Longboat Observer strikes again on April Fool's

OK, OK, we get it.

Someone on social media spoiler-alerted this year’s batch of April Fool-ishness in the Longboat Observer, but still two things happened that made us smile.

Well, three, actually, with the smiles getting broader each time.

First, we fooled you, which is the prime goal of our early-April, late-March made-up mirth in print and online.

We heard from a couple at a real April Fool's event that our take on the discovery of 10,000-year-old "Colony Man" artifacts on Longboat Key was entirely believable. Must have been the bit about the prehistoric Key lime pie recipe. (Who doesn’t want to believe our favorite Florida dessert hasn’t been enjoyed through the eons and that no refrigeration was needed during those days when the Ice Age was a recent memory?)

Here's what one reader had to say about the discovery of "Colony Man": "Truly remarkable. Thank you for covering this in such detail. I trust that the developers will be mindful of the importance of science and archeology as they proceed. Allow me to suggest that there are surgeons in the area who can remove tongues that have been implanted in cheeks. Such surgery is typically scheduled for April 2 every year and is reversible — usually on March 31.

We also saw some comments on the Longboat Key lifestyle Facebook pages that indicated it’s not hard to get fooled, though readers start getting wise to us after years of experience. And thanks, Gracie SWAN Foundation, for liking and republishing Nat Kaemmerer’s hilarious take on a TV show coming soon about Longboat Key’s saucy, spouse-swapping swans.  

Two, we’ve had a couple of conversations with readers (and one job candidate, believe it or not) about how it all comes together. Although it often might seem like the work of addled college kids who took a break from term papers and university-grade algebra, there really is method to our madness.

As we’ve said in this space before, new ideas begin not long after the last April Fool's edition goes to press. In many cases, such as Nat’s swan story, real life just can’t top our own imaginations. So we often head there first, relying on coffee-stained Post-it notes stuck to the December page of a desk calendar (no fooling, we actually still use them) to be transferred to the next year’s calendar when our office manager comes around with them right before Christmas.

By late February or early March, at least one meeting will have already taken place, weeding out ideas whose shelf life didn’t last, trying to generate new ones or bank-shot old premises off new events or news stories.

Then our page designers join the act with novel ideas to make original artwork, use existing artwork or create something entirely new.

Once we settle on a package for each edition, off we go.

So no, if you’re still hanging on to a sliver of hope, there was no Pepperidge Farm Goldfish spill on Longboat shores, no Colony Man, no crushing gambling debt for a pair of beloved manatees.

Oh, that third thing that made us smile?

The ideas we get from you. Not 48 hours after our newspaper was available, we were out covering an event seen elsewhere in this issue that involved a giant pirate ship/truck and some fun-loving tennis enthusiasts. A bystander called us over, after spotting an Observer ID, and suggested the seeds of a 2023 gag.

We’re not saying what it was. You just wait.