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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!notes
From: notes@iuvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.general
Subject: Re: USSR on Usenet - (nf)
Message-ID: <298@iuvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Apr-84 01:02:54 EST
Article-I.D.: iuvax.298
Posted: Mon Apr  9 01:02:54 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Apr-84 06:14:02 EST
Sender: notes@iuvax.UUCP
Organization: Indiana University
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#R:zeus:-26400:iuvax:9100004:000:1714
iuvax!apratt    Apr  8 18:04:00 1984

I agree (that the joke was a good one). It was imaginitive, well-executed, but
could hardly fool anyone. That's the mark of a good joke. It had me going for
the first little bit (not, "This is serious," but, "Is this a joke?"), because
it seemed so sincere. But the reference to the beginning of April was a dead
giveaway, and it was meant to be.  Telling someone that the President's been
killed may be a good joke, but letting him believe it and tell others is not.
So you say, "April Fool!" and everybody laughs. That's wat the "perpetrator"
did in this case: by making reference to the silliness that comes over people
around the beginning of April, the author said, "April Fool!" to all of us.
You would have to want to believe such a gesture as a Usenet site in Moscow
so much that you are blinded by it, to miss the giveaway.

As for the appropriateness of the posting to net.general, I would say that
it is perhaps questionable, but I for one answer "yes" to that question.
We're not a bunch of stuffed shirts on Usenet, and I think we can take a
joke. Doesn't the New York Times print an occasional joke in their April 1
issue? Mightn't the Wall Street Journal publish an article like "Bell
Refuses Breakup; May Take Up Arms Against FTC"?  And mightn't we laugh
at such a joke?  I know I would, and I think many others would besides.

I am sorry to insult the intelligence of people who wrote to moskvax!kremvax,
and I really don't mean to. Like any other joke, some people were slow in
getting this one. They should be good-natured about it, and say, "Ah, yes..
April Fool. I should have been more on my guard, and you can bet I will
be next year!" 
						-- Allan Pratt
					...ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!apratt