Mr. NYPILB Doesn't Go to Washington

Growing up in a household of 8 siblings that sometimes drifted perilously close to an anarchy state, my ever dimming recollections of parental interactions in childhood being much like the the "mwa mwa mwa" of the muted trombones in Charlie Brown cartoons, April Fools Day was an actual holiday that my brothers and sisters actively celebrated, for it gave us a once-a-year pass on the usual tomfoolery that otherwise earned us some time in the corner on the cellar landing (the time-out chair apparently having not yet been invented) or an appointment with the wooden spoon (corporal punishment having been invented and being regularly practiced in our household at the time). When my kids were still living at home, our family also proactively celebrated April Fools Day and its permit to prank. 

Thus mindful of the date, my first cup of coffee and I spotted fellow blawger Eric Turkewitz's early morning tweet and clicked through to his On Becoming the White House Law Blogger post on his New York Personal Injury Law Blog yesterday morning before heading out to visit a client.  The metrics were a very nice touch.  

I arrived at my office midday to find Turk's White House Denies I've Been Given Blogger Role (But Not True) post and, both as a blogger and an angler, vicariously enjoyed the bites Eric had gotten from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. 

There was no hook set on the WSJ, but Eric did hook and land the vaunted NYT, even if the catch was later released.  Kudos to Turk and his co-conspiring law bloggers.  Well played.  And I, for one, am glad Mr. NYPILB is staying in New York.  And that he posted that second, less aged-looking photo of himself with his family.  So consider the possibilities of next year's pranking over the next 364 days and this, from Eric's post-prankial post of this morning:

Now one final question: Why the hell would I go to all this trouble for an April Fool's stunt?

I'm glad you asked: Lawyers often deal with misery. Peoples' lives can be forever changed in a fraction of a second in an accident. Divorce. Child custody. Bankruptcy. Arrests. There is no real end to the chain of human misery that clients bring to the doors of practicing attorneys.

So the April Fool's post is a count-your-blessings kind of thing. You only live once and life doesn't come with rehearsals. If you can enjoy yourself a little without hurting someone else, then that's OK. Laughter isn't the antidote to all of life's ills, but it sure doesn't hurt. Unless, of course, you're the Paper of Record.

 I wholeheartedly agree.  Doesn't hurt at all.