Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 03/31/18> Easter and April fool’s day all wrapped into one…
I can’t remember if April Fool’s day and Easter Sunday have ever fell on the same Sunday in my life, if it has it evidently wasn’t memorable for me otherwise I’d know. This situation poses a dilemma for me, I’ve been known to play a few pranks on folks on April fool’s day and if I decide to do it this year I may just ending up ruining Easter for the family.
I never had checked on where or why April Fool’s day came about so I decided to take a look and see what I could find. What I found was that it has been celebrated for quite some time, the earliest date of April Fool’s day celebration dates back as far as 1582 in France. Geoffery Chaucer has a book titled the Canterbury Tales that was published in 1392 that has some foolishness in it that is associated with the first of April. The Netherlands has it coming of age in 1572 as a celebration to a victory they achieved in war.
So there is no concise or precise starting dates for April fool’s day, as far as I can determine, in fact the name isn’t even agreed on since some countries refer to it as “all fools day”. What will be missed this April fool’s day will be the pranks that the morning radio personalities that work Monday through Friday normally pull on their audiences. Does anyone remember the left handed Whooper from Burger King?
Some companies have gotten an early start this year since the day falls on a Sunday and Easter to boot, one such company is Fresh Direct advertising rabbit foraged herbs. Another company is selling Bluetooth enabled pet rocks, and Smithfield’s new sweetened corn cereal with pieces of bacon called Bacon Crisps.
Back in the day I remember a discovery that just happened to announced on April first, did you know that adding one pound of sugar to a full tank of gasoline will increase the gas mileage of your automobile’s engine? Evidently sugar sweetened gasoline was the precursor for unleaded gasoline.
This has been a well kept secret that the big oil companies don’t want you to know, the worse gas mileage your automobile gets the more gasoline they sell. Lead in the gasoline never added anything to the engine performance, it just made the gasoline heavier and hauling around a heavier tank of gas also decreased gas mileage. When folks discovered this they pitched a fit and demanded the lead be removed from the gasoline here in the United States. Is lead still in the gasoline or petrol where you live?
I will spend the better part of my day today watching basketball. relaxing and thinking about just what my April fool’s day prank will be on the family. Then I will have to decide whether or not I will even do it since it will be Easter and we have some Easter family traditions that I had better not end up ruining.
In order to prevent these situations from happening in the future I propose we just change April fool day the first Monday in April, that way I, and you, will never end up with this dilemma again.
AND NEVER ADD SUGAR TO YOUR GAS TANK, IT WILL CAUSE MAJOR PROBLEMS
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
I love the April Fool's pranks. I think the internet has made them even better...
I'm going to argue about the lead in gasoline, though. It was added as a lubricant, or more correctly a cushion for crank bearings (they were cast bizmuth in the day, not very tough) and valves. It is what allowed the advance of performance in engines that predated the materials to make it better.
I'm thinking the sugar might be an urban myth, also. I'm not sure, but I think the additional carbon in the burning process wouldn't be good. I'm thinking fouled plugs at best.
Thanks for a great post with what I think of as a minor disagreement. There is no question lead was added and then taken out.
First let me say, the sugar adding was announced on April fools day as noted in the post. NEVER ADD SUGAR to the gas tank, it will cause the engine to seize up. I guess I need to put that at the bottom of the post.
I don't know why lead was added to gasoline, I can't see how it would be a lubricant for the crank bearing because even though the lead wouldn't burn in the combustion process it never could make it to the crank bearings, at most it could line the piston cylinder walls reducing friction there. It did work as a lubricant for the valves though, I remember plenty of times hearing valve clatter in engines that were designed when lead was being added that when the lead was taken out of the gas the valve noise was pretty prevalent, especially if you were inclined to step on the gas pedal hard, it lead to term "having a lead foot."
Just to be clear, the sugar was an April Fools prank, don't ever add sugar to gasoline.
Thanks for reading and commenting, now I need to go edit.
I don't really remember a time when Easter Sunday and April Fool's Day fell on the same day but sources close to me have said that it has happened 4 times since 1900, in 1923, 1934, 1945 and 1956. So it has been 62 years since the last occurrence. It will happen again in 2029 but I may not be here to see that one. I have never been a fan of April Fool's jokes because as a youngster, I witnessed a few April Fool pranks that were mean. malicious and just plain meant to cause harm. Jokes are fine but when they cross that line it becomes unacceptable.
Well thanks for the research, it turns out based on your research this is the second time in my lifetime for this occurrence, I was 32 days old the first time it happened, that would explain why I couldn't remember it.
Plenty of pranks go way over the line and cause harm, and that isn't good for sure.
Aww, I am sad that your plans to prank some people won't go through as planned because of Easter celebrations but it's Easter so enjoy that and you can prank people on Tuesday :P
I may prank the kids, not enough though the to cause on uproar, I'll leave the wife pranks for another day, those are the ones that can get me in trouble. I can always check with her on pranks for the kids and get prior approval.
Hahaha wife pranks can get you in hot water for sure :P
Good post. Noticed you via @thesteemengine, as well. Didn't know the story behind lead in gas. I like knowing that sort of consumerism history. Awareness is key. Thank you.
Thanks for stopping in and giving a look see and a comment. Yes lead was definitely an ingredient in the gasoline years ago.
Are you sure, I mean really really sure the Sugar and Gas don't mix? I thought it took the knock out when cars ran on leaded gas. Joke, I knew a few people that tried the sugar in the gas tank when I was a kid just starting to drive, but they didn't listen to well about it being a joke.
Sugar and gas will mix, just it won't be good if you try and run it, when I was a kid I told a "friend" who I didn't care for as much as some others it would make his mini-bike run faster, he needed a new engine when he was done. Oh well, I made a mistake, sorry partner.
I've been so caught up with guests that I did not even realise that. We've had tsunami warnings here in the past, I just sat reading our Sunday newspaper now and fell for their prank!
Not sure if you've heard about the Australian cricketing sandpaper ball tampering scandal which resulted in the captain and coach resigning (when they played against us). Our newspaper article will get a number of people hot under the collar as the captain is supposedly signing up with our KZN provincial side whilst he's waiting out his one year ban :)
Let us know what prank you play!
Have a blessed Easter Sunday...after the prank :)