Holiday pranks make the rounds each April

Q. My wife and I each received an email from the Department of Homeland Security instructing us to disconnect all of our home computers from the internet from midnight March 31 to 6 a.m. April 2 so the government can use “cyber spiders” to clean out old emails and spam in order to make the World Wide Web run faster. Is this legit or a prank?

A. It’s a prank that makes it around the internet, in one form or another, nearly every year — usually around April Fool’s Day.

I wrote about this hoax six years ago and am sorry to hear that it’s back.

Though the fraudulent email you received involves the internet, some people in America’s coldest areas say they have received emails and even prerecorded telephone messages urging them to disconnect their home phones for the next few days so their local phone company can use special heaters to “thoroughly thaw out frozen phone lines.”

It’s another ruse, perhaps based on one from about 15 years ago that instructed homeowners to disconnect their phones because their service provider was going to blow air through local lines in order to purge dust that had accumulated over the years.

Some homeowners were even urged to wrap their phones in plastic bags to prevent the dust from gushing through their handsets and blanketing their floors and furniture.

Though most people don’t fall victim to such ridiculous pranks, one study suggests that as many as 1 million Americans each year still do.

REAL ESTATE TRIVIA

A famous hoax by the British Broadcasting Corp. in 1957 showed farmers on TV allegedly reaping bumper crops of pasta from fictitious “spaghetti trees,” prompting countless homeowners from across the United Kingdom to swamp the nation’s telephone network in an effort to find out where they could buy the mythical seedlings.

Q. Contrary to what my mom taught me years ago to always use cold water when sending uneaten food down my garbage disposal, I saw a story on the internet that said I should use hot water instead. Who’s right, my mom or this internet article?

A. Mother knows best. Garbage-disposal manufacturers say that you should always use cold water when disposing of mealtime leftovers, in part because it allows any fat or grease to move through the pipes intact. Hot water could melt the fat, which may result in a clogged pipe after it hardens again.

It’s best to avoid pouring grease or fat into your disposal at all. Pour it into an empty tin can instead, let the container cool, and then toss the container in the trash.

Q. Is there really a county in Washington state that has a law that specifically bans the killing of a Sasquatch, even if one trespasses on a homeowner’s property?

A. Yes. Regardless of whether you believe in Sasquatch, perhaps better known as Bigfoot, a local law in Skamania County specifically prohibits a mere human from killing one.

Skamania County (pop. 11,340) is a relatively large, densely forested area in the southwest portion of Washington that considers itself a Bigfoot refuge. Shooting one of the apelike creatures could earn you up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The ordinance, approved in 1969 and amended in 1984, hasn’t needed to be enforced — at least not yet.

ABOUT LIVING TRUSTS

Millions of working-class homeowners and retirees can now reap the same benefits that creating an inexpensive living trust once provided only to the wealthiest families. For a copy of David Myers’ Straight

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Send questions to David Myers, P.O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231, and we’ll try to respond in a future column.

"Though most people don’t fall victim to such ridiculous pranks, one study suggests that as many as 1 million Americans each year still do."

‰ -David Myers