MARILYN CORNWELL: April 2 2020 - April Fool's Round Up at the Hidden Bench Barn

The online gammers put out a lot of effort on April Fool's, creating pranks within their games. Lots of them participated, but NPR, National Geographic, and others announced no April Fool's Jokes from them. Snoopes gave a round-up of April Fool's news from yesterday. It is their specialty, so they must have fine doing this.

1. RoboForm, the password manager software, on the contrary, introduced a "Barkpass".

2. Shiny Leaf shampoo released a Ketchup Smapoo: picture of red glop on soapy hair. It is a "Colour-boost ketchup shampoo".

"Our favorite bit from this April Fools’ Day prank comes when you click the purchase button on Shiny Leaf’s website. That opens up a list of related products which seem, at first, to be believable (especially if you just bought ketchup shampoo). But after listings for a “Hair Bun” and a “Mayo Leave-In” product, the “related items” section basically turns into a restaurant menu. If you try to complete your order, you’ll be greeted with a “WE GOT YOU! HAPPY APRIL FOOLS” message.

3. Virgin Australia announced it is giving away toilet paper. Snoopes says that this one isn’t a joke.

"With many flights cancelled, and with fears rising about a potential toilet paper shortage, Virgin Australia announced that it would be flipping April Fools’ Day on its head, and “turning the airline’s annual prank into a reality.” The company announced that it would be taking all of the unused toilet paper from its grounded planes and donating it to those in need."

"Each year our passengers use enough toilet paper to stretch from Sydney to Los Angeles, so we’re thrilled that in true Virgin spirit, we’re going to help the elderly, the vulnerable, medical staff, and our charity partners, by giving them the supply of toilet paper that’s currently locked-up in our grounded aircraft and storage facilities throughout Australia."

I imagine that toilet paper will be with us permanently. Don't you look at that roll differently?

Our picture today is taken at the Hidden Bench barn in front of the vineyards on McLeod Street on what's known as "The Bench". I always think of this as Locust Lane, but the winery is around the corner and it is on Locust Lane. I went searching for the street name, and the second picture that showed up was my own picture of the Hidden Bench barn, December, 2013, a snow scene.

Today's picture has the addition of a Skylum sky. Lots of fun adding these with California town names. I think this one is Anaheim Sunset. The second picture, in front of the barn, has a more realistic sky, although this one is from Skylum too. And there's that wonderful barn.