Breaking News: AA and UA to merge!

On Thu, 01 Apr 2004 19:56:59 -0500, "Scott M. Kozel"
wrote:

"David Brooks" wrote:

"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:
Cub Driver warbird@mail
wrote:

On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 20:37:51 -0500, "Bob" wrote:

Just announced, American and United have agreed to merge by the end of the
year.

Surely an April Fool! United wouldn't demean its frequent-flyer
program by merging it with AA's, surely?

April Fool's joke indeed, although the original poster screwed up by
posting it too early (Eastern Standard Time produced the above date-time
stamp). Not April 1st in the U.S. or anywhere to the west.

You mean, when I played April Fool jokes back in England, I had to wait till
5am just in case some American heard about it and found it unfunny? That
time I was in New Zealand in spring (or "autumn" as they call it), I had to
wait until, like, April 3?

I think the OP was in Aus (check the crosspost). If he had waited until the
East Coasters allowed the joke, he would have been subject to the "not funny
after midday" rule at home. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, damned if
it wasn't funny anyway.

Have I let all the air out of this one now?

No, it is still loaded with hot air.

This is Usenet, a worldwide medium. In North American and South
America, it was NOT April 1st, it was March 31st.

This just demonstrates that Aussies aren't good joke-tellers.

No. Just that "You All" are a bit slow, behind the times. :-)


Phil
--
Pfft...english! Who needs that? I'm never going to England.
Homer J. Simpson

On Thu, 1 Apr 2004 16:19:17 -0800, "David Brooks"
wrote:


You mean, when I played April Fool jokes back in England, I had to wait till
5am just in case some American heard about it and found it unfunny? That
time I was in New Zealand in spring (or "autumn" as they call it), I had to

Nope, spring is called spring in English speaking countries as well.
Autumn is what us English speakers call "fall".


Phil
--
Pfft...english! Who needs that? I'm never going to England.
Homer J. Simpson

"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:

Pooh Bear wrote:

"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:

This is Usenet, a worldwide medium. In North American and South
America, it was NOT April 1st, it was March 31st.

This just demonstrates that Aussies aren't good joke-tellers.

After bitching at me for a spelling *flame* I do hope you're joking above.

Being an aviation newsgroup - surely UTC should apply ?

The clocks in my house and on my computer are on local time, just like
virtually everywhere.

I somewhat suspect you already know that truly 'local time' - as in set by the
sun - was widespread indeed normal, certainly in the UK I know, until the
railway companies had large networks. It wasn't any good that, say, that Swindon
was maybe 3 mins different to London time since it made timetables impossibly
difficult.

Hence the railways introduced 'regional time' I guess you could say.


Posting an "April Fools Day" joke on March 31st is LAME, and the "joke"
was LAME to begin with.

Aren't most though ?

Noteworthy though of those I'm familiar with ......

The Guardian Newspaper once ran an amusing travel supplement one April 1st about
the Spanish resort of San(s?) Serif !

The Panorama TV programme once ran a programme about the 'spaghetti harvest' in
Italy ! Needless to say - this was in the early 60s ? when they could make fun
this way.


Graham

"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:
Posting an "April Fools Day" joke on March 31st is LAME, and the "joke"
was LAME to begin with.

Hold on a minute. Look at the list of newsgroups the original post was sent
to. It was perfectly legitimate.

Travellers should be used to the world operating on different time zones, and
places like Australia and New Zealand being a day ahead of the USA.

Pooh Bear wrote:
The Guardian Newspaper once ran an amusing travel supplement one April 1st about
the Spanish resort of San(s?) Serif !

The Panorama TV programme once ran a programme about the 'spaghetti harvest' in
Italy ! Needless to say - this was in the early 60s ? when they could make fun
this way.

I think that certain people from a certain country have lost the sense of
humour since the fall of 2001.

However, there are pockets of people who still do. Google advertised for jobs
for its new lunar computing centre. And it had trouble with its announcement
of a free email service to compete against Yahoo/MSN/Hotmail because people
thought it was April Fools joke.

nobody wrote:

"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:

Posting an "April Fools Day" joke on March 31st is LAME, and the "joke"
was LAME to begin with.

