APRIL FOOL'S DAY

For Mr. T, the famous TV personality from the 1980's, everyone was a fool everyday, all the time.

However, for many countries of the world, this may not be true, except on April first... also known as: April Fool's Day.

And although it's not a national holiday, many people really get a "kick" out of celebrating it. Why? Mainly, because, it's a day to tell wild stories, play hoaxes and other practical jokes on friends, family or colleagues.

But not everybody agrees on the history of April Fool's Day. Most historians believe it comes from a misreading of a date in Geoffrey Chaucer's classic The Canterbury Tales (1392), in which one character is tricked by another.

Still, others believe that it originated during the Middle Ages when people who celebrated the New Year on April 1st were ridiculed by those who celebrated it on January 1st as a result of a change in the Gregorian calendar.

Nevertheless, for decades the media has been known to play April Fool's day practical jokes on audiences. Here are some of the most memorable ones:

2002: Google reveals its page-ranking system is actually done by domestic pigeons.

2007: The BBC reported that it was conducting a trial run of a new Sniff-Screen technology on its website, prompting numerous people to call in and claim it really worked.

1998: Burger King takes out an ad in USA Today saying it would sell special left-handed burgers, which were designed to have condiments spill out of the right side.

1976: An astronomer tells listeners of BBC radio that the alignment of two planets had caused a strange disturbance in gravity, and told people to jump up and feel like they were floating. Many listeners called in exclaiming it worked.

1998: Alabama lawmakers vote to change the value of pi.

1957: A British tv program reports that Italians were harvesting spaghetti from trees, causing people to call in and ask how to grow their own.

If you enjoyed those, here's a link to a website that lists the top 100 April Fool's Day pranks of all time.

For more on April Fool's Day, we invite you to watch this video that includes a report from Voice of America, telling the story of this famous day.

Enjoy, English Users and remember to send in your 20 page reports on this topic by next week!

COMMON MISTAKES - Weather vs. Whether

Here are another two words that sound alike, are often confused and have absolutely different meanings:

Weather: the atmospheric conditions in a specific place, usually making reference to the sun, clouds, temperature, wind and rain.

Whether: a way to introduce a statement or question involving alternative possibilities.

EXAMPLES:

1. The weather for today is partly-cloudy, with a 30 percent chance of rain and winds from the South-East at 40 miles per hour.

2. Tina loves rainy weather when she has to paint.

3. Tom needs to decide whether or not he's going to work together as a member of this team.

4. Whether we have the soccer match this afternoon depends on the weather.

ACHING FOR more PHRASALS?

Last post, we discussed what phrasal verbs were essentially about. Today, we'll look at examples, starting with the letter A.

ACHE FOR - want something a lot
Ex. Tom's aching to go surfing again next weekend.

ACT ON - take action as a result of information obtained or of an event
Ex. Acting on evidence found at the crime scene, police are now looking for two suspects instead of one.

ACT UP - behave badly or strangely
Ex. I called you here because your son has been acting up all week in class.

ADD UP -to be a satisfactory explanation for something.
Ex. If you left your house an hour ago, you couldn't have been here for the past two hours. Something doesn't add up!

ANSWER FOR - be responsible for someone or something
Ex. Mary is the team leader, so she'll have to answer for any of its members.

ASK OUT - invite someone on a date (can also be expressed as "Take out")
Ex. I wanted to ask her out, but she's already got a date for the dance.

ASK OVER - invite to your home or place
Ex. Forget about the dance, ask her over to your place next time.

And speaking of aching and not having the nerve to ask or take someone out, here's a song from Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand that deals with just that. Check it out and practice today's phrasals!