Editors_note

Jeff Green | Apr 12, 2007

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Editor's Note:If you play with fire...

by Jeff Green

In last week’s paper, we published a letter by Norm Guntensperger called “That’s the Law, Jeff Green”. The letter feigned outrage at the previous week’s April Fool’s article about a swimming pool project in Sharbot Lake, and was written as a joke. Although the swimming pool article did not fool that many people, the letter seems to have fooled quite a few.

I am surprised and humbled that a number of people think it was unfair of Norm to attack me in that way, but the truth is that the whole thing was a set up. I told Norm that I was going to misquote him and asked him to write an outraged letter in response. The letter he sent was longer than the one we printed, and in editing it I seem to have made it sharper and harsher, cutting out some added flourishes that would have made it easier to tell it was a hoax.

So, don’t turn on Guntensperger; he was just playing along, (and he did play his part rather well, I thought).