And the best thing: Not only will taxpayers not be on the hook for even one cent of the stadium cost, they will be given a stipend every month once it’s finished, courtesy of the Spanos family.

April Fool!

Indeed, April 1 means April Fools’ Day, that day of mirth, merriment, gags, practical jokes, pranks, well-timed insults and flat-out lies, is upon us once again. What many folks might forget is AFD is a BFD — it’s widely celebrated throughout the West, and even in at least one country that would be shocking to most, but more on that later.

Also unknown by many is that April Fools’ Day (aka All Fools’ Day) has a history that goes back many hundreds of years. The first mention of April 1 and silly behavior is found in Chaucer’s Cantebury Tales, written in 1392. History has it that April Fools’ Day really started gaining traction in France, circa 1582.

Under the rule of Charles X, France junked the Julian Calendar and replaced it with the Gregorian Calendar, which shifted New Year’s Day to January 1. Apparently, the old New Year’s was April 1, and some local folks continued to ring in the new year on that day, either out of ignorance or a desire to stick to tradition.

Regardless, these folks were chided by those considered more enlightened, and they were sent on “fools errands” or subjected to be convinced that something apocryphal was actually fact.

How April Fools’ Day is celebrated differs in some countries. For example, in the United States, France, Italy, South Korea, The Netherlands, Ireland and other locales, April 1 is an all-day prank-a-thon. In France and Italy, the custom calls for children to tack paper fish on each other’s back while shouting “April fish” in the local tongue. That would be “poisson d’avril” in French and “pesce d’aprile” in Italian. Kids have been known to stick the fish on adults (who are also known to participate), but only on those they know well.

This practice also exists in parts of Belgium. A Flemish tradition sees kids locking out their parents or teachers, only letting them in if they vow to bring them treats the same evening or the next day.

In Canada, New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere, the joke is on you if you pull a prank afternoon, earning an “April Fool” taunt.

Despite its European roots, April Fools’ Day probably dates back to an unlikely place — Iran, hardly a haven for fun and games. On the 13th day of the Persian new year — which is either April 1 or 2, Iranians subject each other to jokes and good-natured mischief. This practice is called “Sizdah Bedar” and goes all the way back to 536 BC, so if a dispatch comes out of Tehran saying, “Ahmadinejad to Buy Padres, Wants to Bring Back Adrian Gonzalez and Sign Tebow”, dismiss it as poppycock.

On that note, there has been a cavalcade media-led pranks tossed out on April Fools’ Day throughout the years; here are a few of them.

1957: The British Broadcasting Company television show “Panorama” ran a segment showing the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. Many viewers subsequently called the BBC for advice on how to do it themselves. This remains one of the most hilarious AFD pranks ever.

1965: The BBC allegedly conducted a test that showed odor could be transmitted from TV sets, making it “Smell-O-Vision.” An Australian network followed suit years later. The fact is “Smell-O-Vision replaces television” was a line uttered by Bugs Bunny in a cartoon years before either of these stunts.

1993: A San Diego radio outlet convinced many listeners that the Space Shuttle had been diverted from Edwards Air Force Base and was on the verge of making an emergency landing at a local commuter airport.

1996: Taco Bell took out a full-page ad in the otherwise staid New York Times announcing that it had bought the Liberty Bell to ease the country’s debt and renamed it the “Taco Liberty Bell.” Showing a sharp sense of humor, White House press secretary Mike McCarthy, when told of the bogus Taco Bell sale, remarked that the Lincoln Memorial had also been purchased and would be known as the “Ford Lincoln Memorial.”

1998: Truly pushing the envelope of good taste off a cliff, Boston radio shock jocks Opie and Anthony of WAAF reported that mayor Thomas Menino had been killed in a car accident. Menino was on a flight at the time and couldn’t be reached, giving some credence to the story. It turned out he was alive and well, and the two radio personalities were canned. However, their notoriety helped them land a syndicated show.

1998: San Francisco radio station KITS changed its call letters to KGAY for an hour, during which it played only gay-themed songs.

