I forgot to pull a prank

I'm bummed. It's April Fool's Day and I forgot to play a trick on my seventh-grader. I've done this three years running: I put a can of garbanzo beans in his lunch, with no can opener. (As if he'd open the can and eat the beans if he had an opener.) He gets nothing else, just beans, along with a note telling him where to find his real lunch. I don't know why I think this is funny — I just do. Must be the name of the bean.

Anyway, this year I completely forgot. I even made his peanut butter sandwich this morning. The opportunity was there. Clearly I am falling down on the job as a father.

Here, in the spirit of things, are two classic April Fool's Day jokes, courtesy of the Contra Costa Times:

• Burger King's Left-Handed Whopper (1998): The full page USA Today ad had readers hankering for a Burger King sandwich expressly for lefties. The condiments, they were told, had been rotated 180 degrees. Thousands of patrons requested the burger -- and many more asked for right-handed versions -- before the fast-food giant confessed the prank.

• The Metric Clock (1975): ABC News announced that Australia was converting to a new metric time system. Seconds would henceforth be broken into millidays, minutes would become centidays and hours decidays. Assisting with the gag, South Australia's deputy premier gave it a thumbs up and explained that Adelaide's Town Hall timepiece had been converted already. Phones rang off the hook at the TV station, and at least one department store manager said concerned customers wanted to know if their clocks would still work.