I wrote recently of my public-radio-fan nerdery, and here's another example: I was eagerly awaiting the April Fool's stories on NPR yesterday. Their all-time great hoax, in 1992, was that Richard Nixon (still alive then, obviously) was planning to run for president. The Museum of Hoaxes has a funny list of
1992 pranks (a giant banner in Los Angeles saying "Welcome to Chicago?" Cool!) and actually declared the Nixon gag
#6 of all time. I overslept, so if
Morning Edition had anything, I missed it. Chicago Public Radio ran a story in their afternoon news segments about how the Cubs, due to a MLB ruling, actually have won a World Series since 1908;
the story's on their web page. Nice, but didn't fool me.
I knew there'd be a piece during
All Things Considered and I expected it during the last part of one of their half-hours, but running it dead last on the show was too obvious. Something about a "subminimalist" classical composer, and they had a super-pretentious record review by a critic (why not their usual classical critic? wouldn't that make it more convincing?). Oh well, it was cute. (And having heard today's ATC comments, did fool some people.)
I had to stand outside the Whole Foods on N. Halsted to hear that story because radio reception dies in the store. Then I went in and bought fake coffee (I ran out of Pero and they didn't have it, so I bought the tastier, pricier Teecino. And today, forgot that you have to make it with a French press, it doesn't just dissolve in hot water like Pero. Oops) and fake milk (hemp milk, which I've wondered about for a while, was finally on sale. I tried vanilla--it's good, kind of like oat or almond maybe?). I also visited the new Belmont & Damen location of the Bleeding Heart Bakery for a vegan blueberry-lemon cheesecake bar (I far prefer vegan cheesecake to the "real" thing; it's hardly identical, and that's why I like it) and my second hot chocolate of the day. (In case you haven't picked it up, I'm still not drinking coffee--going two months without it.)
But on the bus home listening to
Marketplace, I was well into a story, half-paying-attention, before I realized it was fake--something about IRS rebates being issued as merchandise, a couple in Phoenix getting an air conditioner. It definitely seemed weird when their regular commenter Robert Reich was rambling about free Viagra and toasters. See,
this story worked because they ran it less than halfway into the show...I didn't spend much time looking up Internet April Fool's jokes, there's fake stuff on the Internet at all times, but thanks to a bit on
Schadenfreude, I've learned what
"rickrolling" is. I'm so late to these net fads, I was looking at LOLcats on Pandagon for months before knowing what they were...
One of my Flickr friends--and disappointingly few tried April Fool's gags--fooled some people with a disturbing story of
vintage-Barbie-inspired violence at a flea market. I hope she doesn't mind the link; I should also say she's got more flattering photos of herself on her page, as well as many terrific photos of Barbie and other toys. All I did was put up another shot from the demolished school I've been visiting and
claim the police showed up...maybe I should have made up a story about finding a finger in an abandoned building, as a friend once did.
So these photos are from an impulsive trip Monday of last week; on the way to a store, I saw a cluster of abandoned buildings, and went back to investigate. Fairly sealed up, and right next to active buildings, so I contented myself with observing the playground equipment.
Katherine's Self-Promotion Corner time again! The first photo in the post was my first ever ChicagoPublicRadio.org photo of the day. I don't see an archive of them, but the
past week's feed is here and my
screenshot is here. (For the Flickr addicts out there, Monday night I finally learned to do screenshots, and how to add a widget to my profile, and how to create collections of my photosets, which I'd tried unsuccessfully before. And I learned that not only have I been in Explore, I've been in seven times!)
Other works published online since my previous self-promoting post: Chicagoist ran a
different version of the frog photo from this post (my "most interesting" photo on Flickr now, really?) and
a shot from the 18th St. Pink Line. Time Out
also used the Clark/Lake CTA shot. And Chicago Magazine apparently has a photo blog and used
this Merchandise Mart CTA shot. CTA photos seem to be my biggest hit, and I'll have an update of my every-CTA-station project soon...
I wrote recently of my public-radio-fan nerdery, and here's another example: I was eagerly awaiting the April Fool's stories on NPR yesterday. Their all-time great hoax, in 1992, was that Richard Nixon (still alive then, obviously) was planning to run for president. The Museum of Hoaxes has a funny list of 1992 pranks (a giant banner in Los Angeles saying "Welcome to Chicago?" Cool!) and actually declared the Nixon gag #6 of all time. I overslept, so if Morning Edition had anything, I missed it. Chicago Public Radio ran a story in their afternoon news segments about how the Cubs, due to a MLB ruling, actually have won a World Series since 1908; the story's on their web page. Nice, but didn't fool me.