Finally, there have been several notables born on April 1, among them: TV political commentator Rachel Maddow; country music legend Merle Haggard; horror film star Lon Chaney; actresses Ali MacGraw and Debbie Reynolds, former long-time Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler; singer Susan Boyle of “American Idol” fame; baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro, who won 316 games during a 24-year career.

But last but not least among those of note born on April 1 would be this reporter, your favorite SanDiego.com pundit. And that’s not a joke or prank.

Maybe you heard it over and over again, for years and years, to the point of nervous exhaustion. You addressed the matter with close friends, but there was also someone new coming along to point out the obvious. Eventually though, you grew out of the look or the celebrity’s face faded from other people’s thoughts, and it was over.

But for the “Leapling,” or “Leaper,” a person born on that quadrennial 29th day of February, there is no such escape. Doomed, they are, to life as a walking, talking “conversation piece.”

And everyone has an opinion.

“Some people say that I should be celebrating on March 1st, since it’s the day after February 28th,” says Danielle Fenster, 28, a digital project manager in New York, who, like her grandmother, has endured more of the mind-numbing inquiries than she can bear to recall.

“Others, including me, think that I should celebrate February 28th since it’s within my birth month; leap-year babies call this being a ‘Strict Februarian.’”

Facebook, the place most us go to check for or confirm a friend’s upcoming birthday, is strictly ambiguous on the matter.

One Leaper who asked not to be identified said the social network manages to further confuse an already difficult set of circumstances.

“Every single year, Facebook chooses whatever day it wants — or none at all — and people start wishing you a ‘Happy Birthday,’” the anonymous Leapling huffs. “Because Facebook told them to. Sometimes the 28th, sometimes the 1st, sometimes not at all.”

A sorry state of affairs, indeed, which makes it all the more surprising that so many expectant mothers actually target the date for their big deliveries.

“People would rather have the baby on Leap Day,” Sara Channing, spokeswoman for Orlando’s Florida Hospital, told the Associated Press. “We have a slight increase in the number of scheduled C-sections on that day since it is a special day.”

While mothers and the government both recognize Feb. 29 as a perfectly reasonable date to have been born — federal programs such as Social Security accept it in their files — the free market can be less accommodating. Some websites don’t list 29 as an option in their drop-down boxes. Some companies’ computer programs demand a choice.

“My life insurance policy is for March 1 because their computer doesn’t support Leap Day,” said Peter Brouwer, with one might assume to be a dash of frustration, when consulted by the AP.

He turns 56 today, meaning he will celebrate his birthday for the 14th time in almost six decades.

For Brouwer, and what he has calculated to be 5 million other Leapers worldwide, being quirky comes with its quirks.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Source: abc news

Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston is dead at 48 years old.

The superstar singer and actress’s publicist, Kristin Foster, broke the news of Houston’s passing to the AP. She was found and pronounced dead at the Beverly Hills Hilton on Saturday afternoon; thus far, no cause of death has been revealed. In recent years, she struggled with drug abuse.

Her self-titled debut album, released in 1985, sold 25 million copies worldwide. In total, she released seven albums and three film soundtracks; a winner of six Grammys, Houston sold over 200 million albums and singles worldwide. She earned 30 Billboard Awards, 22 American Music Awards and two Emmy Awards.

In an interview published Monday in The Guardian newspaper, the 69-year-old says the human brain is a like a computer that will stop working when its components fail.

He says: “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

In “Grand Design,” a book published last year, Hawking had declared that it was “not necessary to invoke God … to get the universe going.”

Hawking is nearly totally paralyzed by motor neurone disease, diagnosed when he was 21.

Hawking says he is not afraid of death, but adds: “I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.”

A three-judge appeals court panel overturned a lower-court ruling and ordered the Kansas Health Policy Authority to grant Mary Stinemetz’s request to undergo a Medicaid-funded liver transplant in Nebraska.

“We are very happy,” said Corinne Petrik, the lawyer representing Stinemetz.

Stinemetz, 64, had refused to undergo a liver transplant at the University of Kansas Hospital because she would need a blood transfusion — something she could not accept as a Jehovah’s Witness.

