Our reporters are working feverishly to verify this, but word on the street is that the unusual substance loof-lirpa has been found in soil in the Natchez-Adams County area.

That’s correct, the evidence of LL (as the geologists refer to it) allegedly was discovered first by geologists on contract with the National Park Service as they worked to survey the site of Fort Rosalie.

Unfortunately, no one connected to the discovery is talking. Repeated attempts to reach officials with the J.U. Stajowk Geologists LLC from Richmond, Va., were referred to a company spokesman who did not return messages left on Thursday and Friday.

A good source, that sought anonymity, said Friday that geologists immediately stopped their work after Geiger counters detected some minor radioactivity at the site, one telltale sign of contamination.

Further testing proved positive for traces of the rare, man-made metal that was originally created, allegedly by accident in the 1940s by a petro-chemical laboratory in Baton Rouge.

If found to be widespread, the substance could render Adams County uninhabitable for decades, said one emergency management official.

Mississippi Environmental Quality officials said Saturday they could not confirm or deny the story.

OK, OK, I’ll stop now. If you didn’t catch on, “loof-lirpa” is “April Fool” spelled backwards.

All apologies extended if my sad attempt at humor sent readers running for their homeland defense kits.

Actually, I plead innocence, at least in part. It hadn’t occurred to me that today was April 1, or April Fools’ Day as many of us know and love it, until late last week.

A good friend and colleague e-mailed me a story detailing the Top 10 hoaxes as determined by the San Diego-based Museum of Hoaxes — museumofhoaxes.com

So how about a quick rundown of a few of the top 10 biggest spoofs placed on April Fool’s Day, at least according to the museum?

No. 1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest. In the late 1950s, a British news show had people believing the dreaded spaghetti weevil had finally been killed. Video footage allegedly showed Swiss farmers harvesting strands of spaghetti from the finally bug-free spaghetti trees.

My personal favorite was the minor fervor created in 1996 when Taco Bell announced it had worked a deal to purchase Liberty Bell from the federal government and planned to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell. Honestly, as crazy as the United States became with nearly every professional sports arena being renamed for a corporate sponsor, it’s no wonder people believed Taco Bell.

Not to be one-upped by its run-for-the-border fast-food brother, Burger King in 1998 published ads featuring a new “left-handed Whopper.” Finally, the millions of southpaws in the United States could enjoy a flame-broiled burger like the rest of us.

Even usually serious National Public Radio got into the act in 1992, when it announced former President Richard Nixon planned to run for the office again. They even had an audio interview with Nixon, eventually shown to be an impersonation by comedian Rich Little.

That same year, a rumor began circling the globe that the state of Alabama had decided to change the mathematical constant known as pi or 3.1415… to the “Biblical value” of 3.0.

Fortunately, math works the same in Alabama as it does on the rest of the planet.

A little closer to home, you might occasionally think something you read on these pages are simply April Fools’ Day shenanigans.

Did you see the one about the mayor tearing down things with a bulldozer? Yep, that was true.

The same level of bizarre disbelief could be said of a small story we published today, namely the change in publisher of this newspaper.

It’s mostly just a title. I’m the same old me I’ve always been. Other than impressing my momma, life remains relatively unchanged. Give me a yell if you know a way we can make your newspaper better or more useful to you and your life.

And I mean that, no April Fools or “loof-lirpa” here. Honest.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.