Is the Observer's April Fools edition foolish or just plain fun?

A rooster walks into the bar ...

No, this isn't the first part of a joke — that was last week — so bear with me.

If you are sitting in Lakewood Ranch, you probably want the dirty chicken out of there. You are wondering whether you've got feathers in your beer, or if this is a signal the cleanliness of the bar is in question.

But if you are sitting in Key West, that's an entirely different matter. You might pull up a stool for the rooster so you can better take selfies.

A time and place for everything?

So that's the "place" argument, where your perspective is changed by geography.

How about a "time" example?

I give you the East County Observer's annual April Fools Day edition.

For 51 weeks a year, the East County Observer works to be your No. 1 source for covering Lakewood Ranch and the surrounding area. I can promise you that since I arrived in 2015, I have had hundreds of conversations with fellow editors and reporters about what the right thing is to do. Many, many times, that can be painful, because we will pull back from a great story because it's not the right thing to do.

But then there is that one week a year when we get ... well ... silly.

I must temper this by saying that only on four pages are we silly. The rest of the edition — including our Page 5, which is really our Page 1 (please follow the bouncing ball) — follows our creed to "do the right thing."

The first four pages of the April Fools edition are meant to confound, mystify, irritate, puzzle, bewilder, baffle and flummox you until that aha moment hits you like dropping a 16-pound bowling ball on your big toe.

Check that, I guess that would be pretty painful. But I am talking more about mental impact, where you say out loud, "Oh goodness, I am such a nit!"

Then you go back and start reading every name in each of the stories on the first four pages. Red Duroc ... Joy Kealer ... Faust Karr ... Reuben Onrye ... Serene DiMeanor ... Abel N. Reedy ... Beau Livard ... Tom Alless ... Jack Kousteau, and on and on.

A quick check on AI says that people aren't sure where April Fools Day originated, although often the finger is pointed toward the French when they switched from a Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1592, People who were slow to figure out the calendar switch were called "April fish" because they obviously couldn't figure out that purple plastic worm had a giant hook in it.

I don't know if le journal had an April Fools edition, but I would imagine a few jokes had to be written with a quill in order to catch a few April fish.

If I did manage to hook you with my brand of Jay Heater humor, I hope that flummoxed feeling was converted to a big belly laugh. That is the fun of April Fools Day.

I want a disclaimer here to say that the April Fools Day edition was not my idea. When I arrived in 2015, it already was in place. I had never seen such a thing, but I was assured that our readers overwhelmingly approved of it.

Since I was going to do it, I was going to do my best. 

My first one came in 2016 when I wrote the story "Return of the Scum" that told readers that crews were putting the algae back into the ponds in Tara Preserve. Tara Preserve's HOA closed its office the day the paper came out because there were lines of people waiting to complain.

I didn't want that to happen, but it was kind of funny ... wasn't it?

The main photo on the front page in 2016 was of a enormous alligator swimming next to a boat full of rowers at Nathan Benderson Park. That also raised a few eyebrows.

Over the years, can you think of one of your favorites, or even a story that annoyed you the most?

There was the canal system with gondolas connecting Lakewood Ranch; The new aquatics center at Premier being an above-ground pool; a new business dumping ashes in Kingfisher Lake; a cell tower mounted on a flatbed, driving through the area because reception is so bad; a land swap between Sarasota and Manatee counties.

If you have one that got you, send me a note at [email protected].

It has been obvious this year, some people have had a hard time getting that hook out of their mouths. Our receptionist has taken a stream of calls about tiny trash receptacles, called "Barbie Bins" in the story in a quote by Belle Ringer.

The next graph told of plans to turn the former big bins into birdhouses which pleased Audubon's Robin Nestor.

The story's placement was underneath a Pearl Harbor bombed-sized GOTCHA headline. But, for some, the hook remained firmly in the cheek.

Even so, some Manatee County staff members remain peeved at me. Well, I guess incensed would be a better word.

Some residents have, indeed, given them a hard time with comments such as "I'm not gonna have a bunch of Barbie bins in my yard."

Then there was, "What in the world were you all thinking publishing an article about the Manatee County garbage cans changing from one to four as a joke — and not even on April Fool’s Day when we might think twice?"

All I can say is ... GOTCHA!

One reader was not impressed by our April Fools Day edition.

"I, for one, didn't think your fake stories were funny at all. Not what a newspaper should do. I, for one, will not read this rag anymore. Whoever thought of this should be fired or resign."

My Executive Editor Kat Wingert sent me a note that said, "You're fired."

Several readers questioned our running the April Fools edition on March 26, but being a weekly in print, we would only be able to do it every seven years if we waited to the paper to fall on April 1. That is why we date the Pages April 1.

A reader said it did catch him because he was in "March mode."

"I want you to know that I read all of those articles and believed each one, especially the trash barrels."

Another said his wife pointed him in the right direction. "I couldn’t wait to mention the stories to my wife when she got home today. She believed it until she picked up the paper and said to me “Didn’t you see the Gotcha?”

Through it all, I do respect the fact you want to be plain angry with me. But after receiving some blowback, I choose to focus on the positive.

"Black bellied whistling birds harvested from Kingfisher Lake as meat for floating Taco Stand should amuse most. Another great issue. Pulitzer Prize nominee."

And, finally, my favorite.

"I just wanted to say those stories were genius!"