The conventional wisdom is that nobody knows how or when April Fools’ Day started. Just because you don’t know doesn’t mean nobody knows. Some little old lady knitting a tea cozy in Thrumpton, Nottinghamshire, may well be an expert on the first All Fools’ Day.

On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell announced it was buying the famous Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and would rename it the Taco Liberty Bell. Was this tomfoolery the original impetus for Donald Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico?

Probably Trump fell for the Taco Bell ruse at the time, long before he was elected president, totally buying into it, and later felt like a fool when he learned he’d been taken in by a fast-food franchise gag. Consciously or unconsciously this must have rankled over the years, fueling Trump’s unreasoning hatred of Mexico until finally he was able to proclaim “On January 20, 2025, I signed Executive Order 14172. Today, I am very honored to recognize February 9, 2025, as the first ever Gulf of America Day.”

It doesn’t matter that Taco Bell is a United States fast-food chain, with its roots in Downey, California. I guess with Trump it’s the principle of the thing, kind of.

Taco Bell was only joking about buying the Liberty Bell, and we all thought it was just bluster when Trump said the U.S. will buy Greenland and make Canada a state, but no, it appears he is serious. Don’t worry, though, because J.D. Vance has said he doesn’t think military force will become necessary; Trump, however, said he’s not taking it off the table.

Also, when asked if he was joking about another presidential run, Trump said, “No, no I’m not joking,” according to NBC News. He added that there are several possible means to that end, but that it’s too early to get into all that now.

In Europe in the early Middle Ages the Festum Fatuorum, or Feast of Fools, was celebrated at the vernal equinox by clergy and townspeople alike. With drinking, singing, cross dressing, disguise and skits mocking the powerful in church and state, it was like a proto “Saturday Night Live.” Too good to last, this feast day set aside for silliness was outlawed by the Church in 1431.

Easter, on the other hand, is of course a serious holiday, despite its concession to the joys of spring, frivolous trappings of chicks and colored eggs. The holiday is late this year, falling on April 20.

I have an Easter tradition with my grandchildren, and so I am even more concerned than usual about the price of eggs. Yesterday at the grocery store prices ran between $8 to $10 a dozen. Dyeing eggs and baking lamb cakes are going to be expensive this year because of the widespread Avian Flu. It made me wonder: What does U.S. Health Secretary Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr., have to say about Avian Influenza H5N1, or bird flu?

According to the National Institutes of Health, the spread of H5N1 in various species, including humans, has led to a current pandemic threat. Kennedy told Fox News recently that farmers should let bird flu spread through their chicken flocks in order to identify and preserve the birds that are immune to the disease.

According to Rocio Crespo, a poultry veterinarian at the North Carolina University College of Veterinary Medicine, “No, not for this disease. This is crazy.”

Up to 90% of birds infected with the highly contagious influenza die within three to four days. Foreign markets for U.S. eggs and poultry would dry up, and the price of eggs would skyrocket to new highs.

“The Chick-fil-As and the Kentucky Fried Chickens and all the chicken dinners you have, forget it. Gone,” Crespo said.

Maybe this will be the start of new Easter traditions. Papier mache eggs? Or maybe just more chocolate and peep eggs. Platypus and spiny anteater eggs are beyond the pale, and would probably be just as expensive as bird eggs anyway. Who knows?

No one, of course, except for that little old lady knitting a tea cozy in Thrumpton, Nottinghamshire. Or is she in Montreal? And is it a sock?

Have a good week.

(Martha Allen, of Keene Valley, has been writing for the News since 1996.)