So did I get anyone with my April Fools column or did it fall flat? I heard from several people who take pride in knowing me too well to have been tricked again, but surely I had to have fooled someone.

I spent the weekend cleaning and packing. We had a contract to sell our house, but the deal died last week after the buyers claimed one of our neighbors told them our basement has repeatedly flooded. I’ve lived there nearly 11 years and it’s never even had a little water. The house beside me used to have water problems, so maybe whoever said that had ours confused with theirs. Still, for the deal to fall through because of something so easily proved or disproved is incredibly frustrating.

They asked me to sign a release so they could get their deposit refunded. I said I would if they’d give me the name of the person who caused our deal to be squelched. I simply want to make certain this person knows they have the wrong house so they don’t go and screw up the next contract we get. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Am I being unfair by not signing the release?

It’s been nine years since I pulled my most successful April Fools’ joke of all time. I was new at this columnist gig back then, only six or seven months into the game, when I looked at the calendar and realized I had a column scheduled to appear on April Fools’ Day.

It was one of those times when my stars had aligned, and with great joy, I suddenly understood why I’d been put on this earth.

My column for the Big Day was simple, relating a number of pranks that I’d pulled or had pulled on me. That column, just like now, ran down the length of the page, but the last sentence at the bottom read, “But the best April Fools’ joke I ever managed to pull of was when I (SEE PAGE 22D)”

Except there was, of course, no page 22D. The joke was discovered by a few local DJs who fueled the fire by talking about the column on the air and saying the last prank I wrote about that day — the part that was hopped inside the paper — was the funniest thing they’d ever heard. It just wasn’t something they could read on the air.

I honestly believed the joke was so obvious that no one could possibly be fooled. I was wrong. My phone, and those in our customer service department, rang all morning long. In spite of the date and the topic of the column, upset readers still insisted their paper had pages missing.

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