Another April Fool's joke the N'western didn't get

I was just reading a column in another Gannett newspaper that indicates the Northwestern has a bit of a track record for not getting April Fool’s jokes.

According to Ray Barrington, news editor for the Green Bay News-Chronicle, it was back in 1974 that the Northwestern got quite upset that the Advance-Titan had reported that a UFO was spotted hovering over Dempsey Hall.

Here’s the conclusion of his column:

“Granted, the ‘flying saucer’ looked like two Styrofoam bowls from the cafeteria with windows painted on, and there were enough hints for a good reader to know it was fake. But there was a buzz around campus - and in local media - all day.

“Most got the joke. The Oshkosh Northwestern didn't, editorializing sternly that the student journalists should grow up and behave.

“Said students responded in their next issue with more identifiable celestial objects. They mooned the Northwestern in the paper.

“Or, as the late John Torinus, editor of the Appleton Post-Crescent, summed up (showing he got the joke):

“ ‘It is not correct to say they bent over backward to apologize to the Northwestern. It's more correct to say they leaned over forward.’ “