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"Gotcha!"
Off the Wall
April 10, 2008
I've been called many things in my life, so nothing
much surprises me anymore. So when a good friend called me a
goofball recently, I could only laugh, because to react any differently
would be out of character, in my opinion.
"And why, pray tell, did she call me that,"
you may be asking?
April Fools' Day is one day out of the year that
we can all pull little harmless pranks on each other and have
a little bit of fun at the same time. And that I most certainly
did. I can't remember when I had so much fun and laughing as
I went.
The ironic thing was that I thought most people
would have caught on to my line of questioning and quickly concluded
that my emails were fallacious, but it didn't seem to work that
way at all.
So, this is how my interrogations went the morn
of April 1, 2008.
PV: "Hey, I heard you are going to be serving
carp for the next fish dinner next year?
Respondent (R): "I don't know where we can
buy carp. Besides we made quite a profit on the fish we chose
for this year's dinners."
PV: "Heard that Lois Road is changing its name
to Doddle Drive, because people drive so slowly on that throughway."
R: "Don't know about that. They seem to fly
by to me. Where did you hear that?"
I sent the following to four persons who really
love the Lord. It was one of those type statements that might
seem believable. It went something like this.
PV: "I heard that the word 'lukewarm' is a
derivative from the apostle Luke, who at first, was somewhat
turned on to the teachings of Jesus Christ. But over time, he
became much more interested and started teaching the Word to
the Christians."
One woman commented, "That is really interesting.
I never heard that before." I wonder why?
Sorry to inform you, but the adjective has nothing
to do with the apostle. It is thought to have originated somewhere
around the 13th century. According to one website I checked,
'"Luke' was a middle-aged word, now obsolete, meaning 'warm,'
which was based on 'lew,' another word for "warm."
'Lew,' in turn was derived from the old English word 'hleow,'
meaning 'warm.'" Since it would sound odd to say "warm
warm," the term was changed to "lukewarm."
PV (To a doctor): "Heard from one of your patients
that you are taking up knitting? Let me know how it is coming
along and I will do a story on your efforts."
R: "Cool need to know who the patient
is!! NO-I am-NOT Doing/taking up/learning about knitting!!!
Splitting firewood is my love!!!" Follow-up note after telling
him it was an April Fools joke "Thanks Pee Vee for
weaving a yarn about my knitin' with your pc pickin'!"
PV: "Ralph Waldo Emerson here - saw your write-up
in The Latrobe Bulletin."
R: "Many thanks, Nathaniel Hawthorne."
PV: "Word has it that you are going to shave
off your beard."
R: "I was thinking about it. Do you think I
should keep it? (That's a switch!)
PV: "Just heard they are going to make Raymond
Ave. one way. Bummer, huh?"
R: "Do you know what part or are they planning to
do the entire street? It will have its good and bad for me. Some
fly up the street completely ignoring the stop signs!"
She then wrote a follow-up email to me that came
at a later time.
"You got me! You are so bad! Thank you, though.
I needed that. I have been much too serious today."
Laughter does have its place.
Paul J. Volkmann
April 2, 2008
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