I knew there'd be a piece during All Things Considered and I expected it during the last part of one of their half-hours, but running it dead last on the show was too obvious. Something about a "subminimalist" classical composer, and they had a super-pretentious record review by a critic (why not their usual classical critic? wouldn't that make it more convincing?). Oh well, it was cute. (And having heard today's ATC comments, did fool some people.) 
I had to stand outside the Whole Foods on N. Halsted to hear that story because radio reception dies in the store. Then I went in and bought fake coffee (I ran out of Pero and they didn't have it, so I bought the tastier, pricier Teecino. And today, forgot that you have to make it with a French press, it doesn't just dissolve in hot water like Pero. Oops) and fake milk (hemp milk, which I've wondered about for a while, was finally on sale. I tried vanilla--it's good, kind of like oat or almond maybe?). I also visited the new Belmont & Damen location of the Bleeding Heart Bakery for a vegan blueberry-lemon cheesecake bar (I far prefer vegan cheesecake to the "real" thing; it's hardly identical, and that's why I like it) and my second hot chocolate of the day. (In case you haven't picked it up, I'm still not drinking coffee--going two months without it.)
But on the bus home listening to Marketplace, I was well into a story, half-paying-attention, before I realized it was fake--something about IRS rebates being issued as merchandise, a couple in Phoenix getting an air conditioner. It definitely seemed weird when their regular commenter Robert Reich was rambling about free Viagra and toasters. See, this story worked because they ran it less than halfway into the show...I didn't spend much time looking up Internet April Fool's jokes, there's fake stuff on the Internet at all times, but thanks to a bit on Schadenfreude, I've learned what "rickrolling" is. I'm so late to these net fads, I was looking at LOLcats on Pandagon for months before knowing what they were...
One of my Flickr friends--and disappointingly few tried April Fool's gags--fooled some people with a disturbing story of vintage-Barbie-inspired violence at a flea market. I hope she doesn't mind the link; I should also say she's got more flattering photos of herself on her page, as well as many terrific photos of Barbie and other toys. All I did was put up another shot from the demolished school I've been visiting and claim the police showed up...maybe I should have made up a story about finding a finger in an abandoned building, as a friend once did.
So these photos are from an impulsive trip Monday of last week; on the way to a store, I saw a cluster of abandoned buildings, and went back to investigate. Fairly sealed up, and right next to active buildings, so I contented myself with observing the playground equipment. Katherine's Self-Promotion Corner time again! The first photo in the post was my first ever ChicagoPublicRadio.org photo of the day. I don't see an archive of them, but the past week's feed is here and my screenshot is here. (For the Flickr addicts out there, Monday night I finally learned to do screenshots, and how to add a widget to my profile, and how to create collections of my photosets, which I'd tried unsuccessfully before. And I learned that not only have I been in Explore, I've been in seven times!) 
Other works published online since my previous self-promoting post: Chicagoist ran a different version of the frog photo from this post (my "most interesting" photo on Flickr now, really?) and a shot from the 18th St. Pink Line. Time Out also used the Clark/Lake CTA shot. And Chicago Magazine apparently has a photo blog and used this Merchandise Mart CTA shot. CTA photos seem to be my biggest hit, and I'll have an update of my every-CTA-station project soon...
8 comments:
Ugh, you like vegan cheesecake? I can't abide the stuff. I was once involved in pieing someone with one, though, which seemed like an appropriate use for it.
It's because regular cheesecake is so rich, I can only stand it about once a year. The vegan version is different and more tolerable. Still haven't found a veggie hot dog I care much for, though.
That round thing, i totally forgot what they were called. I haven't seen one like that since i was a kid in Cleveland.
Spam, arrgh, I see from #3 that I'm going to have to institute some sort of policy here...I don't even know how to erase that!
But the REAL commenters are much appreciated!
I have the same problem. I get odd little spam like similar to that and it tells me to click on their link. It's easy to delete. When you are signed in to Blogger, you just go to the comments section here and their should be a little icon on each of our posts. The icon stands for delete. You click on it, Blogger asks if you are sure you want to delete, say yes and check the box that says "delete forever" which completely rids you of the vermin. Hope this helps.
Thanks, Didi, that was one of those easy things I hadn't bothered to learn yet! I might switch this to the setting where you have type in letters...
I hate the type in setting letters. They always annoy me to death. LOL! IT took me a while to figure the deleting stuff too so don't feel left out.
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