FED: Fools rush in on cue to herald April

AAP General News (Australia)
04-01-1999
FED: Fools rush in on cue to herald April

By Doug Conway, Senior Correspondent

SYDNEY, April 1 AAP - Sydney lost the Olympics, and the Pope arrived unexpectedly in
Brisbane. Christopher Skase came back, too, in the prime minister's private jet.

Or so the gullible might have believed on the first day of April, when news teams
traditionally try to hoodwink their audiences with bizarre but slightly credible yarns.

Radio and television reports that the Olympics were being shifted took more than a few
people in, aided perhaps by months of stories about trotters in troughs and Greeks bearing
gifts, even though the IOC has never countenanced such a logistical nightmare.

And if the Pope was visiting Australia, chances are his business would involve something
loftier than opening a Catholic school in Sydney.

Yet a radio station's report to that effect, which also had the pontiff stopping in
Brisbane because of poor weather down south, attracted between 50 and 100 believers to the
airport.

The "pope" did arrive - in the form of a new Pope brand garden sprinkling system.

"When the people realised it was an April Fools' Day prank, they took it in good spirits,"
a spokeswoman for station B105, which treated its victims to breakfast to make their visit
worthwhile, said.

Another Brisbane radio station told rugby league coach Wayne Bennett the rubbish removal
company Pink Bins would sponsor his Broncos - provided the players wore pink jerseys.

Bennett said he was delighted at the news but worried some of the "tougher" players would
object to appearing in pink.

Sydney's Manly Daily newspaper reported that more than a dozen steeply sloping streets were
to be resurfaced with a slippery polymer coating for practice sessions by Winter Olympic
skiing hopefuls.

Free training, it said, would be available only to young skiers covered by the Financial
Obviation Olympic Liability Scheme, whose acronym did not need to be spelt out.

Melbourne's Moonee Valley racecourse said it had been mooted the Melbourne Cup would be
moved from Flemington to its smaller track.

Because the horses would go past the post more often, Tabcorp was considering betting on
the winner of each circuit of the track. "It's a bit like betting on quarters in football," a
VRC spokeswoman said.

Andrew Denton of Triple M radio in Sydney appealed for 10 couples to try to create the
first baby of the next millennium by conceiving at the Millennium Hotel, Kings Cross, next
Friday, the day pinpointed by fertility experts as providing the best chance.

Computer company Compaq advertised it had developed a new mouse which could recharge laptop
batteries. It also offered stick-on "speed stripes" to improve the Dynamouse's performance.

The Y2K computer bug proved fertile ground for pranksters.

Songwriters were invited to apply for a job reworking rock classics that were not
Y2K-compliant.

Songs containing a two-digit date, such as Brian Adams' Summer of 69, were at risk, an
advertisement in New Zealand newspapers said.

Kiwis were also told they could get free advice on how to get rid of the Y2K bug by calling
a company called Fumigating Out Our Line Services.

However, a story about an ancient Maori game played by a group called Team Ngaiki, with a
flax ball representing an ancestor's moa egg, was genuine, the New Zealand Herald insisted.

AAP dc/ms

KEYWORD: FOOLS NIGHTLEAD

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.