Welcome to my blog, or should I say to the ramblings of an old man. I doubt that my ramblings are of much value, but at least I have an opportunity to share them.  So, please be kind and humor me. If nothing else of value stands out in these thoughts, I hope that you at least sense the value I place on a daily walk with the Lord.  That walk is what has provided me with motivation and a sense of purpose throughout my lifetime.  My prayer is that you, too, are experiencing this direction and joy in daily living which is available to everyone who puts his trust in Christ.  So, thanks again for joining me.  Please don't go without leaving some comments here so I can get to know you better as our paths intersect today in this blog.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

April Fool's Day Jokes

I have always enjoyed trying to trick people on April Fool's Day.  When I taught math, every three or four years I would teach a "fake" lesson on April Fool's Day.  Experienced teachers realize that often their students only half engage their brains and accept whatever the teacher says.  There are also numerous common errors in math that students often make.  So I would take advantage of these things and teach "Looflirpa's Theorem".  Usually I was very successful and the next day I would ask them to spell the name backward.  It was always a challenge to me to pull this off.  Unfortunately, one year I was so successful that I even had a student try to use the false theorem on the final exam.  After retiring I moved to e-mail and the internet and annually have tried such a prank.  My best was an e-mail stating that we were suddenly selling our house and moving to Florida.  Unfortunately, we had some key leaders in church worried about how they'd replace us and we had other friends in tears.  Now tears weren't really my goal.  Another very successful one was about a virus that had been spreading through my e-mails - incidentally it was named the Looflirpa Virus.  I've also shared some new tax laws on church properties and a variety of other ideas over the years.  But each year it becomes harder because people expect it.  This year I used the line about the increased tax on chewing gum, breath mints, toothpaste, etc.  I didn't expect it would be very successful but the last time I checked, 88 folks had gone to my website to check for the "rebate".  Hmmm, I wonder why so many went there - maybe it was successful even though most folks don't want to admit that they were tricked ... again.  The few who responded to me had interesting comments.  My one son said that he refused to open any e-mails he received from me on April 1.  Several told me that they can't believe that I got them again.  One person told me that she had even contacted some of her family members then had to recontact them when she realized what it was.  But as I said, most of the 88+ folks have said nothing to me - maybe they think it was too childish or maybe they just don't want to admit that they got caught ... again.  What about you?  Life's just too short not to have a few good laughs once in awhile.  But, as I said, it gets harder to do this every year.  So maybe this will be the last time I try it ... but then ... maybe ... just be careful if you get an e-mail from me on April 1, 2010.   You never know, it might just be from Looflirpa! 

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