Sunday is April Fool’s Day. For some reason, the great tradition of playing practical jokes on April 1 has waned. Usually, the sophomoric stuff like short-heeting beds and hitting peope in the face with pies becomes grounds for murder.
But what about the great media hoaxes? Check out the top 100 hoaxes.

Everybody’s a critic. Now the wild turkeys outside The Journal News offices in White Plains are giving me the business.

That’s me getting the business-end treatment from the dumb clucks. All I can say is they’re lucky it’s not Thanksgiving! The photo was taken by my colleague and JN artist, Bill Becerra.

It seems The Journal News/RNN-TV partnership has the gang over at Cablevision’s News 12 a little worried.

The Westchester County Bee-line buses are carrying an ad that tells the tale. “Stay With Westchester News 12,” the ad says over photos of weatherman Joe Rao, sports reporter Walt Fowler and anchors, Brian Conyebeare and Janine Rose.

Yours truly will have a column-like piece that will air tonight. Tune in at 5 p.m. I’m supposed to appear early into the 5:30 p.m. time slot.

We’re on Channel 19, a “lucky seven” channels up from you-know-who.

Westchester County was once a Republican stronghold, but now the Democrats rule.
That means there’s a lot of frustrated Democrats in elective office today, who, like the Jeffersons of TV fame, “wanna move up” to bigger and better things, but they can’t because there’s a serious incumbency blockage.

Three Democrats have been in office seemingly forever: State Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer of Mamaroneck, U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey and County Executive Andy Spano.

Spano, who is a litte long in the tooth and charismatically challenged, loves the job and all its imperial trappings…and it’s quite possible he’ll go for a fourth term in 2009.

Many ambitious Democrats in the lower ranks are going crazy over Spano’s white-knuckled grip on the exec’s job. Last night, I ran into an attorney with one of the more powerful, politically-connected law firms and he told me he heard there are no fewer than 15 Democrats, who have expressed an interest in the county’s top post. Fifteen!

Here’s a partial list: Assemblyman George Latimer, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, County Clerk Tim Idoni, Rye Mayor Steve Otis, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, County Legislator Clinton Young, Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, County Legislator Tom Abinanti, New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson and state Sen. Andrew Stewart-Cousins.
Others on the “interested” list include people with deep pockets and the ability to raise even more money who are not currently in office.

Now think of two or three viable Republicans who can run and win—and please get back to me.

In yesterday’s column, I mentioned in passing all the talk about pushing Lenny Spano into running for mayor of Yonkers. Seeing is believing, though.

Lenny is one of many Spanos—the first family of Westchester politics. But he is not as well known as his brothers, the recently deposed state Sen. Nick Spano and the recently elected Assemblyman Mike Spano.

In the column, I compared Lenny to Zeppo, the forgotten Marx brother. Lenny e-mailed me this morning, saying that a couple of people called him and left phone messages referring to him as Zeppo.

“After spending the day taking the ribbing and trying to explain that it was not a shot at me I finally realized that it could have been worse, you could have referred to me as the little known stooge, Joe Besser.”

I remember him. Curly Joe!

But here’s the deal. It wasn’t a shot at Lenny. Not exactly. After all, Zeppo was supposed to be the good-looking Marx Brother.

One of the few good rock stations left, Westchester’s own 107.1 FM, the Peak, is celebrating its third anniversary on April 6. This years birthday party at Vintage Bar and Restaurant in White Plains will feature Peter Yorn and Jesse Malin. Tickets are 30 bucks and going fast, they say.

Congratulations to the gang over there…you guys are the best.

Tomorrow’s column is about the free-for-all already in play in the 2007 race for Yonkers mayor.

I hadn’t talked to former Mayor John Spencer since his loss to Hillary Clinton in the Senate race. But I interviewed him at length yesterday, and as usual there simply wasn’t enough room for all his verbal gems. Spencer is a colorful chap, to be sure and never at a loss for words.

Here’s some stuff that you WON’T see in the column.

Asked about the persistent rumors that political insiders are pushing Nick Spano to run for mayor, Spencer said: “Nick doesn’t want to be mayor of Yonkers anymore than I want to be Pope. You can’t got to Florida 10 times a year and be mayor Yonkers.”

As to talk of Nick’ brother, Lenny, running for mayor, Spencer said, “That’s laughable.”

Spencer also ripped hard into Mayor Phil Amicone, who was once his trusted deputy mayor but is now his enemy. He said Amicone has not fought for greater state aid for education to Yonkers and “rolled over” for Nick Spano when he was in the state Senate. “I never rolled over for him,” Spencer said. “I said, ‘Screw you!’ “

Spencer is like the symbol of the Republican Party, the elephant. He never forgets. He recalled a column I wrote in which I said that Democratic Councilmember Dennis Robertson was, despite his party affiliation, an ally in “The House of Spencer.” Spencer scoffed at the notion that Robertson was doing his bidding by running for mayor against his enemy, Amicone.
“All the Democrats are saying, ‘Oh Dennis Robertson is John Spencer’s candidate.’ You know, Blah, blah, blah, wah, wah, wah.”

Then he said he liked Robertson despite the fact that he’s a “dumb-ass Democrat.” He laughed after saying that.

Spencer said when he was mayor he would sometimes drive around downtown Yonkers at 2 and 3 a.m. in the summertime just to look around. Recently, he said he couldn’t sleep. He tried reading, but decided to get a “big ass coffee” and then cruise the city’s changing waterfront. His observation was that Amicone has done nothing as mayor since taking office three years ago. “Zero,” he said. “With a capital Z. Zero economic development. None.”

Asked if he missed being mayor, he said, “I would feel thrilled not to be mayor if it (Yonkers) was being led by a competent leader. It dismays me.”

Asked if he knew anything about the ongoing federal investigation in Yonkers, he said, “No, I don’t. I really don’t. They say Ridge Hill (the multi-million dollar development project off the Sprain Parkway), but Ridge Hill seems to be a pretty clean operation.”

Tune in to my “High Noon” radio program tomorrow. My guest is going to be Yonkers City Councilman Dennis Robertson.
A Democrat, Robertson is running for mayor in November. Elections are always interesting in Yonkers, so you’ll want to hear Robertson’s take on politics in the “City of Hills.”
The show airs at 12 noon, on WVOX-AM. That’s 1460 on the dial. But you can also listen live on the radio Web Site, www.wvox.com

Complete this sentence…
IF I RAN FOR MAYOR OF YONKERS I WOULD…

Sample answer: Take an immediate 10 percent pay cut.

I just saw the German flick, “The Lives of Others.” It won the Academy Award for best foreign movie, and I recommend it.

I won’t give away the plot. But I will say that the movie centers on pre-Glasnost life in East Germany and how the secret police there conducted investigations into the daily lives of people under suspicion of disloyalty. Which was just about everyone.

The movie proves that in a totalitarian society, they can always get the goods on you, if they want to. Idealogy really has nothing to do it. Even the bad guys at the top of the heap fake the act of drinking the Kool-Aid. The true believers are the overly efficient lower-level functionaries who do the dirty work. Of course, in the end, they turn out to be pathetic suckers.

And in the end, the motives for “getting people” is mostly personal. Sex, power and money are the driving forces. It’s a cautionary tale, even for us who live in a free society.