By Julia Childish AKA Julia Reeves
You guys. You got me again, but not for long this year. I was horror struck reading “Palisades bluffs crumble; PCH closes” by Sacka Something, Daily Planet Slave, in the Santa Monica Daily Planet. I turned to page 11 to read the continuation of the story, and was thinking, “Now what am I going to do?” due to the fact that I walk in Palisades Park just about every day. I thought, “I wonder if it is safe to even venture near the park?” and then I noticed the story below it, also by Sacka Something, “Osama bin Laden captured in SM” and that is when I got it, and began chuckling. The funny thing is that I’ve heard someone say that bin Laden is probably hiding out in the Santa Monica Mountains somewhere, but, what would be a more perfect place than in the tunnels of the bluffs along with the homeless.
It was a pleasant relief to discover that it was all an April Fool’s joke, and the laughter lifted my spirits after the savagery that took place in Iraq yesterday, but then I was then confronted with it again in today’s LA Times, which actually had photos of the bodies hanging from the bridge. It is so gruesome and I find it unimaginable that anyone could be so mercilessly savage.
The other thing that it pointed out to me was how much I take for granted, such as believing I was reading the Santa Monica Daily Press, and not the Santa Monica Daily Planet, and how I assume that I am reading stories by known Press staff, when the names have all been changed “to protect the innocent.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 2, 2004. Read the original PDF.