Not surprisingly after April Fool’s Day last week a number of news media reported on the various foolery that had been inflicted upon us over the course of the day from all around the world. It is truly amazing what the media can come up with every year to top their previous year’s fiction, kudos to them.

I am not an April Fool’s kind of guy, it’s not my thing. Oh I have tried from time to time. I recall joining some of my fellow students by re-arranging the desks in our class while the teacher (Ms Curtis) was out in the hall for the national anthem. Upon returning to the class she had a conniption along with a mental break down. We had pushed her over the edge and felt rotten. Another teacher (Mr Katz, I believe) came in to chastise us for what had happened by telling us that we had no idea of the stress we had been putting her under.

Feeling like crap, we started to put the desks back where they belonged, at which point both of them returned into the class to proclaim: “April Fool’s!” We were had and in a big way. Such was the extent of my April Foolery, until 1997.

For about a year before April 1997 I had been writing a short newspaper article concerning astronomy and star-gazing. It was submitted to numerous newspapers around Ontario each publishing elements of it on a regular basis. In addition, I had been “in” The Guelph Mercury and The Guelph Tribune (our local papers) a few times by now for a number of astronomical issues. Needless to say, I had established a bit of an astronomical credential in and around Guelph.

On 1 April 1997 Comet Hale-Bopp was to be at perihelion. It was following from another great cometary apparition the year before, Comet Hyakutake. This pairing a year apart made for timely press, in the star-gazing realm at least. I was again in the papers spruiking the wonderful opportunity for observing.

I received a call from a local radio station, I believe it was CJOY, but could be wrong on this matter. They wanted to do a radio interview with me to coincide with Comet Hale-Bopp’s close approach (to the sun). We would talk about what to look for in the sky, when best to look, what an observer could see... all the usual stuff; however, in addition, they asked me to do a part II interview which would be entirely bullshit. They wanted me to lie through my teeth about what effects “passing through the comet tail” would do to earth, our electronics, etc... I happily obliged.

So on 1 April my interview aired in two parts, the first being the truth, the second bullshit. I told people they should unplug their microwave ovens and VCR so the electromagnetic effects of the comet tail would not harm the electronics. It was light-hearted and I was sure everyone listening would gather that the second part, airing on April Fool’s Day, was a joke.

When I arrived at school that morning the first teacher to greet me told me she was glad to hear me on the radio and that she unplugged her VCR like I recommended. Obviously I told her to think about what day it was. She was none too happy with me, or herself, but I think I took the brunt of it. She had to be the only one, right?

About 5 years later, I was teaching a stargazing course at the Arboretum of the University of Guelph. I happened to mention both comets in the course of the lectures, at which point one of the participants mentioned that she was bamboozled by someone on the radio a few years back about the comet. I had to come clean and tell her it was me. Five years later, at least she laughed off the whole affair.

John Daicopoulos