Jody Victor : Are you ready for April Fool's Day? Got your prank planned for a certain someone?  April Fool's has been around for a long time. There have even been pranks pulled by countries, radio and television stations. Here are a few from the annals of time. Enjoy!

* Left Handed Whoppers - In 1998, Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out of the right side. Not only did customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the "old," right-handed burger.

* Taco Liberty Bell - In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell." When asked about the sale, White House press secretary Mike McCurry replied tongue-in-cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

* Shuttle Landing -  In 1993, a San Diego radio station fooled many listeners into believing that the space shuttle had been diverted from Edwards Air Force Base and was about to make an emergency landing at a small loval airport.

* Theft of a Locomotive - In 2006, a Cheyenne radio station reported to listeners that during the previous night, a Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" steam locomotive was stolen from Holliday Park. Although the locomotive weighed more than 550 tons and had no tracks connecting it to any nearby railroad, this making its theft near-impossible, several listeners fell for the joke and went to investigate. The road that overlooks the park was jammed for hours as people realized that it was a hoax, and the locomotive was still on display in the park.

* In 2005, TV 3 Estonia broadcasted a news story, where the station claimed that thanks to a new technology, they knew exactly how much they are being viewed at the moment. They also asked viewers to put a coin against their TV screens if they liked the running broadcast.

* On April Fool's Day, 1997, Cartoon Network ran the 1944 Srewy Squirrel cartoon Happy-Go-Nutty repeatedly from 6 am to 6 pm, suggesting that the cartoon character had taken over the network.

* The night-time channel Adult Swim has had several pranks over the years. In 2004, mustaches were drawn on characters during shows.

Happy April Fool's!

Jody Victor

Jody Victor : Long ago in a country far, far away....that's how a fairytale begins. It almost seems that way about the legendary Hanging Gardens - just a fairytale. Let's find out.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (also known as Hanging Gardens fo Semiramis) (near present-day Al Hillah in Iraq) are considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. They were built by Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC. He is said to have constructed the gardens to please his wife, Amytis of Media, who longed for the trees and fragrant plants of her homeland. The gardens were destroyed in an earthquake after the 1st century BC.

The lush Hanging Gardens are extensively documented by Greek historians such as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus. Through the ages, the location may have been confused with gardens that existed at Nineveh, since tablets from there clearly show gardens. Writings on these tablets describe the possible use of something similar to an Archimedes' screw as a process of raising the water to the required height.

There is some controversy as to whether the Hanging Gardens were an actual creation or a poetic creation due to the lack of documentation of them in the chronicles of Babylonian history. In ancient writings the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were first described by Berossus, a Chaldean priest who lived in the late 4th century BC. These accounts were later elaborated on by Greek historians.

Recent archaeological excavations of the palace in Iraq have uncovered evidence of a building with vaults and a well nearby however, the location of the palace complex contradicts where Greek historians placed the Hanging Gardens, which was on the banks of the Euphrates River.

Recently there have been excavations on the banks of the Euphrates River of some substantial 25 meter-thick walls. Also, excavations have shown that there may be some seeds scattered around this area which may suggest that the Gardens did exist after all.

A newer theory proposes that the garden was actually constructed under the orders of Sennacherib, who took the throne of Assyria in 705 BC-681 BC. During new studies of the location of Nineveh (located in the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria) his gardens were placed close to the entrance of his palace, on the bank of the river Tigris. It is possible that in the intervening centuries the two sites became confused, and the hanging gardens were attributed to Babylon.

Jody Victor

Jody Victor : Have you ever wanted to 'kiss the Blarney Stone'? I have often wondered if there is an actual 'Stone' or if it is just an old tale from Ireland - the home of Blarney! I have some friends who visited Ireland not long ago, and toured Blarney Castle which is 8 km from Cork, Ireland. They actually saw the stone there and learned a lot about it.

The Blarney Stone is a block of bluestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle. According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of gab (great eloquence or skill at flattery). The stone was set into a tower of the castle in 1446. The castle is a popular tourist site in Ireland, attracting visitors from all over the world to kiss the Stone and tour the castle and its charming gardens. My friends did the kissing of the stone - which requires some agility, I'm told,  you must lean way out and down over the wall of the battlement - while someone holds your legs. All good things have a price.

The stone, which is believed by some to be half of the original Stone of Scone, was presented to Cormac McCarthy by Robert the Bruce in 1314 in recognition of his support in the Battle of Bannockburn.

