My sophomoric affection for April Fool’s humor goes back a long, long way. There is something just delicious to me about a whole day dedicated to folks being mischievous. As most of you now know, last Friday, April 1st, we sent out our annual annals of foolishness. I know, from your emails, that many eZine readers actually look forward to our April 1st frivolities, offering (all through the year) their own far-out ideas for possible publication.
Each year, my staff and I write comic content, trying both to be funny and, at the same time, not to offend folks. We are, for the most part, successful in this effort. Sometimes we fail, and this year’s April 1st eZine editorial may have been in that camp. Perhaps I should have known that the current political climate is simply too highly charged and volatile to tease about. Hundreds of readers got seriously peeved at my made-up government agency and spokesman and their proposed “safety regulations” – and took the time to write me about it. (See the Feedback department for examples …)
While I had intended to pull your collective legs a little (OK, maybe a lot), I had no intention of making people so angry that they could not see the joke. So if you are one of those folks who found nothing funny in my editorial, please accept my apology.
Rob Johnstone, Woodworker’s Journal
