of flying penguins

discovered in Antarctica.

Noah sent the dove from

the ark before the water

ebbed, on April first. 

Glenn Buttkus

Haibun

dVerse Poets Pub