The proprietors of Blarney Castle list several alternative explanations for the origins of the Stone and its supposed powers, all of which suppose that the Stone had previously been in Ireland but was the taken to Scotland and returned to Ireland in 1314. The stories they list include:

* the Stone was the stone that Jacob used as a pillow, and was brought to Ireland by the prophet Jeremiah

* the Stone was the pillow used by St. Columba of Iona on his deathbed

* the Stone was the Stone of Ezel, which David hid behind on Jonathan's advice, while fleeing from King Saul, and may have been brought back to Ireland during the Crusades

* the Stone was the rock that Moses struck with his staff to produce water for the Israelites, during their flight from Egypt

* in Ireland, the Stone was known as the Lia Fail or "Stone of Destiny," part of the king's throne, with mysterious powers

* the Stone's powers were revealed to the McCarthys by a witch who had been saved from drowning

The word blarney has come to mean clever, flattering, or coaxing talk. It is claimed that the synonymy of "Blarney" with "empty flattery" derives from a circumstance in which Queen Elizabeth I, while requesting an oath of loyalty to retain occupancy of land, received responses from Cormac Teige McCarthy, the Lord of Blarney, which amounted to subtle diplomacy, and promised loyalty to the Queen without "giving in." Elizabeth proclaimed that McCarthy was giving her "a lot of Blarney," thus apparently giving rise to the legend.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Jody Victor

Jody Victor : If your birthday is in March (Happy Birthday!), your birthstone is aquamarine. The name aquamarine was derived by the Romans, "aqua" meaning water and "mare" meaning sea, because it looked like sea water. They were considered sacred to Neptune, god of the sea. This association with Neptune promised safe voyages as well as protection against perils and monsters of the sea. Its first documented use was by the Greeks between 480-300 BC. They wore aquamarine amulets engraved with the god Poseidon on a chariot.

Beginning in the Roman period, the aquamarine was believed to possess medicinal and healing powers, curing ailments of the stomach, liver, jaws and throat. During the Middle Ages, it was believed to be an effective antidote against poison. Aquamarines were thought to be the source of power for soothsayers, who called it the "magic mirror," and used it for telling fortunes and answering questions about the future. It is said that Emporer Nero used it as an eyeglass 2,000 years ago, and much later, aquamarines were used as glasses in Germany to correct shortsightedness. In fact, the German name for eyeglasses today is "brille," derived from the mineral beryl.

Aquamarines vary in color from deep blue to blue-green of different intensities, caused by traces of iron. Naturally occurring deep blue stones are the most prized because they are rare and expensive. However, yellow beryl stones can be heated to change them to blue aquamarines.

Jody Victor

Jody Victor : The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now Cairo, Egypt in Africa, and is the only remaining member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is believed to have been built as a tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu and constructed over a 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC. The tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, it is sometimes called Khufu's Pyramid or the Pyramid of Khufu.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the main part of a complex setting of buildings that included two mortuary temples in honor of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, and even smaller "satelite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles. One of the small pyramids contains the tomb of queen Hetepheres (discoverd in 1925), sister and wife of Sneferu and the mother of Khufu. There was a town for the workers of Giza, including a cemetery, bakeries, a beer factory and a copper smelting complex. More buildings and complexes are being discovered by The Giza Mapping Project.

The pyramid was constructed of cut and dressed blocks of limestone, basalt or granite. The core was made mainly of rough blocks of low quality limestone taken from a quarry at the south of Khufu's Great Pyramid. These blocks weighed from two to four tons on average, with the heaviest used at the base of the pyramid. An estimated 2.4 million blocks were used in the construction. High quality limestone was used for the outer casing, with some of the blocks weighing up to 15 tons. This limestone came from Tura, about 14 km away on the other side of the Nile. Granite quarried nearly 800 km away in Aswan with blocks weighing as much as 60-80 tons, was used for the King's Chamber and relieving chambers.

At completion, the Great Pyramid was surfaced by white 'casing stones' - slant-faced, but flat-topped, blocks of highly polished white limestone. These caused the monument to shine brightly in the sun, making it visible from a considerable distance. Visibly all that remains is the underlying step-pyramid core structure seen today, but several of the casing stones can still be found around the base. The casing stones of the Great Pyramid and Khafre's Pyramid (constructed directly beside it) were cut to such optical precision as to be off true plane over their entire surface area by only 0.5 mm. They were fitted together so perfectly that the tip of a knife cannot be inserted between the joints even to this day.

Jody Victor