Chelsea landowner Kitty Green has already sold two lots in her Medieval Village in Farm Point.
Two fake lots to some gullible readers.
If you haven’t figured out by now that the article, “Medieval village coming to Farm Point” was an April Fool’s joke by staff at our cheeky little newspaper, then we are going to give ourselves another pat on the back.
But some of the credit for this story – and many of the Low Down’s delightfully deceptive April Fool’s stories over the past – has to go to those who agreed to jump on board to make these stories seem real.
This year’s article would not have been possible without Green’s willingness to don a Middle Age Viking helmet, iron sword and mink jacket (which she hauled out from her basement.) When the Low Down showed up for the photoshoot, Green had her own iron sword ready to go. Her phone has since been ringing off the hook with friends and neighbours asking, “Is this true?” Wakefielder Kerstin Petersson told her to, “expect locals to break down your door.” Others have asked, “What is going on in Farm Point?”
And we can’t say enough good things about Farm Point Coun. Rita Jain, who immediately agreed to take part in the prank. She even encouraged us to take some potshots at recent sensitive council decisions like the controversial dock tax and guardrails. What other region has politicians who will hastily collaborate with the paper on a satirical April Fool’s article to prank her own constituents? Bravo, Rita, Bravo.
But there are even more people who played a big part in pulling this all together. We owe Wakefielder Jill Rick a few favours for getting us her epic Viking helmet, despite being in B.C. at the time. As soon as we mentioned “April Fool’s” and “Viking helmet,” Rick was on the phone with her friend Valérie Bédard, who promptly delivered the prop just in time for the shoot. It’s clear that our April Fool’s jokes are adored by more than just us newsies.
But the big question is, did we get you? Were you convinced that Green was set to develop 20 acres of land into a Medieval village complete with clay homes, a local inn and a LARPing arena? What about John Zeitoun’s “residential/experimental” zoning article?
If we didn’t get you this time, I’m sure our readers can agree that they’ve been duped by some of our novel April Fool’s ideas in the past.
Did you try to taste our newspaper years ago when we told you that we changed our ink from veggie-based to a sweeter fruit-based one? Readers were spotted licking the little yellow “scratch and taste” square that appeared on the front page.
Some readers were outraged when we reported that Quebec was implementing spring tire requirements for all vehicles in one of our past April Fool’s articles. Did we get you then? What about the organic snail farm development in Chelsea back in the day?
Newsrooms can be gloomy places, with heavy stories that weigh us down, and these April Fool’s stories are the perfect pieces of prose that remind us that we don’t have to be so serious all the time.