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Katie Couric's Notebook: April Fools' Day

What if I told you that killer bees were attacking Arizona...life was found on Jupiter... or Swiss farmers were harvesting spaghetti from trees?

You'd probably check your calendar and realize that today is April Fools' Day, the same goofy holiday when all of those fake stories were reported.

The tradition is often traced to the 16th century, when New Year's Day was changed from April 1st to January 1st. People who didn't get the memo were mocked as April fools.

These days, anyone can fall prey to a prank. So here are some survival tips:

Be a good sport. Laughing at yourself is part of the fun.

Don't be too skeptical. Last April 1st, a Danish school almost burned down when the fire department refused to believe callers who had reported the fire.

Beware of business propositions, especially if they involve the BrooklynBridge or emails from Nigeria.

After all, money doesn't grow on trees... and by the way neither does spaghetti!

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

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