Join us on April Fool Day Special – 4/1 – 4-9:00 PM
Our April Fool’s Day Cocktails – $80 (really?)
The Feminine Douche – Frost Brandy, Dr. Pepper, with Dove body spray rinse
Dumpster Diving – Warm brandy martini served over wilted lettuce
I Can’t Taste the Brandy in my Cosmo – Cranberry juice & fresh squeezed lime
The Polite Southerner – No longer available
Oscar the Grouch – Brandy, dirty olives, served in empty beer can
According to History.com some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. In the Julian calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the New Year began with the spring equinox around April 1. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 & continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes & hoaxes & were called “April fools.” These pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs & being referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April fish), symbolizing a young, easily caught fish & a gullible person.
The Tower of London hosts a lion washing extravaganza – In the days leading up to April 1, 1856, residents received an official-looking invitation printed on Tower of London stationery & bearing a crimson wax seal. The leaflet offered admission to “view the annual ceremony of washing the lions.” Incredibly a large number of would-be spectators showed up for the hoax.
Swiss Farmers spaghetti crop – In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop & showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees.
1976: Gravity takes a hiatus- As noted, the BBC (known for its many April Fools’ pranks) asked Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore to tell listeners that at 9:47 a.m. the temporary alignment of Pluto & Jupiter would cause a reduction in Earth’s gravity, allowing people to briefly levitate. 2Sure enough at 9:48, 100’s of enthralled callers flooded the lines with reports that they had floated in the air.
Sports Illustrated report of 168 mph fastball – In 1985, writer George Plimpton tricked many readers with his made-up article about a rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 mph.
1998: Lefties get their own burger –In a full-page advertisement in USA Today, Burger King unveiled a new menu item designed for southpaws: the Left-Handed Whopper. The burger’s condiments were rotated 180 deg.to better suit their 1.4 million leftie’ patrons. Swallowing the whopper joke, thousands of customers requested the new burger.
2000: People Google with their minds– Famous for its annual hoaxes, Google began its “jokes” in 2000. Visitors to the website learned about a new “MentalPlex” technology that supposedly read people’s minds, thereby bypassing the need to type in a query. Google has orchestrated an increasing number of elaborate ruses in the years since, announcing such products & features as Google Nose, Gmail Motion, play Pac Man on Google maps, and PigeonRank.
But for the average trickster, you can always try the classic prank of covering the toilet with plastic wrap or switching out sugar & salt.