April 21 stands out for two reasons: My brother’s birthday (his name is Bill but he likes to be called William, should you ever have the pleasure of meeting him) and the memory of a Canterbury morning when some of my students were writing the morning announcements. 

Yesterday they had proposed making some sort of reference to 420 – some kind of shout out to those usual suspects conspicuous by their absence – but I reminded my crew of Radio Free Canterbury’s responsibility to the board’s Code of Conduct. 

It was Ed Staples who wanted to be a bit too jolly with the Code and he was disappointed with my mild rebuke.  “Geez, Mr Steve, when did you start working for the man?”

Ed was a huge guy in both body and spirit, loved to laugh, enjoyed life to the fullest, a really funny guy when he wanted to be – luckily for the rest of us, that was most of the time. After the announcements had aired, he mused aloud to Chris, his cohost, “Hmm, I wonder what we can write for tomorrow’s introduction.”

I knew to wait, tuned in. 

Ed and Chris were a match made in Hollywood – it was perfectly apropos that they team up as Laurel and Hardy every Hallowe’en. Chris was a perfect counterpart to Ed, tall, gangly, thin, more reserved, dry humour, perplexed with absurdities, a choice straight man for Ed’s gregarious effusions – and he knew how to tee up a gag. 

“Good morning, Canterbury, today is April twenty first.” Chris said, leaning toward Ed, “That’s 421, as many of you know….”

A pause, and then Ed looked from the corner of his eye to see if I was listening. His smile broadened like sunlight, “Today is National Surprise Drug Test Day!”

We went with it.