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THe following is apparently, an albeit poor, explanation or disclaimer of a recent April fools joke played by a car club:

http://www.saac.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=258&Itemid=2

It is the kind of foolish and childish hoaxes that give the general classic car collector a bad image. Note the last sentence of the explanation. Why is there always someone "too important" or "too busy" to be bothered with any association to an issue that just so happens to become a major issue????

The sad part is, after Senator Chuck Schumer's office got swarmed with outrage over this phony story, he probably thought such a tax would be a great idea.

This April Fools joke might have planted a pretty bad seed.

Yes Don. The same conjecture has been made at another discussion group i belong to.

What is really sad, is that over the years i have found that many so-called clubs are always full of some derelects usualy at the TOP attempting to pull off such stunts. They are usualy nothing more than promoters. Need to be selling shoe strings out on the street corner instead making decisions. It's really unfortunate.

On Monday last week the secretaries conversed about a Romanian gang of thieves, allegedly armed car burglars under command of a blonde gypsy woman. Ok, a blonde gypsy woman, I figured let them gossip, tomorrow they will talk about an abominable snowman with green nose.
But on Wednesday the gang of gypsies again were on top of all topics. They meanwhile had mutated to a sanguinary group of escaped galley slaves which paint the town red and the long-legged blonde acted as lure. I thought, next day one will add three saber-tooth tigers and Friday could be a suitable firedrake-day.
On Friday I received a call from the security service: "Sir, do you expect visitors? A blonde woman is waiting next to your car." I jestingly replied "A long-legged gypsy woman?" and to my utter astonishment the answer was "I couldn't have said it any better." I ran like lightning, leaping several stairs at a time to find the below shown message on the trailer hitch.


BTW I was number 3 of 5 cheated.

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Friends

Gee whiz, reading comprehension is going down or something. I got the email too. The article next to it was about polka dancing improving you lower digestive system or something, and the following pages were about old Mustangs getting 50 mpg.

There was a fake NYT masthead, but it doesn't look anything like the NYT


Either my mind is warped enough to anticipate the thinking of this stuff , or I'm getting old , crotchety, cynical and suspicious.

Probably both

Regards


John Harley

I also received a link, without comment, to that piece on April 1. Due to the passing of a long-time friend earlier in the week, I wasn't even thinking about April Fool's Day. Yet, as I reached the end of the Shumer story, something in the adjacent column caught my eye. A study correlating cancer rates with polka dancing with challenges of racial biaswas a pretty good tip-off.

Thinking a little tit-for-tat was in order, I responded to the sender, later that evening, with thanks for the heads-up and to let him know that I would be doing my civic duty to help get this once-proud country out of the ditch by sending my last club directory to Shumer's NYC office - first thing next AM. (Of course, I made no such mailing.)

Now, I can see why some people might not have realized this "news" was a joke. First, I think many people have probably never seen a genuine NY Times masthead, especially since newspapers have become rather passe in the digital age, and this one was dated March 28. More importantly, however, the Shumer piece was written so convincingly that many people were probably too pissed off to read any further, but simply sprang into action.

Regardless, I agree that this joke has likely planted a bad seed in the all-too-fertile mind of some elected official.

Hasn't SAAC done and distributed an April Fools joke every year for some time now?

The problem here is not whether one is duped into believing a hoax or quickly recgnizes it as a hoax and passes it off as 'entertainment' or humor. The problem is simply a case of an organization promoting or creating foolish nonsnese. Even in this forum as well as other forums there are posts by certain individuals that hold any straying from a topic in disdain.

But straying from a topic by promoting complete nonsnese (without some forwarned claim of fiction) is almost as bad as "crying fire in a crowded theatre".

The author and those responsible should be relieved of duty immediately for dereliction of duty. Or, the best way to handle the situation is to cancel/not renew membership.

I think some folks take themselves and their lack of humor way too seriously. I've seen April fools stories, emails and bits in various newsletters for years. Most folks catch on right away. Some of these are so elaborate that it may take some thinking to realize the subject is just too outrageous to be real. In any case, lighten up and get a chuckle out of someone's little joke. Go look in the mirror and get a real laugh.

Almost 30 years ago, a local entrepreneur concocted an April Fools Story about towing an iceberg from the Antarctic to Sydney Harbour as a source of fresh water.

And this year there appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney's broadsheet newspaper, a job advertisement for a Donut Hole Punch Supervisor supposedly by Krispy Kreme Donuts with a salary of $110K. Thought it was right up my alley until I realised what day it was!