Letters: April Fools' Day

Copyright © 2011 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

Time now for your comments and, Melissa, a lot of people wrote in about your trip to Drip.

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

That's right. On Friday we explained that Drip is a coffee house here in Washington, D.C. that caters to so-called slow netters. That is the devotees of the slow internet movement. We explained that at Drip there's no high-speed internet, just dial-up.

NORRIS: Damian Kulash is the front man for the band OK Go and we heard him describing his devotion to the movement and its signature sound.

Mr. DAMIAN KULASH (Musician): That (makes noise). Like, I think it's, like, the Beatles must've been to my parents. It calls back out all of the rage and lust and hormones of my youth. It's a really powerful sound.

BLOCK: Well, Michelle Shriver(ph) of Austin, Texas doesn't have quite the same love for that powerful sound, as she writes this: I just finished talking about the absurdity of this movement at the dinner table. Then when I finished my rant, I said aloud, maybe this was an April Fool's joke. I totally believed it for a while.

NORRIS: Well, Ms. Shriver, you're on to us, and so was Eric Fenson(ph) of Lexington, Massachusetts. He writes: I almost spit out my custom-made hand-poured pale ale when I heard the story. Your attention to detail and well-rounded coverage of the slow internet movement had me for longer than I would've thought.

BLOCK: And Jack Foley(ph) of Muncie, Indiana writes: You have gotten me so many times on April 1st with hoax stories. Exploding trees, pet health insurance, et cetera, that in the last year, I put an annual alarm on my smartphone with this warning: ATC starts in 15 minutes and this is April Fool's Day.

Mr. Foley continues: I have to say that I belly laughed, especially when the researcher in Minnesota stated that dial-up puts people into a state similar to meditation. I was around in the days of 14.4 dial-up, meditation it was not.

NORRIS: Finally, James Sweeney(ph) got the joke, but asked: Am I the only one who was disappointed when they realized it was the gag story? He continues: I live a somewhat conflicted life. I am at the same time nostalgic for technology of days gone by, yet I work in the IT industry with current technology. But I resist new technology as much as possible. No smartphone, no Bluetooth, and yes, still dial-up at home. Others make fun of me, of course, and I was excited to be able to share news of this anti-bandwidth revolt with them. P.s., Mr. Sweeney writes: I still have my original Commodore 64 somewhere in the attic.

(Soundbite of song, "Love Me Long Time")

Mr. KULASH: (Singing) Love me that Commodore 64.

BLOCK: That's Damian Kulash's love song to the slow internet movement, which to be clear, does not exist, as far as we know.

NORRIS: And you can listen to Damian's song at NPR.org. Enjoy the catchy beat with a custom pale ale or a hand-poured coffee. The song is called "Love Me Long Time."

BLOCK: And if you love us long time, send your love notes and our critique to NPR.org. Just click on Contact Us at the bottom of the page.

Copyright © 2011 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.