She said Jehovah’s Witnesses follow biblical directives to abstain from blood, pointing to passages in the books of Acts, Genesis and Deuteronomy, according to court records.

Church doctrine leaves it to the discretion of members to accept certain blood fractions and donor organs.

Stinemetz wanted the state to approve a liver transplant in Nebraska, where she could undergo a bloodless procedure, but her request was rejected because the procedure would be done out of state.

For 20 years, the Hill City, Kan. woman has suffered from primary biliary cirrhosis, a chronic disease that causes the liver to deteriorate and malfunction over time.

Stinemetz, who has known since last year she would need a new liver, isn’t on a waiting list for an organ, and her eligibility for a transplant hasn’t yet been evaluated.

Repeated efforts to reach the Kansas Health Policy Authority for comment on Wednesday’s ruling were unsuccessful. It is not known whether the agency plans an appeal to a higher court.

While the Kansas Court of Appeals found that state Medicaid rules didn’t focus on Stinemetz’s faith, it did note that state regulations allow for exceptions to the general rule barring Medicaid funding for out-of-state services.

Because the rules allow for exceptions, the state under the First Amendment could not deny Stinemetz’s request unless it had a compelling reason, something that judges had trouble pinpointing during oral arguments.

The state “has failed to suggest any state interest, much less a compelling interest for denying Stinemetz’s request for prior authorization for the out-of-state liver transplant,” Judge Thomas E. Malone wrote for the appellate court.

The court noted that cost was not an issue in denying Stinemetz’s claim, finding that the bloodless procedure costs less than one that requires a transfusion.

“There is no question that the (state) would authorize a bloodless liver transplant if a medical facility was available in Kansas to perform the technique,” Malone wrote in the 40-page opinion.

Given that the bloodless procedure is less costly, the state is “unable to argue that the agency is being fiscally responsible as the steward of Kansas’ tax dollars” by rejecting Stinemetz’s request.

Stinemetz’s appeal was based partly on a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case involving a Seventh-day Adventist who was let go from her job because she wouldn’t work on Saturday, the Sabbath of her faith.

That woman was denied state unemployment benefits when she couldn’t find a job because of her unwillingness to work on Saturdays.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Seventh-day Adventist, finding that government needed a compelling state interest to justify infringing on someone’s right to freely exercise religion.

The Kansas Health Policy Authority, meanwhile, contended the case involving the Seventh-day Adventist didn’t apply any more. The agency instead, relied on a 1990 Supreme Court case involving two workers in Oregon who were fired for ingesting peyote for sacramental purposes and were denied unemployment compensation.

The Supreme Court eventually upheld the denial of benefits, ruling that the government can uniformly enforce laws that might impinge on someone’s religion as long the law doesn’t focus on one’s faith.

But the Kansas appeals court distinguished between the two cases, noting that the Oregon case involved illegal activity and the case with the Seventh-day Adventist related to unemployment benefits.

The Supreme Court ruled in the Oregon case that in situations where the state might have a system of exemptions in place, it must have a compelling reason not to extend those exemptions in cases of religious hardship.

In the Stinemetz case, the appeals court found that because Kansas provided exceptions to its rules, it had to have a compelling reason to deny her request.

It’s a particularly sensitive issue for McCain because both of her parents suffered from skin cancer, which is perhaps why she chose to respond to Beck’s vitriol in such a mature and productive way.  In an open letter, published on the Daily Beast, she said that she thought by pretending to be naked (the theme of the PSA is a number of celebrities, depicted wearing nude bodysuits or filmed, like McCain, so that they appear not to be clothed, saying that they feel “naked” without sunscreen), she could draw attention to the disease.  McCain was, in reality, wearing a strapless dress, which was cut off by the camera.

Beck, on his radio show, pretended to vomit into a trash can every time he looked at McCain or heard her name.  He then said, “Put some extra clothes on. Like, lots of extra clothes … has she thought about a burqa, just to be extra safe?”

It would have been easy for McCain to respond with absolute, righteous fury — Beck’s comments were insulting, fat-hating, and sexist beyond words.  But instead, she showed just how empty his hatred is.

