OK, before I get any more comments, emails, or calls from people, let me hasten to say that the entry Unsettling News was an April Fool’s Joke. Not real. In the slightest.

I was deeply touched and ashamed throughout the day, because of the calls and emails of support from friends who were ready to help in any number of ways. One offered to track the caller’s phone number down for me; another offered to help set up a rotating watch on the front door of our building in case the guy came by again. (You know who you are, guys.)

I honestly thought it was more transparent than that, otherwise I never would have brought Ella into it. I figured the notion that a company would pay attention to what was said on a weblog was implausible enough that readers would do a double-take, even if they were snookered for a moment. (And that was the case for a lot of people who responded.) Since more people found it credible than I thought would, though, the entry was creating a lot of unwarranted (but welcome!) concern that I didn’t expect. Hence, I’m calling off the joke now and not waiting until tomorrow. My apologies to everyone I caused undue worry and distress.

Jim also had an April Fool’s Joke today that proved way more credible than he dreamed it’d be. The funny thing is, Jim fooled me for his first few paragraphs, and I was reading his blog literally minutes after I had posted my own fake entry. I suspect there’s an object lesson here about how strong our impulse is to believe what we read—even when our guard is up, or we think it is.

Anyway, the April’s Fool’s Joke is something you can only do on a blog once. I hereby promise that Polytropos will be falsehood-free from now into perpetuity.