A Look At April Fool's Day

When we were kids, we LOVED April 1st. Spent days or weeks coming up with the one prank that would shock, stun, piss off,  or have a reaction of total hilarity.  Sometimes they were not funny.  The guy who jumped off a bridge to scare his girlfriend and realized he miscalculated the length of his bungie cord.  Oops.  It goes back to the old saying of what a Redneck (excuse me, NASCAR American) says before he dies is....."Hey, Hold my beer and watch this"...

Anyway, straight from Wikipedia is a paragraph or two on the origins of April Fools Day...just in case you were wondering. 

The custom of setting aside a day for the playing of harmless pranks upon one's neighbor is recognized everywhere.^{[1][dubious – discuss]} Some precursors of April Fools' Day include the Roman festival of Hilaria.

Bertha R. McDonald, in Harper's Weekly explicated an origin of April Fools' Day, stating that some "authorities gravely back with it to the time of Noah and the ark, and the London Public Advertiser of March 13, 1769, prints the following paragraph concerning this theory: 'The mistake of Noah sending the dove out of the ark before the water had abated, on the first day of April, and to perpetuate the memory of this deliverance it was thought proper, whoever forgot so remarkable a circumstance, to punish them by sending them upon some sleeveless errand similar to that ineffectual message upon which the bird was sent by the patriarch'."^[2]

In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392), the "Nun's Priest's Tale" is set Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two.^[3] Modern scholars believe that there is a copying error in the extant manuscripts and that Chaucer actually wrote, Syn March was gon.^[4] Thus the passage originally meant 32 days after March, i.e. 2 May,^[5] the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, which took place in 1381. Readers apparently misunderstood this line to mean "32 March", i.e. April 1.^{[citation needed][6]} In Chaucer's tale, the vain cock Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox.

In 1508, French poet Eloy d'Amerval referred to a poisson d’avril (April fool, literally "Fish of April"), a possible reference to the holiday.^[7] In 1539, Flemish poet Eduard de Dene wrote of a nobleman who sent his servants on foolish errands on April 1.^[5] In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the holiday as "Fooles holy day", the first British reference.^[5] On April 1, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to "see the Lions washed".^[5]

In the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on March 25 in most European towns.^[8] In some areas of France, New Year's was a week-long holiday ending on April 1.^[9][10] Some writers suggest that April Fools' originated because those who celebrated on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates.^[9] The use of January 1 as New Year's Day was common in France by the mid-16th century,^[5] and this date was adopted officially in 1564 by the Edict of Roussillon.

In the Netherlands, the origin of April Fools' Day is often attributed to the Dutch victory at Brielle in 1572, where the Spanish Duke Álvarez de Toledo was defeated. "Op 1 april verloor Alva zijn bril." is a Dutch proverb, which can be translated to: "On the first of April, Alva lost his glasses." In this case, the glasses ("bril" in Dutch) serve as a metaphor for Brielle. This theory, however, provides no explanation for the international celebration of April Fools' Day

AND THESE OF COURSE  (copy and paste)

http://tiphero.com/top-10-worst-april-fools-day-fails-of-all-time/

HAVE A GREAT DAY

Happy New year 4.543 billion years

Welcome The New Year!! 4.543 Billion +/- half a million.  

We say it's 2017.  It's nice to have a calender to track our 24 hour periods and 7 day weeks and 52 week cycles.  Mother Earth, though, works on a different time cycle.  The planet does not give a stuff about what year WE say it is. Only about how old she is, and she is old. She breathes, she groans, she inhales and exhales.  

If she were only 2017 years old, she would still be an infant. Forming and volcanic and a place where this viral thing called man could have never survived. If you ask mother Earth, she will tell you she, at 4.5 Billion years old is but a not quite middle aged lady. 

She has had many face lifts, both natural over billions of years, and some man made thanks to large earth moving equipment.  She has been abused through cosmic bashing and atomic testing.  She has been warm and cold, flooded and parched... but she maintains her dignity and her beauty in the cosmos.  Not bad for a gal who is over 4.5 Billion years old. 

