April Fools Day in Provincetown

What's wrong with this picture? Enter to win a great prize from a great PTown eatery.

There's something odd about this photo, taken on a busy summer day along the streets of Provincetown. If you can spot what's wrong with this picture you'll win a prize from a great Provincetown restaurant, deli, takeout, clam shack, pizza joint or other fine eatery..
It's easy to enter; all you have to do is leave a text or voice message with your name and phone number, along with your answer, by dialing 617 283-1003, or e-mail theyearrounder@gmail.com, or send by snail -mail to TheYearRounder, P O Box 1632, Provincetown, MA, 02657 before the deadline. Entries must be received, by any of these means, before 12:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time on April 30th, 2020.
Don't worry… you will never end up on an e-mail list or land on a telemarketer's clipboard by contacting TheYearRounder. You'll just be notified if you win something.
If more than one correct answer is received before the deadline, the winner will be chosen in a random drawing from ALL CORRECT ENTRIES received ON TIME. Then all on-time entries, even those with the wrong answer will be combined in a big hat, and another prize will be awarded! Any entry judged(by me!) to be really funny, will count as a correct answer, and be included in that drawing, as well as any possible random drawing. That means you don't even have to be right to win this April Fool's contest, you just have to enter, unless, of course, there's only one correct answer submitted on time, which would automatically win, and then be entered into any possible random drawing as well. You can enter as many times as you'd like between now and the deadline.

 BBC penguins: April Fools!

I think my all time favorite April Fools joke is still the BBC effort above, just 1:30 in length, so take a look. it shpild be followed by anothe brief film about how they did it. You can also see it by clicking on this link: Penguins April Fool - The Making Of - BBC

  Click this link to the see BBC 1957 "spaghetti tree"

The program Panorama, BBC's public affairs program, was broad cast as an April Fools joke in 1957, still worth a giggle today when you think about how many people believed it, or were offended by it.

 

April Fool's Contest, 2017 - Souvenirs That Got PTown History Wrong

This souvenir plate likely sold quite well in the early 1900s,
but it got a bit of Provincetown's history wrong.

Many and various sorts of Provincetown souvenirs have been produced over the years, and many of these items depict our colorful history in one way or another, but a number of them have gotten several little bits of our history wrong.
This lovely plate, likely produced around the 1920s, shows several vignettes of well-known Provincetown sights of the day, such as the Pilgrim Monument, the steamship Dorothy Bradford arriving from Boston, and the building thought by many to be the  oldest remaining house in Provincetown. It's found at 72 Commercial Street.
In about 1746 the house was built by ship's carpenter Seth Nickerson, mainly using timbers and planks he had recovered from shipwrecks over the years. The beehive-shaped brick oven at the rear of the main fireplace dates this house before 1750. More "oldest house" claims are argued for other buildings, but this one was promoted as such, and was opened to the public by its resident owners somewhere in the early 1900s.
This souvenir plate was manufactured by W. Adams & Sons, Tunstall, England, and imported for F. H. Dearborn, who owned a shop near the center of town, selling souvenirs, newspapers and periodicals at 277 Commercial Street. The points of interest depicted on the plate seem to be from photos of well-known Provincetown landmarks, including the "Oldest House."

This image is definitely not the home known as the oldest house in Provincetown.

But look closer…
What's wrong with this picture?
A photo erroneously labeled as the oldest house was used in several postcards over a period of years, and also made its way onto this souvenir plate.

"Details" have been painted into the original black-and-white photograph
of this house, long ago mistakenly labeled as PTown's oldest house.

Here are two versions of this photo, each made into a popular postcard, with a number of artistic embellishments, such as the slightly-too-perfect clouds added in the photo to the left. The flower garden was also painted in.

In this incarnation, the artist "improved" the photo by trimming the trees and
shrubs a little, refurbishing the roof, and giving the house a red brick chimney.

