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So is that Kiester story true or not

By Staff | Apr 3, 2016

Congratulations to all of our readers who figured out that we ran our annual April Fools Day story in the issue of the Faribault County Register before April 1, (last week) and not in this edition of the newspaper, which is dated April 4.

Some folks said it was one of the easiest ever of our April Fools Day stories to spot right away. Some actually expressed some disdain that we had made it so easy.

Of course, it seemed like a pretty funny spoof. An advertising agency coming to Kiester to make a television commercial for Preparation-H? Just because the town has the name Kiester, a euphemism for the human posterior?

Obviously a total phony story.

One person said she realized it the second she read the headline she didn’t even have to read the whole story.

Another reader, from Elmore, said he knew it was the April Fools Day story, but one thing puzzled him. “You didn’t put in the last paragraph that it was the fake April Fools Day story. Did you forget?”

Well, no, I didn’t.

That is because the Preparation H commercial being made in Kiester story on our front page last week isn’t fake.

Yep, it’s for real.

So our April Fools Day prank for this year was to get you all to believe that it was our fake story when in reality, it is all totally true.

I have to admit, I tried to write it in the tone of a spoof. And, I also have to admit that it was my full intent to try as hard as I could to have you believe it was the annual Register April Fools Day story.

I even let the staff here at the Register all believe that it was. And they all did. (Well most of them anyway.)

Call it a diabolical evil plan by the editor.

Of course, the plan started to unravel when the Albert Lea Tribune reran our story about it, and KEYC-TV did a piece about it, too.

Good heavens! What if it actually had been our fake April Fools story? Now that would have been embarrassing. For everyone.

Especially me.

I actually heard the rumor about the TV commercial being made earlier in the week last week.

So, I investigated whether it was true or not. The first person I talked to even admitted that it sure sounded like one of the Register’s fake April Fools Day stories to him.

Eventually I learned it was all true. Amazing.

Some folks in Kiester thought we should wait to do a story about it, mainly because there was now a delay due to weather. They thought it would be better to do the story when we knew for sure it was really, absolutely going to be done.

There was also concern that the ad agency might not want a story about it in the newspaper.

I was pretty determined to run it last week, whether they wanted it or not.

First off, it is always nice to have news in our newspaper when it is still fresh news and not everybody and his/her brother have already heard about it.

Secondly, well, it was a desire to try and get you all to believe it was our April Fools Day story, and to do that, we had to run it last week.

When writing the story I toned it down just a bit. There was a pretty big temptation to “spice” it up a little, and make it seem even more like it was our annual spoof.

You know, adding a paragraph like this: The people of Kiester are itching to know if it is true; in fact you could say they’re swollen with pride and it will be a real pain in the rear if nothing happens.

Now that they know it is true, I’m sure it will bring cool relief if they are not irritated further by having any future April Fools Day stories told about their very nice little city.

Whether the story is true or not.

After all, our April Fool story last year was about finding oil in Kiester.

So, here is my pledge. Next year’s April Fools Day story will absolutely, positively, not involve the city of Kiester.

Unless…it is warranted.

And, you are all probably wondering if one of the stories in this issue of the Register might not be an April Fool prank.

Did I actually sneak one into these 20 pages this week, after stating that our prank this year was the not-fake story about Preparation H? That would be clever.

I swear, I never thought about doing such a thing I mean really, how on earth could I possibly top the story of Preparation H being in Kiester.

So, sorry, there is no April Fools story this week.

Or is there…?