Local media play April Fools jokes, Philadelphia gets in on the action

    Since April Fools Day fell on a Sunday, we thought it’d be worth catching you up on what you might have missed.

    The local media wasted no time with the jokes, and some played their pranks before April 1.
    Geekadelphia’s gag was the most labor-intensive. Late last week, the blog announced Blogwarts Philadelphia, a mock school of blogging paying homage to Harry Potter’s Hogwarts. Blogwarts has four houses: Geekindoor, Shmittenpuff, Philebriclaw and Slythertech.

    Naked Philly toyed with everyone’s emotions by announcing the Divine Lorraine would be demolished. The trick came soon after very real bright orange warning sticker was placed on the aging property.

    The City of Philadelphia got silly. Over the weekend, Mayor Michael Nutter and Rina Cutler, deputy mayor for transportation and utilities, debuted a special traffic lane for texting pedestrians.

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    On the business end of things, our partners at Technically Philly reported the city’s tech reporters decided to unionize. As reported, “Photos of Philadelphia Business Journal technology reporter Peter Key, the Inquirer’s Joe Distefano and Technically Philly’s Yael Borofsky linking arms and sitting cross legged in the middle of Market Street in Old City have been widely circulated on social media.”

    And there’s always one joke that goes too far. Over at Onward State, the outlet that reported on Penn State Football coach Joe Paterno’s death before it happened, a report was issued that Devon Edwards, the former managing editor who erroneously reported Paterno’s death, had died. He is in fact very much alive, and Onward State is once again being criticized.

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