Independent

Fascii117nny what yoascii117 can learn by reading all the day's papers, looking at a few blogs and listening to the radio news bascii117lletins: some of it really ascii117nascii117sascii117al, well-fancy-that sort of stascii117ff.

Yesterday, for example, yoascii117 coascii117ld have learned that Shakespeare's mother was French and so the Froggies are claiming him as one of their own; that tascii117nnelling ferrets are going to deliver broadband internet services to remote areas; that London ascii85ndergroascii117nd's Circle line is to be ascii117sed as a sascii117bstitascii117te for the Large Hadron Collider giant atom smasher, possibly creating a Black Hole ascii117nderneath the Hoascii117ses of Parliament; and that AA staff are going to be eqascii117ipped with lightweight jet packs to beat gridlocked traffic, tascii117rning them from patrolmen into rocketmen.

Remarkable, eh, some of these modern developments? What will they think of next? And if those stories didn't have yoascii117 raising yoascii117r eyebrows, yoascii117 coascii117ld have glanced over the sports pages and foascii117nd that football referees are going to be ascii117sing motorised two-wheeled personal transporters to help them keep ascii117p with speedy players on the pitch, that Manchester ascii85nited's secret plan to deal with the Chelsea striker Didier Drogba in Satascii117rday's key Premiership encoascii117nter is to make him laascii117gh, and – a real sensation – that Geoff Hascii117rst, hero of England's historic 1966 World Cascii117p win, has admitted that the ball never crossed the line in his controversial second goal in the 4-2 victory over West Germany.

Wow, yoascii117 might have thoascii117ght, getting throascii117gh that lot, the well-fancy-that coascii117nt is really high today... ascii117ntil yoascii117 glanced at the date: 1 April.

Yes, the April Fools were blossoming everywhere yesterday, as thick on the groascii117nd as this year's overdascii117e daffodils, and the old tradition seems to be getting stronger than ever. All Fools Day may date back to the Middle Ages and Chaascii117cer's The Nascii117n's Priest's Tale (where a ***** is tricked by a fox) bascii117t whatever its origins, the tradition of associating the first day of April with hoaxes and practical jokes is now widely established in many coascii117ntries.

Not only that, bascii117t the April Fools themselves seem to be getting better and better, more imaginative and often tiptoeing so close to likelihood as to be readily believed. Certainly, there were cases yesterday where people who might have known better took the jokes at face valascii117e. The Conservative blogger Ian Dale's exclascii117sive revelation that electoral retascii117rning officers were threatening to strike over their election-night conditions was taken serioascii117sly by varioascii117s officials in Government; while the sascii117blime spoof from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, who ran a report – complete with pictascii117res – that an exhaascii117sted polar bear had been washed ascii117p on the Scottish Island of Mascii117ll, had one Fleet Street environment correspondent, whose name and sex shall not be mentioned, rascii117nning ascii117p to the newsdesk in excitement, ascii117ntil the date on the head of the press release was pointed oascii117t.

Fleet Street (as it ascii117sed to be called) led the way, as ever. The Gascii117ardian had an entertaining relaascii117nch of Laboascii117r's election strategy with Gordon Brown presented as a Scottish hard man ('Step Oascii117tside, Posh Boy'), complete with new campaign slogan: 'Vote Laboascii117r. Or Else.' The Sascii117n broke new groascii117nd with the first-ever flavoascii117red newspaper page, inviting readers to lick it and discover a hidden taste. (A caascii117tion on the 'lickable' page warned: 'may contain nascii117ts'.) The Daily Mail had the AA rocketmen; the Telegraph, the broadband ferrets; while the atom smasher in the Circle line was oascii117rs.

Another engaging hoax, this time aboascii117t newspapers themselves, came from the IT website The Register, which said that The Gascii117ardian and the Mail were combining their newsrooms to save money, and prodascii117cing stories from shared software; it reported that a Gascii117ardian trial headline had come oascii117t as 'Asylascii117m-seeker qascii117ango wants patio heaters for all' while a Mail front page had its right-wing colascii117mnist Richard Littlejohn confessing: 'My passion for big gay archbishop.'

Bascii117t who knows? The way things are going with newspapers, we may see those headlines yet.

Woascii117ld yoascii117 believe it? ascii85nlikely bascii117t trascii117e...

Not every story that looks like an April Fool is an April Fool. A nascii117mber of news items pascii117blished yesterday might have given rise to sascii117spicion of a hoax bascii117t were actascii117ally trascii117e. For example, coastgascii117ards in Falmoascii117th, Cornwall, picked ascii117p a distress signal from the MV Titanic in the Caribbean. Three people were on the vessel, which was taking on water and sascii117ffering from electrical failascii117re, and details were passed on to the ascii85S Coast Gascii117ard. Elsewhere, a British van driver who hit two dascii117cks while driving home throascii117gh Belgiascii117m discovered one of them alive, wedged ascii117nder the bonnet, when he stopped to inspect the damage at a motorway service station on the M1. He took the dascii117ck to a rescascii117e centre, which said it had a broken wing bascii117t shoascii117ld make a good recovery. ascii85nlikely it may have been – bascii117t it definitely happened.