Tuesday Sundries

Why do we celebrate April Fools' Day?

On this day in 1700, English pranksters begin popularizing the annual
tradition of April Fools' Day by playing practical jokes on each
other.

Although the day, also called All Fools' Day, has been celebrated for
several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a
mystery. Some historians speculate that April Fools' Day dates back to
1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian
calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who
were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the
new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during
the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and
hoaxes. These included having paper fish placed on their backs and
being referred to as "poisson d'avril" (April fish), said to symbolize
a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.

Historians have also linked April Fools' Day to ancient festivals such
as Hilaria, which was celebrated in Rome at the end of March and
involved people dressing up in disguises. There's also speculation
that April Fools' Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of
spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people
with changing, unpredictable weather.

For more on the article, click American History Channel's link here.

Create your own puzzles at PuzzleBee.com!

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Things You’d Fix in Your Home (if you had the time and money)


1. Install a shower in the upstair sbathroom
2. Redo our bathroom and make better use of the space
3. Redo our cabinets so that they are hung properly
4. Make a workshop for TB in the back yard
5. Get a big playground area for our Little T
6. Make a garage for our cars and since TB will have a workshop he can't store his stuff there
7. Fix the staircase--they're not up to code
8. Install one of those in-the-house elevators so TB and I can get to the second floor easily
9. Enclose the patio and make it our sunroom/breakfast room/easy-like-Sunday morning room
10. Hire a gardener to redo our back and front yards

Heads Or Tails #32

Heads - Fool

There is no doubt about it, folks, I am a reading fool. I already have over 200 books on my shelves waiting to be read. Just because I got a Borders coupon for 40% off my purchase of $20 or more, I could have:

skipped the offer
limited myself to 1 book (some are $20 or more)

But no. Instead, I got myself 3 books. Yes, they're all good books but who knows when I'll read them?