It's annual, it's fun, and we gotcha with the Observer's April Fool's editions

It happens everywhere people will grab their newspaper the day they get it, glance at the headline, and run out the door to a function.

With this time of year, be very cautious ... very cautious indeed of what you see in a headline in an Observer paper.

Upon glancing at the headline "SpaceX coming to SRQ" one reader took that line with him as he went to an event and ran into Rick Piccolo, who is the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport president and CEO.

It was to news to Piccolo. Well, actually non-news to Piccolo.

Last week, with the annual April Fool's edition of the Longboat Observer, Piccolo was a bit taken back, but cleared any rumor of space launches blasting off from SRQ and flying right over Bayfront Park on Longboat Key.

"We're not a rocket launching site," Piccolo said. "We don't want to disturb our neighbors."

But wait, there's more. One reader saw their Sarasota Observer and posted his thoughts on a local social media site against Gov. Ron DeSantis allowing for the Unconditional Surrender statue to be replaced by one of Donald and Melania.

The initial comment after his posting was someone who knew "The Observer's annual April Fool's edition." Despite that initial warning, several others continued with the "how can they change that statue" response?

One caller to our office acknowledged the joke of the statue and said, "Ya got me," and continued, "I'm sure glad that was a joke."

One gentleman from Canada who winters here in Sarasota said his eyes were popping out of his head when he saw the "statue swap" story, but breathed relief when he saw the "Gotcha" on the next page.

Back on Longboat, we had a message from someone who was calling for a group of friends and couldn't wait for the opening of the Skyline Chili. We called him back and, yes, he thought it was our April Fools edition.

But, the changing — er, non-changing — of the statue seemed to be the big winner of our shenanigan stories. 

There are always a few who get taken in by our stories, and we appreciate them. We work hard to get that result.

For those who know about the April Fools' issue, they are cautious. As Roger Daltry once sang, "We don't get fooled again."

We'll see about that.