“There really is no need to make something like my participation in a skin cancer PSA into a sexist rant about my weight and physical appearance,” McCain wrote, “because I’m going to let you in on a little secret, Glenn: you are the only one who looks bad in this scenario, and at the end of the day you have helped me generate publicity for my skin cancer PSA, a cause that I feel quite passionate about.”

And then she delivered the kicker: “You’re a full-grown man with teenage daughters who are probably dealing with the sexist, body-obsessed media environment that is difficult for all women. Is this really the legacy you want to be leaving for yourself?”

Meghan McCain deserves some serious applause for standing up to a more extreme version of the sexism that most women experience daily when their bodies are criticized or scrutinized and their words are ignored.  We need more women in the public sphere who point out, rightly, that when people like Beck criticize women for their appearances, they’re the ones who come out looking ugly.

Asheville’s Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute — now there’s a place you’d want to visit — estimated once that 17 million to 21 million people in the United States have a big fear of this day, to the point they avoid their normal routines.

They might lay out of work, avoid restaurants, reschedule trips and definitely not get married. Millions of dollars in business apparently are lost.

Theories abound on how the superstition got started. Its roots could reach to ancient times, though solid documentation of friggatriskaidekaphobia — fear of Friday the 13th — only goes back a century or so.

This year has one Friday the 13th — today. Next year has three.

Consider yourself warned.

But “13,” taken on its own, always has been considered an unlucky number. Other cities often skipped 13th Street when their grids were laid out, just as tall hotels and office buildings try to avoid a 13th floor when it comes to their numbering.

Sandra and others on her street live with “13” every day. Sandra, for one, has few complaints.

Her home has never experienced a break-in.

She doesn’t see any “druggies” hanging out on 13th, which extends from North Main to Maxwell streets.

Only once in awhile is someone playing loud music. While standing in her kitchen, she sometimes has felt her feet vibrate from the thump-thump of tunes blaring from a car.

But Sandra loves her house, which she has fixed up smartly, and the location is great, she says, for getting anywhere in Salisbury and to points north such as Spencer, Lexington and High Point.

Sandra has never won anything in her life and lives by Murphy’s Law, which says anything that can go wrong will go wrong. She’s not superstitious, but she’s also not going to walk under any ladders.

Who knows, a paint bucket might fall on her or she might trip.

“But I’m pretty lucky,” Sandra concludes, “because I’m upright in the morning.”

As luck would have it

There’s a flip side to living on 13th Street. You could live on Lucky Lane.

For almost five years, Chad and Ann Hamilton have resided on Lucky Lane, in the eastern part of Rowan County. The official name of their small cul de sac of nine homes is Shamrock Meadows, so Lucky Lane makes sense.

Ann Hamilton also says she’s not a superstitious person, but “I feel very fortunate and blessed to live on Lucky Lane.”

“We have great neighbors,” she adds.

One of the Hamiltons’ big blessings since living on Lucky Lane was the arrival three years ago of their daughter Hope, who joins their 12-year-old daughter, Jordan.

Darlene Lopez says her Lucky Lane home also has been a blessing. After a divorce, she had to short-sell another house, and she was able to work out a rent-to-own agreement on this place.

After looking everywhere, Lopez says, the 3-year-old Lucky Lane house was exactly what she wanted — an open floor plan, a nice front porch and convenient location to her nursing shifts at the VA Medical Center and CMC-NorthEast.

She also saw the street name — Lucky Lane — as an omen.

“I do believe in miracles, for us to get what we were wishing for,” she says. “… This was just a blessing. I believe in that.”

There’s one disadvantage to living on Lucky Lane.

“Someone stole our street sign,” Ann Hamilton says.

The best place

Back on 13th Street in Salisbury, Linda Faulk says she moved here about 14 months ago. “I’ve had no problem,” she says. “It’s the best place I’ve had in Salisbury. It’s been lucky for me. I thank God every day I’ve had a chance to be here.”

Bill McCranie moved here in 1994, and his house on 13th Street was the first he had ever owned. He had never given a thought to its being a bad-luck street.

“It’s been lucky in a number of ways,” he says. “I’ve had good experiences here.”

