Signing Off

When TigerBlog was in college, he heard the story of how an entire dorm got together and played a practical joke on a guy who lived there.

Seems the guy had a huge exam on Monday morning first thing, so he was going to go out Saturday night and then study all day Sunday. When he woke up Sunday, the entire dorm was pretending it was already Monday and that he had slept all day Sunday. Every one in the dorm was going through the normal Monday morning routine, which freaked the guy out.

As for TigerBlog, the best practical joke he was ever part of came here at HQ. The women's basketball team was supposed to play in Hawaii, and the women's basketball contact at the time, a woman named Jenn from South Carolina, was fired up about the free trip to paradise.

The rest of the office came up with the idea of telling Jenn that the trip was off and that instead Princeton would be playing at Cleveland State in a fictional event called the "Snowball Classic." Someone even came up with the idea of getting the SID from Cleveland State to fax over a note that said that we were playing in their tournament and that they needed our women's basketball quick facts.

Jenn was crushed, and she spent a good hour or so snapping at everyone before she was told that it was all a joke. She then laughed, but not before pointing her finger at everyone there, saying something TB will never forget:
"I'm gonna get y'all, and y'all and y'all."

Back when TB was a senior in high school, BrotherBlog had a summer job with the Army Corps of Engineers. Through him, TB was able to get a piece of official U.S. Army stationery, which he then used to write a letter to his friend Chris Martin informing him that he had not yet registered for the Selective Service and that if he didn't do so by 14 days from the date of the letter, he'd be arrested.

The Selective Service had just started requiring 18-year-old males to register at the post office, not for a draft but just to be able to figure out how many eligible males there were. Of course, there was a segment of the 18-year-old group who thought they were back in the 1960s who said they wouldn't register, and Chris was one of them.

Anyway, BrotherBlog said TB could have the paper but couldn't mail it, so we slipped it into the rest of the Martin's mail, which included college catalogs. As Chris finally found the letter and started reading it, someone else picked up a catalog and said "Is Tulane a good school," which was greeted with "Shut up; I'm in big trouble." About 10 minutes later, Chris had registered.

TigerBlog brings these up because, obviously, it is April Fools' Day. A year ago, TigerBlog's April 1st post was about how TB has always wanted to put a great April Fools' story on goprincetontigers.com, but unfortunately TB came to the realization that in the world we live in today, there was nothing too outrageous not to be believed.

And so that brings us to April Fools Day 2010. If anything, the last 12 months have made the general public even more jaded to the point of believing anything. Tiger Woods. Sandra Bullock's situation. The show Jersey Shore. All of it.

TigerBlog thought about how nothing is stunning anymore yesterday, when he met with University officials who decided that TigerBlog would have to be shut down and that today's post would be the last one.

TigerBlog found the timing ironic.

TigerBlog started two years ago with the idea of doing in-game blogging and posting general announcements that didn't necessarily need to be on the main site. Eventually, when readership didn't respond to that, TB began to go in its current direction.

Unfortunately, it appears that there were two problems. First, it was thought that TB was taking up too much time. Second, it seems that it was a little too informal for an official part of the athletic department.

TigerBlog thought about continuing to do it anyway, but he didn't want to run afoul of the University administration. Clearly, TB disagrees with both points that were made.

And so, this is it. TB has had a great time doing this, and he wants to leave his readers with one more thing:

None of this was true. TB will be back tomorrow and next week and next month, and there was no meeting with the administration. But admit it. You believed TB, which proves the other main point of what TB wrote last year: People, TB included, believe what they read.

So, TigerBlog is signing off, but only until tomorrow.

Happy April Fools Day everyone. Go pull a great prank on your best friend.