Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Did you ever...?

In honor of the start of National Poetry Month, and April Fool's Day, I give you Ogden Nash:

Reflection on Ingenuity

Here's a good rule of thumb;
Too clever is dumb.

Did you ever pull an April Fool's joke that backfired on you? (I'm thinking of all those people who dare to do pranks at work!)

What was the best prank you ever pulled or had pulled on you? (See below.)

Were you ever fooled into thinking that aliens had landed at your local airport? (I was, as a kid. By my dad. He made a recording that "broke into" the local radio station and announced it. All four of us kids begged to get in the car and be driven to the airport right that second.)

Happy April Fool's Day, and be clever (like my dad) but not TOO clever.

5 comments:

  1. Whenever I try to be clever, I'm not. In fact, the other person ends up looking oh-so-much-more clever than me. I even wrote a poem about it once. Though Mr. Nash's is so much more clever, and succinct, than mine:

    Clever is as clever does
    though sometimes clever oughtn’t.
    Whenever clever tries too hard
    She comes off less than prudent.

    She shows her face without much grace.
    She’s preened and mussed and fussed.
    Wherever clever’s overworked,
    We find she isn’t clever. Just.

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  2. Sara,

    One of our elementary students' favorite tricks--before the advent of white boards--was sticking pieces of chalk in the blackboard erasers.

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  3. I'm too artless to pull off a wicked good practical joke, but I have a deep appreciation for those mischievous folks who do.

    Your dad really did that? So funny.

    How great is that Nash poem? Was it Dorothy Parker who said "brevity is the lingerie of the soul"? (and that's probably not an exact quote). Nash nailed it there.

    jules (who -- random comment -- promises she hasn't forgotten that you loaned her a book and will return it very soon!)

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  4. Oh my gosh. Freshman year in college, my roommate and good friend convinced me to do an elaborate April Fools to my then boyfriend. She called him and said I was hit by a bus and needed to go to the hospital and could he (the only one of the 3 of us) with a car drive me there. He was very worried and upset and when he got to our room and found us laughing, he was SO MAD!!!!!! Really mad! He could hardly speak. The relationship was never the same and didn't last much longer. :(

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  5. Oh, man, your dad is great! :) My sophomore year of college, I helped a friend fill another friend's dorm room with crumpled-up newspaper. The guy in question was away for the weekend, and the idea was to have him open the door and be met with a flood of crumpled paper that had buried all of his furniture and possessions. However, it takes a lot of crumpled-up newspaper to fill a dorm room--I think it only got a couple of feet high before we all gave up. :)

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