McCranie also became a dog owner for the first time on 13th Street, when he created a home for an abandoned pup from Spencer. He loves that dog.

Her name is Lucy — only one letter shy of Lucky.

Who put them up? Family Radio, a network of Christian radio stations co-founded by Californian radio host Harold Camping, has placed the billboards nationwide. Those who believe May 21 is Judgment Day are circling the globe, warning people to repent before the world ends — despite arguments from many Christians, including theologically conservative ones, who say there’s no way to know the “end date.”

“We’re living at a time when God is opening up the scriptures and we have a responsibility to tell people,” Family Radio listener Lincoln Ropp said last week, before leaving to spread the message in Bulgaria. The Nova Southeastern University medical student and his wife, Elizabeth, relinquished internships in Orlando hospitals this spring.

Family Radio has sponsored five caravans — groups of three or four vans full of followers who have been traveling the United States passing out fliers since October. Their stops included Miami, Orlando and other Florida cities in January and February.

There were nine billboards in South Florida, but the contract has expired on seven, said Family Radio’s Michael Garcia. The network bought 1,200 nationwide and 2,000 overseas. He declined to disclose the cost.

So how will the world end? Great earthquakes will shake the Earth at 6 p.m. local time (and continue through Oct. 21), and believers will be called to the heavens, Camping has been saying on his radio program, and the unrepentant will be thrown to the ground and shamed.

Camping, 89, a civil engineer, points to the numerology in the Bible, specifically that 2 Peter says, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day.” He said that means that 7,000 years from the great flood is the end of the world.

Camping and Family Radio followers also cite Genesis, which says the flood began on the “17th day of the second month.” Camping said that day is May 21, according to his interpretation of the Jewish calendar.

But about 17 years ago, Camping warned of an apocalypse taking place Sept. 6, 1994. He now says he had not completed his biblical research at the time.

Most Christians cite Bible passages such as Revelation 3:3: “I will come like a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.” Also, Matthew 24:36, in which Jesus says, “No one knows when that day or hour will come — not the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Ropp responds that Revelation warns people to watch for the end of the world and that many Christians bend the verse as an excuse not to watch.

A 2010 poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that about 41 percent of Americans think Jesus will return before 2050. And some scholars have said the Mayan calendar indicates an end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012.

“I do believe Christ is coming, but I don’t believe we know the time or the hour,” said Warren Gage, dean of faculty at the Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale. “I think there’s a very clear scriptural reference that no one knows the time in the end.

“May 21 is not circled on my calendar. And I’ll be looking forward to Sunday, May 22.”

Some are having fun with it, such as the Florida Atheists and Secular Humanists, who will mark May 21 with a “Rapture Party” at the Lauderdale Beach Hotel Tiki bar in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.

“We definitely see a lot of scoffing and mocking,” Ropp said. “But really, we take this as expected. Jesus said when you speak the truth, you’ll be hated.”

From the story:

When the Rev. Phil Henning of Sacred Heart Catholic Church denied Kevin (Castro) his first reception of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Henning said the boy had “the mental capacity of a 6-month old” and didn’t have “sufficient knowledge of Christ” to participate in the religious rite, even though Catholic doctrine doesn’t specify what level of knowledge is adequate….

Deacon Pat Rodgers, from the Archdiocese of San Antonio, told ABCNews.com that the decision whether to give the sacrament lies with the local priest, but emphasized, “It’s never our desire, hope or wish to withhold a sacrament from someone who wants or needs it.”

Instead of the Eucharist, Kevin was given the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. His family, which lives and attends church in Floresville, says he is being discriminated against because of his condition.

The Catholic Church provides parishes resources to specifically help them incorporate people with disabilities.

“To exclude members of the parish from these celebrations of the life of the Church, even by passive omission, is to deny the reality of that community,” according to the Pastoral Statement of U.S. Catholic Bishops on People with Disabilities.

“Realistic provision must be made for persons with disabilities to participate fully in the Eucharist and other liturgical celebrations such as the sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and Anointing of the Sick. The experiences and needs of individuals with disabilities vary, as do those of any group of people. For some with significant disabilities, special liturgies may be appropriate,” the USCCB statement said.