This edition featured an embossed version of the photo, again enhanced by an artist, and pressed into the card leaving the image slightly raised. It made a lovely postcard, but the description was still wrong.
Several things in this photo tell us that this is not the West End building known as the oldest remaining house in town. Whoever can name the most clues to this mistaken identity will win a great Provincetown prize. Just point out as many discrepancies as you can find between this house and 72 Commercial Street.
Click on any photo above to enlarge it for more detail, and list every reason you can spot why this can't be the oldest house. E-mail your list to theyearrounder@gmail.com, or text your answers to 424•237•8696 (that's 424•23P•TOWN, if that's easier to remember, to leave your answers by voice mail, but by entering that way you'll lose a minute-and-a-half of your life listening to my message about my fabulous guided tour of Provincetown before you can leave your answers.)
You can also enter by good old US mail. Send entries to TheYearRounder (all one word,) at P O Box 1632, Provincetown, MA 02657.
Entries must be in my hand, or cell phone, or e-mail, by 12' O'clock Noon on April 28th, 2017. In case of a tie for greatest number of reasons why this photo is not Provincetown's "Oldest House," or for any other dispute, a panel of three level-headed citizens, as determined by ME, will resolve the issue by coin toss, random selection, prettiest handwriting, sexiest telephone voice, or any other senseless criteria they may choose, and by entering, we all agree that their ruling is infallible and FINAL.
And, as usual, I reserve the right to award an extra prize or two for no reason whatsoever, to one or more entries chosen at random from all entries received by the deadline. So, you don't even have to be right to win a prize, but you do have to enter.
Good luck, and happy April Fool's Day to one and all. And for a good giggle, click this link to see my all time favorite April Fools prank, perpetrated a few years back by the BBC.

What's Wrong With This Picture? Happy April Fool's Day

What's wrong with this postcard of Pilgrim Lake, published in Provincetown
somewhere around the 1910s? Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Click on the photo at the left to enlarge this antique postcard, published around the year 1912 by The Advocate, which was by far Provincetown's leading purveyor of postcards in the early 20th Century.
Have a good look and notice just how many things seem a little out of whack in this picture...

During this era, color on a postcard was achieved by having an artist hand-tint an existing black-and-white photograph, and seems often to have been done by someone who may not actually have seen the subject. Flowers or trees, for example, were often painted in by an artist, to add interest to a scene, or puffy clouds were painted into a sky just too turquoise to be real. Just such a postcard artist once spruced up a photo of our Town Hall by giving it a red roof. Yikes!
Keep in mind that these were the days long before computers and Photoshop. That word became a verb back in the 1990s as nearly everyone could easily alter any digital image, enhance colors, or even combine elements from many photos to create a whole new picture, as long as they could afford the software. But I'm always amazed to find early images that have clearly been altered, with a single photograph often given several incarnations by various publishers, with the cut-and-paste technique tediously done by hand a hundred years ago.
See how many questionable things you might notice in this postcard, and then enter TheYearRounder's annual April Fool's Contest by sending an e-mail message to theyearrounder@wildglobe.com, or leave a voice or text message by phone. Just dial 42423-PTOWN (424 237-8696) by 2 AM on April 10th, 2016. The winner (decided by a random drawing from all timely entries if there is a tie) will be treated to something good to eat, courtesy of a great Provincetown restaurant. As usual, a prize or two may also be awarded randomly, for no particular reason at all, so you don't even have to be right to win a prize. You just have to enter on time. Happy April Fool's.

A PTown April Fool

This may be Provincetown's most ridiculous traffic sign,
and that's saying a lot! What does it instruct us to do?

This extremely obtuse sign, in a very busy location, may well be the most confusing of all of the nonconforming, oddball signs on Provincetown roads. Where is this sign, and what could it possibly be trying to tell us?
If you can successfully answer those questions, or even if you can't, you could win TheYearRounder's annual April Fool's Contest, and a great lunch for two at a popular PTown restaurant.
Just send in your entry by 2:13 AM on Sunday, April 5th, 2015, by e-mailing the answers to both of these questions (where can this sign be found, and what does it mean?) to theyearrounder@wildglobe.com, or dial 42423 PTOWN to leave a voice mail or text with both answers, your name and phone number. You can also snail mail your answers, name and phone number to TheYearRounder, P O Box 1632, Provincetown, MA, 02657. The postmark determines the time of arrival on all mail submissions.
Here are a couple of links to get you into the April Fool's spirit. See how I turned out to be Last Year's April Fool, and watch my all-time favorite April Fool's prank on video, the BBC Penguins April Fool. Then watch BBC April Fool Penguins - How They Did It. If you have a favorite April Fool's Day prank or two, send them to me.
If one set of correct answers is received before the deadline, obviously that entry wins, but, as usual, if more than one correct entry is received, the winner will be chosen in a random drawing from all entries arriving on time, so you may not even have to be right to win a prize. Any really funny answers, right or wrong, will be awarded a special prize, as determined by a small panel of year-round Townies. And, as usual, TheYearRounder reserves the right to award additional prizes for no conceivable reason whatsoever, so be sure to enter.

Best April Fool's Prank Ever?

These amazing penguins can do something no other penguins can do.
Click the link at right to watch this very short BBC film and see them in action.

In 2008 the BBC created perhaps the best April Fool's prank ever with their minute-and-a-half "documentary" about a very special colony of penguins. Watch these penguins by clicking this link to the BBC iPlayer. Then click this link to see how they did it.
Happy April Fool's!