Happy International Suggs Day, where we all drink a pint (no, six) in toast to the onstage arrival of Suggs. Or if you need more reasons to drink,
Happy Maundy, or Holy Thursday, or that day when that Jesus guy from the New Testic- ehh, Testament posed with his groupies.. I mean, disciples, for a painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
Happy Civil Servant's Day if you're in Argentina or Thailand. Yay, public employees. Moving on...
Happy National Greek Cypriot's Day. That means we hold our noses at you, Turkish Cypri-nots. Until 2 April when it's presumably National Turkish Cypriot's Day, when we marvel at belly dancers and Turkish coffee and, well, mostly just marvel at the belly dancers.
In San Marino they're celebrating the Investiture of the New Captains Regent, when two politicians are announced every six months as new heads of state, much like in Roman times when Consuls were elected. Whatever customs make them feel like a real state, good for them.
In Mexico, they're hosting the annual Corona Golf Championship. Corona! I told you there was some reason to drink. Incidentally, Tiger may get plastered and send an SMS to your grandmother that he owns that ass and wants to smack it till it's raw. Guard your grandmothers.
In California, they're hosting a Kraft Nabisco Golf Championship. Cheese whiz and Ritz crackers? What kinda fucking party is this? We're going to Mexico everybody!
...Maybe not. Helsinki starts a two day Beer Festival today. To Finland! Mmmmm, Finnish beer. I do detect a slight taste of herring in my reindeer drop brew.
In Iraq they're observing Daylight Savings Time today. Hooray for daylight!
In Iran, it's the first day of Sizdah Be-dar, or the Day of Nature, or a day of Joy and Solidarity, or.. whatever, it's a happy holiday. Families spend the day at the park and throw sprouts and grass into a river and release goldfish into ponds, and single women tie blades of grass together and look for a man. So if the crazy lady with blades of grass knotted together is kinda digging you Masoum, go get her!
And of course, everywhere in the Western world, we're celebrating April Fool's Day. Supposively the origins of Spring pranks goes back to the Middle Ages, if not earlier, but in 1564 France changed the official New Year from 1 April to our more modern 1 January. The pope, ever late in modernizing stuff, followed suit nearly twenty years later. In France those who continued to celebrate the New Year on 1 April were mocked, or fish were thrown on their backs as they still considered Pisces (the zodiac fish) the last "month" of the year.
Better April Fools' pranks would include:
In 2003 Chinese and South Korean websites began reporting that Bill Gates was assassinated. It was hilllaaaaaarious. Unless you were investing in the South Korean stock market, which plummeted upon hearing the "news".
NASA's website claimed to have found water on Mars in an elaborate article. If you clicked on the photo link, it was just a glass of water on top of a Mars candy bar. Physicists aren't so renown for their comedic genius.
After bailing out the US auto industry with federal aid, Car and Driver magazine wrote an article that President Barack Obama ordered Dodge and Chevrolet to pull their cars from future NASCAR races. After NASCAR fans and Conservative pundits protested (Don't take away their guns or NASCAR), the site issued an apology that it was just a joke.
In 2004, the British breakfast show GMTV reported that Yorkshire Water was trialing a new diet tap water and it had already helped one customer lose 30 lbs in the prior 4 months. Over 10,000 inquiries were made - lots of Brits wanted this new magical, calorie-free water.
In 1976 an astronomer on BBC2 announced that because of the alignment of Jupiter and Pluto, an upward gravitational effect was taking place. If listeners jumped into the air at exactly 9:47, they would feel lighter and be able to jump considerably higher. Dozens of callers phoned in excitedly to say that it worked.
In 1965, the BBC reported that it was conducting trials of a new Smell-o-Vision technology, and that if viewers got reeeeaaaaally close and smelled their television sets, they would be able to actually smell the food items on program. Many viewers phoned in to confirm the trial's success.
In 1957, the BBC series Panorama issued a special that showed doctored pictures of Italians harvesting spaghetti from trees, the result of the eradication of the infamous Spaghetti weevil. A large number of Brits phoned in and wanted to know how they could cultivate their own spaghetti trees.
In 1998, Burger King ran ads that it was introducing a new left-handed Whopper, with condiment packets designed to pour for left-handed people. Lots of customers ordered the new product, many others requested that they have the original right-handed version of their beloved hamburger.
....
as if you need any more reason to celebrate, 1 April is also Edible Book Day (yum!), Otto von Bismarck's birthday (Are we suppose to sink him?), Lon Chaney's birthday (THE classic Phantom of the Opera), and the always lovely (well, in the eyes of the beholder, if that beholder is blind) Susan Boyle from "Britain's Got Ugly" sorry, that wasn't nice, "Britain's Got Talent".
It's also the date when the Netherlands became the first country to allow Same-Sex Marriage (2001) and legalized Euthanasia (2002), when Nunavut became a new Canadian province, when Iran overthrew the Shaw and became the Islamic Republic of Iran, when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple Computers, and when the Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland. Not to be outdone, it's also the date when Hitler was sentenced to jail in 1924 and when Franco announced victory ending the Spanish Civil War. Singapore became British and the internal combustion engine was invented.
And Suggs was born. Bearing no resemblance to Susan Boyle. We hope
Merry Effing Birthday Mate!
Quote