Admittedly, on occasion something mildly amusing occurs on April Fools Day. There was a time when some wags (Harvard Lampoon-ies?) came up with a fake front page of the New York Times and slipped it over the real version of the newspaper that was sitting on the Cambridge doorstep of every Harvard professor. I can't remember the full story line, but I remember at the time thinking it was pretty funny.
Google does something every year - or so I've read - with wonky techie pranks - but I can't recall any of them. And they're not doing any joking around this year. (Prank called on account of COVID-19.)
Mostly, for me, April Fools Day is now and has always been a non-starter.
In honor of the day, though, I thought I'd look up its origins on Wikipedia. But the origins are a messy mass of whatever. Did April Fools have something to do with The Canterbury Tales? Or a 16th century Dutch military victory over Spain? Or - wait! what? - does it come from Noah sending a dove out of the ark on April 1st to see if the waters were abating? (Did they even have months at the time of the flood?)
While something April Foolish seems to go on in most Western countries, the only place that seems to take April Fools really seriously is Odessa in the Ukraine.
Since 1973, they've celebrated it as a holiday called Humorina, with a festival, a parade, street fairs, and concerts. But, thanks to the coronavirus, Ukraine is pretty much shut down, so I'm guessing that Humorina is shut down, too.
Nothing these days seems to be much of a laughing matter...
Yet there are still some things out there that provide joy, things worth celebrating - even if it's not a dud of a non-only-in-Odessa holiday like April Fools. And here are a couple of them, shots I took on my walk yesterday.
I was getting sick of my usual Boston-side-Esplanade-up-and-down-Charles-Street-twirling-around-the-Public Garden strolls, so I cut over the Salt & Pepper Bridge and walked on the Cambridge/Memorial Drive side of the Charles. Not that this is a particularly riveting shot of part of the not particularly glorious Boston skyline is all that hot. But the sky was so blue. The water was so blue. (Shot was taken from the Mass Ave Bridge, at about the 86 Smoot mark.)
While something April Foolish seems to go on in most Western countries, the only place that seems to take April Fools really seriously is Odessa in the Ukraine.
Since 1973, they've celebrated it as a holiday called Humorina, with a festival, a parade, street fairs, and concerts. But, thanks to the coronavirus, Ukraine is pretty much shut down, so I'm guessing that Humorina is shut down, too.
Nothing these days seems to be much of a laughing matter...
Yet there are still some things out there that provide joy, things worth celebrating - even if it's not a dud of a non-only-in-Odessa holiday like April Fools. And here are a couple of them, shots I took on my walk yesterday.
I was getting sick of my usual Boston-side-Esplanade-up-and-down-Charles-Street-twirling-around-the-Public Garden strolls, so I cut over the Salt & Pepper Bridge and walked on the Cambridge/Memorial Drive side of the Charles. Not that this is a particularly riveting shot of part of the not particularly glorious Boston skyline is all that hot. But the sky was so blue. The water was so blue. (Shot was taken from the Mass Ave Bridge, at about the 86 Smoot mark.)
Back on the Boston end of things, I passed these trees in way-early but still most welcome blossom.
We are in a no-fun zone for sure, but as long as I can get outside for a while each day, some of the doom, some of the gloom, starts to lift.
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