So HAPPY 2017 to us, and happy 4.543 Billion to Mother Earth! 

Have a great day

The Entertainer and the Evil Agent: A tale of Warning for Las Vegas Entertainers

Once upon a time, there was an entertainer who was represented by an agent.  The agent would get the entertainer gigs, which the entertainer would do without hesitation or complaint. The entertainer even went as far as to drop what he was doing to rush to a gig because the person originally booked to do the gig crapped out.  In short, the entertainer was always there for the agent no matter how simple the gig. 

The agent, though, had a history of slow payment, which made the entertainer very frustrated indeed, but, eventually, after a slew of excuses, the agent finally paid, and everyone went upon their happy way. 

One day, in the 3rd month of the year, the agent called the entertainer and asked if he and his band of minstrels were available to do an out of town gig in the 9th month of the year.  The entertainer, after being told the amount of compensation for his time and travel, agreed to perform, and contracts were signed. The entertainer asked that the agent to please be sure the funds would be available before he and his band of minstrels travels across the vast distance to the high mountain where the gig was set. 'Oh, yes' replied the agent, assuring him that he would be compensated the day after he got back. To this, there was much rejoicing, and much time spent in preparation for the performance. 

On the day of the gig, the entertainer and his merry men (and wife who sings backup) arrived at the venue. A beautiful venue it was. Set in the mountains with a lovely outdoor stage.

About the time of the soundcheck, the leader of the venue came upon the entertainer and inquired if further requests for the band's services could be handled without the intervention of the agent, because lo and behold, they were without scruples and worse to deal with than a dragon on a bad day. This then became a red flag to the entertainer who told the leader of the venue that it would have to be discussed at another time, as there were stipulations in contracts that forbid such actions.  This was known as clause 10. 

The performance was stellar, and all had a great time, with the whole crowd staying for all three sets.  Standing ovations and encores prevailed. All was well with the world.  The entertainer loaded his gear into his rented Chrysler Town and Country, and drove across the many miles back to his kingdom.

And it came to pass that when the entertainer approached the agent for his due money, that the agent told him that the bank had not yet cleared the check, and he would have to wait 10 to 14 days for it to clear.  The entertainer waited a fortnight and there was still no joy. At this time, having heard the same tired story over and over again, he called upon the leader of the venue to see what the holdup was. The leader of the venue disclosed to the entertainer that compensation was indeed in the hands of the evil agent, and had been since the 1st month of the year when a deposit was sent, and again in the 8th month of the year when the remaining balance was sent, and that indeed the checks had been cashed long before the entertainer had journeyed to the land far away where the gig took place. 

This displeased the entertainer mightily as he realized that the agent had indeed lied to him and accepted deposit funds for the gig 3 months before even approaching him, and had, indeed contracted under his name not knowing if he was in fact available for the dates in question. Adding to his displeasure was the fact that the evil agent had been spending his money on what had to be frivolities and in no way intended to compensate our hero for his toil.

He sent a message though the royal email messenger telling the evil agent to please compensate him, or he would be forced to approach the royal solicitor to enforce the contract which the agent was in ginormous breach thereof. (Besides being a liar and thief). The agent reacted with a hearty 'bugger off' informing the entertainer that he should henceforth communicated only through his lawyer. A ruse to buy time, thinking that the entertainer would no do so. they were wrong. A call was sent out to the entertainer's lawyer, who upon seeing the situation, was ready to take proper action.

After many attempts to collect the money, the evil agent agreed to pay the sum due by the end of the 10th month.  The time came and went with no word or compensation,  and the Lawyer to this day has not been able to contact the evil agent, as they have gone back under the rock from whence they came, leaving the entertainer in the hole for a vast amount. 

The entertainer vowed not to rest until justice is done and compensation is settled upon.  If this does not happen by the 1st month of the new year, the entertainer shall disclose to the world the name, address, phone number and email address of the evil agent for all the world to see.  He shall discredit the evil agent all over social media, and expose them for what they really are. A lying, cheating, operating without a business license, hopeless, hapless, scum buggering bunch of slime balls. 

Merry Christmas And Happy New Year! 

The End