"...I can't believe you guys would stoop so low!"

Let's get this out of the way up front so there's no more confusion here: This was an April Fool's joke. And, depending on who you ask, it was either our best, or our worst.

In our April 2005 issue, we published an April Fool's spoof which generated more responses than anything we've done in years. It was a parody of our regular feature, "The Fix." We took three classic photos by Dorothea Lange, Edward "Doc" Edgerton, and Walker Evans, pretended to be clueless, mindless Photoshop-shootin' androids, and proceeded to deface them all. And we gave away the joke with type on the top of the page that said, "Can these shots be saved? Yes, but only on the first of this month." On the bottom of the page, it said "April 2005"!

Most of our readers got the joke. But many didn't. We received hundreds--yes, HUNDREDS--of rants, hate letters, and excommunication threats. Our wanton destruction of Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" generated particularly venomous indignation. Here are some of our favorites (even more will appear in our June issue).

Don't know what all the fuss is about? Get our April 2005 issue and look at pages 40 and 41! And I repeat: IT WAS A JOKE! Now, on to the letters...

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Arrogance.

That is the only word I can use to describe your "fix" of the "Migrant Mother"...Give someone image software and suddenly, maybe gradually, they see themselves fit to sit in infallible judgment of the work of others. Alas, I ask of you in vein, for your insatiable ego has surely annihilated all semblances of humbleness and humility which may have at one time occupied your brain, albeit a very small portion thereof. I would hazard a guess that you espouse the same bile that spews forth from John Kerry, Michael Moore, et. al...

Jeff Schaeffer

Reading, PA

...Has your taste left your belfry? If you wanted to show how a sad, tired looking woman could be spruced up, I'm sure you could have found a tired middle-aged model without makeup...

Lucia Deaville

via e-mail

...I do not understand why Debbie Grossman says that the lady in the picture needs a make-over. Obviously the lady is coming to a new country with poor economical resources and 2 kids as well, how do you expect her to be well dressed and have makeup?...

Erick Calderon

Victoria, TX