April 1 should be a paid holiday

On the Garden Island of Kauai, where former Press City Editor Bill Buley is editor-in-chief, a shocking front-page story Friday disclosed that a mess of monkeys is being imported to boost tourism. It’s written by April Fuhl.

Ms. Fuhl also penned a piece for the Shoshone News-Press that covered the top half of Friday’s front page. Its two-deck, banner headline above a photo of actor Pierce Brosnan exclaims: ‘Distraught Brosnan returns, warning of impending eruption.’

The seemingly ubiquitous reporter further broke the news locally that Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene have merged, consolidating services that resulted in big refund checks for residents.

In an email to all city staff at 7:54 a.m. Friday, Coeur d’Alene City Administrator Jim Hammond announced he’s stepping down.

“I am tendering my resignation as city administrator as of the end of the day today,” he wrote, copying Post Falls City Administrator Shelly Enderud on the broadly distributed email. “With the merger of Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, I feel that the younger of the two city administrators should assume the role for Post d’Alene. In order to provide greater continuity in the merger, Shelly has consented to change her last name to Hammond. Best wishes to all. - Jim”

At 7:57 a.m., a perturbed reader left a message on the newspaper’s voicemail. Having read Ms. Fuhl’s story about the merger, he was miffed that the part of the story detailing where big refund checks could be picked up was not included.

“My question is on the refund,” he said. “It says ‘Refund on alpha 9 [Page A9].’ There’s no alpha 9.

“Give me a call back if it’s in another part of the paper or you guys are gonna print it.”

We’re not. Page alpha 9 resides in April Fool’s Day heaven, along with the juicy details about where to find a real money tree on the Rathdrum Prairie and a dozen or so other devious disclosures.

The Press received many more calls on Friday, most of them complimentary or congratulatory. In what started out years ago as a not-so-subtle attempt to remind people to be skeptical of everything they read, no matter the publishing source, a far greater message has emerged.

We can still laugh at ourselves. That ability will sustain people through times of political tumult, of international terrorist threats or even during maddeningly long drives down Mundane Lane.

Now all we’ve got to worry about is meeting Ms. Fuhl’s new salary demands.