Joke’s on me?
On NPR’s “All Things Considered” on Saturday, I heard this story about an opera company that’s rewriting tragic operas to give them happy endings. They interviewed the fellow who runs the company and he spoke of making opera more user-friendly, how all the sorrow keeps audiences away.

At the time, I was struck with dismay that Americans have become so literature light, they can’t even handle La Boheme anymore. Whatever happened to cautionary tales or sadder but wiser sagas?

Then, as I sat down to write this, I looked at NPR’s description of the story:

“April 1, 2006 · On Cape Cod, an impresario seeks rewrites of the world's great tragic operas. He wants to give them a happy ending for performances by his children's opera company. Some might call it a fool's errand.”

Look at the date, read “fool’s errand.” I knew I’d been had. Those stinkers at NPR! LOL.

You think that’s a good April Fool’s joke, you should have heard them last year. They did a totally serious report on people being killed by maple sugar trees that exploded because they weren’t tapped correctly. Lots of grisly descriptions, statistics. Only halfway through did it strike Joel and me that the story was bogus, then we laughed till we cried.