Joker

Be forewarned: What you are about to read may or may not be real. Today is, after all, April Fools' Day. And this is an interview with an expert fooler. That would be one Joey Skaggs, New York painter, sculptor and satirist. For 30 years he has been duping the media. He sees it as effective social commentary. Not to mention huge fun. A few of Skaggs' more infamous pranks: Hippie tour, 1968: After tourists started cruising the East Village to gawk at hippies, Skaggs put 60 hippies in a bus for a tour of suburban Queens.

Dale Jarrett appeared as Batman and Kenny Irwin as the Joker in last night's Goody's 500 NASCAR race in Bristol, Tenn.Their Ford Tauruses have received special paint jobs, and both drivers will wear suits and headgear patterned after the comic book stars.What makes this so special? After all, Winston Cup cars promote everything from Tide to the Cartoon Network to Hot Wheels.This time, though, it's Ford's marketing concept."This gets us into venues beyond traditional race audiences," said Roy Gadomski, Ford Quality Care Motorsports coordinator.

WIMBLEDON, England -- There's nothing wrong with men's tennis that can't be changed by a little marketing or a little hatred.At least that's the view of Pete Sampras, who easily beat Sebastien Grosjean, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, yesterday to advance to today's Wimbledon quarterfinals.Sampras and the other men at Wimbledon have been taking some knocks over the past few days for the depressed state of the men's game, which is seen by many as a serving contest among players without personality.So, how to fix the sport?

SAN DIEGO -- No practical joke is too low, no goal too high for the Big Cheese of the Green Bay Packers. With Brett Favre, every day is the Mardi Gras, even when he's not in New Orleans."

When Thelma Greathouse rubbed off an ace and two jokers on her "Joker's Wilder" scratch-off lottery ticket, she thought she'd hit it big for $600."I had to look at it three, four times. I thought, 'I can't win that much money,' " said Greathouse.The Middle River lottery player was right -- she didn't."Joker's Wilder," introduced this month as a successor to the Maryland Lottery's popular Joker's Wild game that ended more than a year ago, has a ironic twist: The jokers aren't wild -- at least not in the traditional card-playing way.Unlike the previous version of the game, which let players use jokers to round out threes-of-a-kind, Joker's Wilder requires players to match all three cards to win.The news was a rude awakening for Greathouse and her friend Ginger Rudasill, who thought they had not only a $600 winner but an additional $67 coming from other game tickets.

I AM FUZZY ZOELLER.I tell ethnic, racial and gender-based jokes. Also jokes based on stereotyping people by physical and mental characteristics. I've even got a book. Lots of "little moron" jokes. Even jokes about paraplegics. It's an old book. Times have changed a little. But not completely. I tell fewer such jokes now than I used to, but I still tell them. More often, I listen to others tell them.You are Fuzzy Zoeller.Probably. Admit it. Most of the people I know - and I don't mean just old white males - tell such jokes at least once in a while.

The reunion tour for the New York Mets' 1986 world championship team opens next spring at Camden Yards, the participants in Orioles uniforms.The ex-Mets on board: manager Davey Johnson, left-handers Jesse Orosco and Randy Myers, and now right-hander Roger McDowell, who signed a one-year, $750,000 deal yesterday with incentives based on appearances.McDowell, who turns 35 in two days, will bolster the Orioles' middle- and late-inning relief. Orioles general manager Pat Gillick said last night that McDowell will be used as a setup man for Myers, the club's new closer.

Sam Wyche is still a wild and crazy guy.The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' coach, who got the nickname Wicky Wacky when he was in Cincinnati and once told the fans during a game, "You don't live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati," was at it again last week.When former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson -- long rumored to be Tampa Bay's next coach if he doesn't get the Miami Dolphins' job first -- came to town to do interviews for Fox TV, Wyche couldn't resist a gag, and Johnson went along with it.Wyche was meeting with the team when an aide came in to say that owner Malcolm Glazer wanted to see him.A minute later, Johnson entered the Buccaneers' locker room wearing Wyche's Tampa Bay jacket.

Back in the 1920s, "The World's Worst Golfer" made people laugh around the world. Horton Spurr and his slapstick golf routine played the stage of major theaters throughout Europe and the United States.He appeared with the spectacular song and variety show called Ziegfeld Follies. His was an opening act for first-run movies featuring Abbott and Costello. And when he wasn't chasing a golf ball glued to the head of his club, he was in the eye of the movie camera.In Hollywood, Horton Spurr doubled for movie star Douglas Fairbanks Jr. He played secondary parts with the stars.

Snap, Crackle and Pop:The practical joker (or fiend) of the year has to be the guy in the NFL office who scheduled the Los Angeles Rams into Green Bay for a game on Dec. 20. Besides being 6 degrees at kickoff time, the wind was howling (minus-15 wind chill) and the West Coasters had played in an average temperature of 74 degrees all season.* It now becomes clear why, in all probability, Michael Dokes, 34 (going on 44), got the call to be heavyweight champ Riddick Bowe's first title defense.