In this case, though, the local priest may have decided that Kevin’s cerebral palsy did not allow him to understand the body of Christ as given through the sacrament. The Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law emphasizes children’s comprehension of their Holy Communion:

The administration of the Most Holy Eucharist to children requires that they have sufficient knowledge and careful preparation so that they understand the mystery of Christ according to their capacity and are able to receive the body of Christ with faith and devotion.

The Most Holy Eucharist, however, can be administered to children in danger of death if they can distinguish the body of Christ from ordinary food and receive communion reverently.

For the Druids of the British Isles, May 1 was the second most important holiday of the year. Because, it was when the festival of Beltane held. It was thought that the day divides the year into half. The other half was to be ended with the Samhain on November 1. Those days the May Day custom was the setting of new fire. It was one of those ancient New Year rites performed throughout the world. And the fire itself was thought to lend life to the burgeoning springtime sun. Cattle were driven through the fire to purify them. Men, with their sweethearts, passed through the smoke for seeing good luck.

Then the Romans came to occupy the British Isles. The beginning of May was a very popular feast time for the Romans. It was devoted primarily to the worship of Flora, the goddess of flowers. It was in her honor a five day celebration, called the Floralia, was held. The five day festival would start from April 28 and end on May 2. The Romans brought in the rituals of the Floralia festival in the British Isles. And gradually the rituals of the Floralia were added to those of the Beltane. And many of today’s customs on the May Day bear a stark similarity with those combined traditions.

May day observance was discouraged during the Puritans. Though, it was relived when the Puritans lost power in England, it didn’t have the same robust force. Gradually, it came to be regarded more as a day of joy and merriment for the kids, rather than a day of observing the ancient fertility rights.

The tradition of Maypole and greeneries:
By the Middle Ages every English village had its Maypole. The bringing in of the Maypole from the woods was a great occasion and was accompanied by much rejoicing and merrymaking. The Maypoles were of all sizes. And one village would vie with another to show who could produce the tallest Maypole. Maypoles were usually set up for the day in small towns, but in London and the larger towns they were erected permanently.

The Maypole tradition suffered a setback for about a couple of decades since the Puritan Long Parliament stopped it in 1644. However, with the return of the Stuarts, the Maypole reappeared and the festivities of May Day were again enjoyed. One of the great Maypoles, was

The changes brought about by the Reformation included attempts to do away with practices that were obviously of pagan origin. But the Maypole, or, May tree, was not issued in practice at the behest of the second Stuart.

Although they succeeded in doing this, Maypole with most of the other traditions, many still survived. And Maypole is one of them. In France it merely changed its name. In Perigord and elsewhere, the May Tree became the “Tree of Liberty” and was the symbol of the French Revolution. Despite the new nomenclature, the peasants treated the tree in the same traditional spirit. And they would dance around it the same way as their forefathers had always done.

Maypoles and trees:
Trees have been linked to a part of celebration, perhaps, to the days ancient New Year rites. The association of trees to this celebration has come riding on the back of the spring festival in ancient Europe. Trees have always been the symbol of the great vitality and fertility of nature and were often used at the spring festivals of antiquity. The anthropologist E. O. James finds a strong relationship between the ancient tree related traditions of the British and the Romans. According to James’ description, as a part of the May Day celebration, the youths in old Europe cut down a tree, lopped off the branches leaving a few at the top. They then wrapped it round with violets like the figure of the Attis, the ancient Roman god. At sunrise, they used to take it back to their villages by blowing horns and flutes. In a similar manner, the sacred pine tree representing the god Attis was carried in procession to the temple of Cybele on Rome’s Palatine Hill during the Spring Festival of March 22.

Roots of May Day celebration in America:
The Puritans frowned on May Day, so the day has never been celebrated with as much enthusiasm in the United States as in Great Britain. But the tradition of celebrating May Day by dancing and singing around a maypole, tied with colorful streamers or ribbons, survived as a part of the English tradition. The kids celebrating the day by moving back and forth around the pole with the the streamers, choosing of May queen, and hanging of May baskets on the doorknobs of folks — are all the leftovers of the old European traditions.