Hold on a minute. Look at the list of newsgroups the original post was sent
to. It was perfectly legitimate.

Baloney, any way you slice it.

These are worldwide newsgroups -- rec.aviation.piloting, rec.travel.air,
alt.disasters.aviation, and rec.aviation.piloting

Scott M. Kozel wrote:

nobody wrote:

"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:


Posting an "April Fools Day" joke on March 31st is LAME, and the "joke"
was LAME to begin with.

Hold on a minute. Look at the list of newsgroups the original post was sent
to. It was perfectly legitimate.


Baloney, any way you slice it.

These are worldwide newsgroups -- rec.aviation.piloting, rec.travel.air,
alt.disasters.aviation, and rec.aviation.piloting

Scott, you're full of crap on this one. By your standards, it would be
lame to post an April Fools joke on April 2nd as well. But any time one
chose to post it, it would be either March 31st or April 2nd *somewhere*
in the worldwide audience. He posted on 4/1 in his timezone. The only
reason the post had a 3/31 timestamp on was that it was posted through
Altopia, which always substitutes its local time, IP address, etc.

Give it up.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Rich Ahrens | Homepage: http://www.visi.com/~rma/ |
|-----------------------------------------------|
|"In a world full of people only some want to fly - isn't that crazy?" |
------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Rich Ahrens" wrote in message
isi.com...
Scott M. Kozel wrote:

nobody wrote:

"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:


Posting an "April Fools Day" joke on March 31st is LAME, and the "joke"
was LAME to begin with.

Hold on a minute. Look at the list of newsgroups the original post was
sent
to. It was perfectly legitimate.


Baloney, any way you slice it.

These are worldwide newsgroups -- rec.aviation.piloting, rec.travel.air,
alt.disasters.aviation, and rec.aviation.piloting

Scott, you're full of crap on this one. By your standards, it would be
lame to post an April Fools joke on April 2nd as well. But any time one
chose to post it, it would be either March 31st or April 2nd *somewhere*
in the worldwide audience. He posted on 4/1 in his timezone. The only
reason the post had a 3/31 timestamp on was that it was posted through
Altopia, which always substitutes its local time, IP address, etc.

Give it up.

Which pope was it, again, that established April Fools Day?

"nobody" wrote in message
...
Pooh Bear wrote:
The Guardian Newspaper once ran an amusing travel supplement one April
1st about
the Spanish resort of San(s?) Serif !

The Panorama TV programme once ran a programme about the 'spaghetti
harvest' in
Italy ! Needless to say - this was in the early 60s ? when they could
make fun
this way.

I think that certain people from a certain country have lost the sense of
humour since the fall of 2001.

However, there are pockets of people who still do. Google advertised for
jobs
for its new lunar computing centre. And it had trouble with its
announcement
of a free email service to compete against Yahoo/MSN/Hotmail because
people
thought it was April Fools joke.

Indeed - the Google lunar base piece was page after page of inspired deadpan
silliness. Bravo.

And I think it can safely be assumed that news of the agreement between Sun
and Microsoft had to be delayed for a day.

Now the spaghetti harvest piece, which many aficionados still hold as the
best broadcast AF joke ever, was distinguished by its dead-on production
values. The filming, the music, and the serious commentary (by Britain's
most respected TV journalist) made it indistinguishable from any other
documentary short, and nobody winked.

btw it was San Serriffe (capital: Bodoni). British travel agents were
inundated the next day by a public that had, 5 years earlier, believed
Thomas Cook was going to celebrate its centennial with a world tour at the
1872 Century price.

-- David Brooks

"Phil Miller" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 1 Apr 2004 16:19:17 -0800, "David Brooks"
wrote:


You mean, when I played April Fool jokes back in England, I had to wait
till
5am just in case some American heard about it and found it unfunny? That
time I was in New Zealand in spring (or "autumn" as they call it), I had
to

Nope, spring is called spring in English speaking countries as well.
Autumn is what us English speakers call "fall".

Hey, I just found them. I had mislaid the box! Here you are, I'll sprinkle a
few:

:-) :-) ;-) :-O :-)

-- David Brooks