April, er, August Fool!

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Maybe it is the idea that some people think "April Fool's Day" should be celebrated the first of every month. I don't know what it is, but for some reason it seems like celebrity death hoaxes are as certain a sign of the first of the month as the mortgage payment coming due. Sure enough, today a friend on Facebook posted a link that said Bob Barker, longtime host of The Price is Right (and Truth or Consequences before that), had died after a fall in his home. Well, we all know how that "fake news" goes around. The truth is that Barker, who's 94, did fall at his home....in January. He's fine. Of course, the thing that makes me curious (as well as furious) is what do people get out of starting these rumors. They are so commonplace that, when a friend texted me and told me Glenn Frey had died last year, I didn't believe her because I'd read posts about Frey dying for months, even before the surgery complications that resulted in his death. I remember someone interrupting a trivia game I was playing online by announcing that Warren Zevon had died of liver cancer (this was the mid-90s, years before his diagnosis of mesothelioma). I was so shaken up I couldn't continue playing the game. Maybe it's a game. I don't know if you know this or not, but there are numerous "celebrity death pools" where people make lists of what famous people they think might "kick the bucket" in a year. I don't know, but maybe there's a "hoax pool" as well: people start a rumor and see how many tweets or posts they can get people to make of the false information. Maybe they're training to be politicians or used car salesmen. Whatever, it's annoying. I'm glad Barker is doing well. Happy Gilmore is probably glad, too: