Sunday, March 30, 2003 - The countdown for Top Ten
April Fool’s Day Pranks ended today.
Not on April Fool’s Day. Not on April
Fool’s Day Eve. But on the Eve of
April Fool’s Day Eve. As Dwight D.
Eisenhower remarked “I have always
found that plans are useless, but planning
is indispensable.” After reporting
a bug and receiving my technical reply,
that person wrote back to conclude “It’s
probably not the browser that needs the
upgrade, but the browser who uses the browser.”
Oscar Wilde adds “Experience is the
name everyone gives for their mistakes.”
I call them “features” not “bugs.”
The pixels, Watson! Quick! Fetch me the
magnifying glass!
Monday, March 31, 2003 - This just in from the “Yeah,
sure, that’s what he says, but...”
Department: Mysterious Strangers, forewarned
is forearmed. Nothing in tonight’s
Treasure Hunt will assist you in your $100,000
Challenge. Conversely, nothing in the book
Mysterious Stranger will help you in tonight’s
$10 Treasure Hunt. “Dreamcatcher”
distills the most Stephen King out of any
Stephen King cast of neurotic characters
yet. This is neither a thumb’s up
or down. Preceding the feature presentation
was something called “AniMatrix”
boasting state-of-the-art polygon people
and I fretted momentarily that the sequels
might look like this, too.
Tuesday, April 1, 2003
- Bill Cosby said “A word to
the wise ain’t necessary. It’s
the stupid ones that need the advice.”
In April 2002, 10 unique visitors visited
my website. Regardless, I’ve decided
to conclude (lie) that today my website
is one year old, and hence, The
First Annual April Fool’s Day Treasure
Hunt Errand. I vote that April Fool’s
Day be elevated to the status of Halloween,
providing us with two days a year to don
costumes and make mischief. I’ll gladly
offer The Fool as the official host of this
upgraded holiday with the clear understanding
that I’m fully expecting Santa Claus
level celebrity here. Blaine’s
$100,000 Hoax Revealed!
Wednesday, April
2, 2003 - “The East Dorm
Puzzle Solving Team of Harvey Mudd College,”
a team of ten, solved TFAAFDTHE in 2 hours,
13 minutes, and Steven Bellotti, alone,
solved it in 2 hours, 40 minutes. In the
24 hour period of April 1st, 1,762 unique
vistors eyed The
First Annual April Fool’s Day Treasure
Hunt Errand. 407 people tackled the
close-up clues. 144 people viewed all
seven print pages. 19 people sent in the
correct answer. And 7 people successfully
solved the map and successfully placed
all the correct words in the correct places
but were stumped by .”.. heed
only those that might steal..”
They just wrote to say “I hate you.”
Thursday, April 3,
2003 - Toe-Knee pulled the #1 Poisson
d’Avril prank on me. He wrote in to
say they were doing shots while solving
my April Fool’s Errand and had unknowingly
set the kitchen stove on fire — and
if they hadn’t printed the map and
had to fetch the scissors in the kitchen,
they might never have noticed the fire and
they all would have burned. Tied for #2
was Care-on who suggested, um, something
suggestive. Gulp. The Nineteen Solvers of
The
First Annual April Fool’s Day Treasure
Hunt Errand shall be posted on Friday
as well as The Solution by Steven Bellotti
AKA Lord Craxton and The Hunt for Red Herring
by CJ DeSilvey.
Friday, April 4, 2003 - Huh? What website?
Saturday, April
5, 2003 - The last 3 days I’ve
spent more hours sleeping than being awake
and I’m still groggy... and fluffy...
(TFAAFDTHE inside humor.) In case you
haven’t heard. The
First Annual April Fool’s Day Treasure
Hunt Errand has come and gone, but
you can still play it for the sheer “ah-ha!”
of it. Those who solved it within the
24 hours of April 1st form the Winner’s
Circle of Nineteen. Other links of
note are The
Solution by Lord Craxton, The
Hunt for Red Herring by CJ DeSilvey,
and The
Completed Map by Ori “salty-horse”
Avtalion. (Huckleberry Finn would be proud.
Or is it Tom Sawyer? Too exhausted to
goo-goo-google a Cliff Note.)
