April Fools

Every April 1, many pranks and tricks are played. Those who fall for them might be called April fools. But often these days, what might appear to be an April Fool's joke has actually happened on a daily basis. All of the following with one exception are real occurrences:

• A number of mistrials have been required because certain jurors, in contravention of judicial instructions, have been caught texting or twittering during jury deliberations. (Milwaukee Bucks player Charlie Villanueva was detected twittering at halftime during his coach's pep talk).
• A former NFL star (Travis Henry) and a former NBA player (Jason Caffey) have admitted to fathering, respectively, 9 and 8 children by an equal number of different women and despite their bloated salaries both are behind in child support.
• Iowa Senator Charles Grassley (who later said he was kidding) announced that he believed that many of those responsible for the financial crisis, particularly some AIG bonus recipients, should behave like some Japanese executives and commit suicide.
• Despite having several highly paid image consultants, Yankees star and '"former" steroid abuser Alex (A-Rod) Rodriguez's image took another big hit (pun intended) with the alleged revelation that he was client #13 (his uniform number) at the same high priced escort service that brought down NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer, supposedly client #9.
• Deposed and soon to be indicted former Illinois Gov. Rod (Helmet Hair) Blagojevich spent a morning as the host on a Chicago radio talk show right after receiving a six figure advance for a yet to be written book about him, who else?
• The wife of jailed Uber-Swindler Bernie Madoff received a seven figure advance for a tell -all book "The Truth About Ruth".

If you realized that only the last item was made up by TNB, you win an all expense paid trip to a Caribbean island of your choice (April Fool).