April Foolin'

.
This being April the first, and the Day of Saint Crossan's sacred toenail, Toad fondly remembers this date in the year 1990. It was his first April Fool's Day in Toledo, Ohio, and he decided to treat the readers of The Blade to 'a bit of fun.'

To achieve this he called on his new friend Homer. It must have been Homer's idea - a brilliant one, naturally - to run a story saying that, in order to improve the somewhat unhappy reputation, (thanks, among others, to the late John Denver) of the city - the Movers and Shakers thereof had decided the place needed a new name. New name, new beginning.

And the the new name was to be Fallen Timbers. There are historical reasons for this, too utterly obscure and tedious to be gone into here.

So, the story asserting this was duly run, at the top of Page One, with Homer's byline on it.
Naturally, Toad, (Patrick, as he was then) saw no reason to inform the Publisher, John Block, of his actions.

The result was, very early that morning, Homer got a rather irrascible call from John, asking why he had not been appraised to this earth-shattering bit of news in advance.

Homer pointed out the last paragraph in which he had inserted a sly reference to April 1st, but John was not wholly mollified. Far from it. "You shouldn't have let him do it, he told Homer."
"But he's the managing Editor," said Homer

Patrick, as usual, escaped unscathed.