Contents
=> “A Short History of April Fool’s Day” - text, by I.M. Poosheesty
=> “3-Letter Word Game”
=> What’s Happening
=> Help Zhenya with Research
=> In the Next Issue

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A Short History of April Fool’s Day - text, by I.M. Poosheesty
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There is enough foolish behavior in the world. It’s hardly necessary to have a day when we celebrate it. But we do, thank God.

How did this so-called holiday begin? Well, before the Gregorian calendar was introduced, round about 1582, New Year’s day was celebrated round about April 1st. (Maybe Russia should change April Fool’s day into another New
Year’s. Then we could have New Year, Old New Year, and Medium Old New Year.)

So January 1st became New Year’s Day. But wait, news traveled slowly in the 16th century, and a lot of people didn’t know there was a new New Year, and so they still celebrated on April 1st. Thus, people called them fools and started to play fun jokes on the fools, like telling them there was a killer party at somebody’s house when there really wasn’t. This kind of April Fool’s
gag still exists today, and the holiday is celebrated in various forms from Scotland to Italy to India.

Nowadays, the press gets to have fun too. Russian newspapers are fond of hoaxes. In 1992, Moskovskaya Pravda reported that an entire second metro system was going to be built in Moscow, “in the interests of competition.”

On April Fool’s Day in 1998 the American company Burger King announced a new version of their Whopper hamburger. This one was called the “Left-Handed Whopper.” It had the same ingredients are the regular Whopper, but they were
rotated 180 degrees for the comfort of left-handed eaters. (There are 32 million left-handed people in America)

Words
gag = a practical joke; a comic effect or remark
prank = a mischevious trick or practical joke
hoax = an act intended to decieve or trick
practical joke = a mischievous trick played on a person, especially one that causes the victim to experience embarrassment, indignity, or discomfort

(Definitions from http://www.dictionary.com)

Sources and further reading
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/top100.html
http://www.april-fools.us/history-april-fools.htm
http://www.museumfhoaxes.com/af_1992.html

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“3-Letter Words Game” (formerly the License Plate Game)
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When Kevin was small, he and his family used to play the license plate game. License plates, those number plates on the back of cars used to have three letters. Like TSA, FGY, BOK, or WDT

Our game was to make words out of these letters.

Write three-letter combinations (any three letters) on the board. In groups students will try to make words that contain all three of the letters.

You can use the letters in any order. After a couple of minutes see which group has written the most words. That teams wins a brand new Mercedes.

NOTE: Combinations like EAS or STS will result in mountains of words (good for beginners), while combinations like FGY and WDT are more challenging.

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What’s Happening
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Conferences

Two Conferences! 9,000 kilometers apart. Will someone please go to both!

1. In Vladivostok, the huge, enormous, 5th PAN-ASIAN CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE TEACHING at FEELTA, June 24-27, 2004

2. TESOL-ELT in SAMARA, June 29-30:
“New Vistas” conference
Contact: Yulia Markushina tel: (8462) 32 49 03 ioofs@samara.ru

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Help Zhenya with Research
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If you’re a native English speaker, please take a few seconds to help my friend Zhenya, a grad student, with some research. Just cut and paste the following information (with your answers) and mail it to ediamantidy@yahoo.com

NAME (optional):
YEAR OF BIRTH required:
STATE OF RESIDENCE:
EDUCATION required:
OCCUPATION required:

Questions: (Please, write the first thing which comes to mind.)

1) What is time? (e.g., time is gold)
2) What can time do with you? (e.g., time cures)

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In the Next Issue (around March 29, 2004)
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No idea. But something spectacular probably.
Yes, probably the “USES” Game.

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Copyright 2004 Kevin McCaughey & I.M. Poosheesty
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