I've been working on a very depressing deatchfic which I hope to be able to post soon. In the meantime, I needed a bit of comic relief. The idea for this story came to me this evening, and I decided to write it up and post it now. It has not been BR-ed; so for good or for ill, it's all mine.

I checked -- in 1994, Good Friday really did fall on April 1st. That timing could not have been better for this story.

As always, feedback welcomed.

cheers,
Lynn

<snicker>

You had me worried there for a bit... great punchline.

PJ

LOL

Nice one!

Nice story, with a great punchline. I loved Lois's indignation at the possibility that Jimmy and Perry had worked out something *huge* and she had missed it.

Corrina.

LabRat

LOL that was crazy..lol

LOL.

That was great

The only complaint is that this wasn't posted around April 1st. But then, maybe that worked in favor of the punchline.

I did wonder what was up. There had to be a rational explanation. But April Fool's? Did I mention ?

Michael

First, my thanks to all of you who stayed with the story until the punchline, rather than concluding that this newbie writer did not have a firm grasp of Perry's character and abandoning the story mid-read. One of my goals in writing it was to have everyone *be* in character, but to have Perry, at least, *seem* out of character until you got to the very end and realized what was really happening. If you then went back to re-read the story once you had the full context, so much the better.

Labrat wrote:
Well, um, Would you believe that the muse didn't actually come in for a visit? She just threw the special edition onto my porch as she drove on past.

Michael wrote:
I had wondered about waiting until the start of next April to post the story, but I decided against doing so for two reasons:
1) I thought it might be too obvious then. I purposely dropped the hint about Good Friday to indicate the date to any *extremely* attentive reader, but I didn't want to be so obvious as to ruin the punchline for the more casual reader.
2) Frankly, I didn't want to wait for almost a year to post this story.

My thanks to everyone who has left feedback. I'm glad the story appears to have had the intended impact.

Oh, I should give credit where credit is due: I got the idea of having the Planet put out a paper with the "Clark Kent is Superman!!!" headline from Alisha Knight's Kerth-winning (and deservedly so) story "From the Ruins". I did, however, take the idea in a much different direction than she did.

cheers,
Lynn

Thanks for the smile, Lynn. We'll take a drive-by muse attack any time.

I'm in middle of GEing this for the Archive and had a sudden thought.

Lynn, with Clark in Smallville, you absolutely have to give us his reaction when he sees that headline! LOL!

Sequel! Sequel! Sequel!



LabRat

Very funny! I, too, was a bit worried until the last line.

It might be as funny if the same story were set after Clark and Lois get married. Then Lois would have an even more urgent motive to dissuade Perry from printing the headline. And perhaps he could muse that 'the lady doth protest too much' and wonder why?

I have enough of my own plot bunnies taking up room in my cranium as it is. Anyone may have this one - with my urgent blessing!

You're pretty sneaky. Lynn. It was an excellent read.

I was wondering why you were bumping up a story from 2010.

Hilarious! Since Lois was dating Lex, I was wondering if Lex was owner of the Daily Planet and made Perry print it. Maybe in this Alt-Universe, Perry actually LIKED that Lex took over ownership of the Daily Planet (I would have to be an extremely ALT Universe.) What will Clark's reaction to this joke be? Does Perry know the truth and is trying to pull over a fast one on his staff by calling it an April Fool's joke? Was it a one time headline that didn't make it to newsstands?

You hit it out of the ball park on this one, Lynn.

BTW, I did realize that April 1st happened right before Easter in 1994 (although, I had forgotten this fact when I started reading your story just now). I'm glad I'm not the only one who is detail-oriented to the nth degree with her stories.

This was written just before I became seriously involved with the fandom. But reading it now made me laugh!!!

Hi Virginia and Morgana,

I'm glad the story brightened both of your days. I normally don't bump my own posts, but I felt remiss in not keeping up my April Fools tradition.

Virginia, I always enjoy reading the speculations you develop while reading my stories. You really do put a lot of thought into what might be taking place, and often come up with spins on things that I never would have dreamt of. I'm also happy you picked up on the little detail of my story being chronologically correct.

Joy,
Lynn

p.s., I've been meaning to ask you for quite some time: I love the Lunkheadanian/Stubbornanian quote in your sig; what story is it from? Someday when I actually have the time (probably after I retire),I'd love to read the entire story.

Love this story!
Would love a sequel to see Clark's response... either as Clark or Superman (since Clark is visiting Martha and Jonathan).

Hi Cuidadora,

Thank you for your feedback. I'd love a sequel, too. I wish my muse would cooperate on that one, but so far, she has stubbornly refused to do so. If anyone else wishes to take up the pen (keyboard?) and write one, they have my blessing to do so, and I'd gladly read it myself.

Joy,
Lynn

Wouldn't it be funny (although not necessarily for him) if Clark inadvertently outs himself because of that April Fool's joke headline? What would Perry do then when Clark collapses in a chair in Perry's office, his head dropping in his hand, and states, "You saw me, then? I took too many chances. I should've known that someone would've caught on sooner or later. I just hoped it would be later."

Cleo made the FDK comment on Wrong Clark and I thought it was quite apt. It's one of those never-ending stories that people like to gripe about because Clark doesn't say what he should because he's a lunkhead and Lois doesn't ask (or say) what she should, because she's stubborn. I find it funny (in a slapstick comedy sort-of-way) that these two newspaper reporters are absolutely horrible at communicating. I accept fully that I'm perpetuating that stereotype on these two characters. /shrugs/ Nobody's perfect. Eventually, they learn each other's language.

This was quite a cute and funny story. Seriously great punchline, I had no idea a simple "April Fools" could work so well.

Ah! You had me going there for a bit. I was worried about poor Clark. Cute story! I thought Perry was going to slip the paper to Clark in his desk or something as a way to let him know he knows. Love your take on it!

Virginia, I love your idea for a sequel. Please feel free to write it up. (I don't have time to read any fanfic, much less write any, these days. )

TaliaJoy, Thanks you. I'm glad you enjoyed the story. It sometimes surprises me how the most mundane of lines can become hysterical with an appropriate lead-up. (I don't claim that this story exemplifies that, but I did try.)

Hi Deadly Chakram. I'm glad my own little April Fools prank on my gentle readers was a success with you. And thanks for sharing where you thought the story was heading; I always enjoy seeing the different spins people would take with the start of a story. There is so much creativity among the FoLCs here.

Joy,
Lynn

Well, I'm a couple months behind but you got me too. Lol! That was great!

Hi Jackie,

Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed this story; it has a fond place in my heart, since it was one of the first ones that I ever wrote.

Joy,
Lynn