Playing the Fool

To those of you who don't pay attention to the calendar and just live life day-by-day, today is the first of April: April Fools Day. I personally am a huge nerd when it comes to knowing the origins of specific holidays and so I decided to do some research on this one to curb my curiosity. I was very confused however, when I found out that this holiday has no official origins; in other words, it evolved from basically no where.

The first official mention of April Fools day was in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales which was written in 1392. The "Nun's Priest's Tale" was set on the day of "March... thrirry dayes and two"; which in modern-day talk is March 32nd, or April 1st. In this part of the story, the character of the cock is tricked by a fox.

Along with this comes many other poets writing stories about tricks played on the first of April and referencing these people as the "April Fool". In 1539 a poet known as Eduard de Dene wrote wrote about a nobleman who sent his servants to do funny and stupid errands on April 1st.

The first British reference was in 1686, when a man called it "Fools Holy Day".

April Fools Day here in Canada is celebrated all day, with the pranks going from sun-up to sun-down. In other countries, however, pranks come to a halt at 12:00 noon.

Here are some April Fools jokes that made headlines:

In 1998, the famous Burger joint Burger King announced they were now offering a special "Left-Handed Whopper". The only difference between the two was that the condiments were supposed to drip out the right side of the burger when holding it. People fully believed the ads and ordered the left handed burger, and others specially ordered the right handed burger.

Another famous prank was one played in 1957. BBC did a documentary on a strange type of tree that grew spaghetti. People did not know enough about the pasta to guess otherwise. People called in asking where to get one of these spaghetti trees for themselves. They were told to "place a sprig of spaghetti on a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best".

Anyway, good luck with any pranks you try to pull on this April Fool's Day and let me know how they worked out!

So until next time,

Live, Love, Laugh

Missy A

Bullying in High Schools

I was talking to a lady today about a problem her daughter has in High School and I thought I should share my thoughts on this issue. To begin this post though, I'll have to go back a few years... back to grade 3.

This girl, we shall call "Jane" went to a certain elementary school up to grade 3 where she was bullied by another girl who shall be called "Sally". Sally didn't have a good reason to hate Jane but she did, and Jane transferred schools because she felt threatened by her. Now both Jane and Sally are in High School, and haven't seen each other since.

Jane just transferred High Schools -as the new one is much closer to her home- and discovered that Sally goes there. As soon as Sally found out about Jane, she immediately gathered a group of friends and started to tell them about Jane, and how much Sally hated her. (Keep in mind, Jane did nothing and has been trying to avoid her). Now Jane's boyfriend has fallen victim to Sally and her friends. Every time he walks by, they yell names at him and give him the finger.

One day after much harassment from Sally and her friends, Jane got fed up and decided to take a stand. She turned around and yelled "Shut up you slut!" and turned back around. Later that day Sally came up behind Jane and punched her in the back of the head and yelled "Once you're alone, I'll get you, and I'll get you good!". Because of this, Jane has been scared to death to go back to school because she is afraid that if her boyfriend isn't with her or her friends aren't with her at a particular time then she might get the snot kicked out of her by Sally.

I am no longer in High School, and have never honestly seen this type of behavior since middle school (back then it was all talk, now I'm not too sure). I can't even begin to believe what on earth would make a couple of 16 year-olds do something so stupid and over basically nothing! The major part I don't understand is Sally can threaten, yell at, and bully Jane and everything is well and good, but the one time; I repeat ONE TIME Jane talks back her life is automatically threatened. Jane hasn't been back to school yet and it has been about a week. She has been having severe headaches since Sally punched her and is worried that she has a concussion. They are now talking to the school about it in hopes Sally will receive a suspension.

"Pink Shirt Day" is coming up soon on Wednesday, April 14th. This day was created by a couple of male students who wore pink shirts to school after they witnessed an exchange student being bullied because he wore a pink shirt. This has become a strong symbol against bullying and I am a strong believer in standing up for the underdog and trying to prevent bullying.

The story about Jane and Sally is true. I know this post probably sounds a bit preachy but I feel so bad about Jane I just can't help but do my part and spread some awareness. So, to everyone out there, wear a pink shirt on April 14th and show everyone what you stand for.

Until next time,

Live, Love, Laugh

-Missy A

**For those interested, you can purchase official "Pink Shirt Day" shirts at: http://shop.pinkshirtday.ca/